Book Reviews

Book Reviews -
Just So Stories: Navigation

Just So Stories

Rate It!
On 6+
4 stars

Lively language, humorous stories, and fanciful animals are here.

Author: Rudyard Kipling Illustrator: Rudyard Kipling Pages: 128 Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc. Published Date: 01/01/1904 Genre: Fiction - Folklore HC Price: $24.99 Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: Ages 4-8 Read Aloud: 4-6 Read Alone: 7+

It's quick and easy to pass on
this great info!

Common Sense Note

Lively language, humorous stories, and fanciful animals rendered in watercolor and pen-and-ink make for an unusual and delightful read-aloud.

Rate It!

Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Katherine Olney

There is nothing else quite like Just So Stories. Written in lyrical, sing-song, half made-up words, they flow from the tongue in a way that delights both reader and listener. Designed to be read aloud, they are less successful as a read-alone.

Whether they are reading about the leopard who "lives in the stripy, speckly, patchy blactchy shadows", or the armadillo's scales, which "lie lippety-lappety one over the other" kids know that Kipling is on their side. He wrote these stories for his daughter, and they got their name because she wanted them "just so."

The captions to his black and white illustrations are whimsical and gently naughty. They elaborate on the story (and sometimes things that don't even happen in the story) as if the author has pulled the child conspiratorially aside and whispered in his ear: "There are two lions, two camels... and two other things that look like rats, but I think they are rock-rabbits. I put them in just for fun."

Sometimes this endearing style doesn't work. In The Crab that Played Kipling's showy language is sometimes more confusing than playful. But in How the Whale Got His Throat, every word is aptly chosen.

From The Book

In the sea, once upon a time, O my best Beloved, there was a whale and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate and the mackereel and the pickereel and the really truly twirly-whirly eel.

Plot Summary:

Why do elephants have trunks? Where did the alphabet come from? How did the leopard get his spots? In these twelve creation fables the mysteries are answered in the most creative ways. Informal pen-and-ink sketches along with detailed watercolor paintings draw the viewer into this charming world.

Related Books:

In the same way that Kipling captured (and parodied) the splendor of the far east, Carl Sandburg wrote creation stories with a midwestern flair in Rootabega Stories. Julius Lester's The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit introduces kids to African American folktales that have moral twists.

Rate It! Send to a Friend

It's quick and easy to pass on
this great info!

Content
CS adults kids

Sexual Content

Violence

It may worry young children when the crocodile won't let go of the elephant.

Language

Message

 

Social Behavior

 

Commercialism

 

Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco

Rate It Now

Tell others what you think!
Write a review or post a comment.

Tell others what you think!
Write a review or post a comment.

Tell others what you think!
Write a review or post a comment.

OR

Tell others what you think!
Write a review or post a comment.

It only takes a minute to get great benefits! Sign up now and get a FREE Internet Survival Guide!