Cautionary Tales for Children Hilaire Belloc Pictures by B. T. B. Cautionary Tales for Children: Designed for the Admonition of Children between the ages of eight and fourteen years is a 1907 children's book written by Hilaire Belloc. It is a parody of the cautionary tales that were popular in the 19th century. The work is in the public domain in the United States. Illustrated by Belloc's friend from Oxford Basil Temple Blackwood, it is similar in style to the The Bad Child's Book of Beasts which had brought Belloc public acclaim and commercial success a decade earlier. The book contains an introduction and eleven tales, all written in rhyming couplets. Four of the Cautionary Tales were set to music by Liza Lehmann in 1909; the famous contralto Clara Butt sang the piece in a successful tour of Britain in the same year.