I liked this copy and I liked the stories so much I ordered it for my nephew for his birthday. On the other hand, I found a lovely copy of this book at the library-the illustrations are delightful, and the text is larger and appealing. I think some children may be scared by dense text. Some copies of Just So Stories are in a small font and appear text heavy. I didn’t think my son cares what I read him, but to my surprise, as I read him “How the Camel Got his Hump” he laughed out loud every time I said “Humph!”, which is what the cranky camel says again and again. They feel like folk tales-and they are all delightful and innocent creations of imagination.Īs I have been doing with other children’s classics, I read these stories aloud to my infant son (eight-months-old). Each story is from the perspective of an adult talking to a child.

Kipling wrote these stories for children. My favorite stories were “How the Camel Got His Hump” and “The Cat That Walked By Himself.” I liked all twelve. Instead of taking our children literally, let’s give them stories that explain things! The creativity is fun. Reading Kipling’s stories encouraged made me to think of my own creative explanations for why things are as they are. I enjoyed a retreat into a magical world. In these stories, Kipling gives us the fairy tales that explain to us how the things we are familiar with came to be: how the whale got his throat, how the elephant got his trunk, how the leopard got spots, and so forth. I very much enjoyed reading them again, although there are some “politically incorrect” stereotypes in them I hadn’t expected. I read Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories because I wanted to read this Nobel-prize winning author and also because I remembered the imaginative premise of his magical world and wanted to experience his world as an adult. I may receive compensation for any purchased items. Posts written from review copies are labeled.

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Author of just so stories