By Rudyard Kipling
Templar Publishing
ISBN: 1840113154
Purchase this book here.
Rudyard Kipling wrote quite a few stories and books, and I’ve read most of them. The Jungle Book, Mowgli’s Stories, and Riki Tiki Tavi are fabulous. But my favorite by far is Just So Stories.
It’s a book of beginnings, a collection of short stories of How The Elephant Got His Trunk, and Where Armidillo’s Came From. There are several stories about Adam, Eve, and their daughter, and one about Sulaimon bin-Daoud (Solomon, son of David).
It’s written in a singularly fabulous style, referring to the reader as his Best Beloved, insinuating that he expects the reader to be his daughter.
The artwork is some really intense line drawing stuff, with one page devoted to the picture, and one page devoted to telling us all about the picture, often adding a great deal to the story in his description.
I’m reading it aloud to my girls these days, and they seem to be really enjoying it. It seems to be a little deep for my 2 year old, though she sits quiet and listens the whole time. My 4 year old LOVES it. At the same time, the depth of culture and mastery of the english language is such that I would highly suggest it to anyone. It’s art as much as it is literature.
