Rudyard Kipling

The Just So Stories for Little Children are among Kipling’s best known and loved works. This recording aims to be the first complete audio book of this title with nothing left out. The Nobel prize-winning author’s enjoyment in playing with the sounds and meanings of words is very evident throughout, and adds to adults’ enjoyment of these stories for children. This playfulness is also dramatically present in the plotting. For both reasons these stories been loved by generations of children and adults alike. Because the writing plays with sound and meaning the Just So Stories are best enjoyed when read aloud. As we all are, Kipling was a child of his time and social setting, so for example in “How the Leopard Got his Spots” he uses what one recent reviewer called “the N word” to refer to the Ethiopian. Each listener will need to examine critically both Kipling’s attitudes and their own.