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How the Elephant Got Its Trunk and Other Wild Animal Stories by Rudyard Kipling (audio)

Source: Purchased
Audiobook, 4+ hours
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How the Elephant Got Its Trunk and Other Wild Animal Stories by Rudyard Kipling, narrated by Virginia McKenna, is a delightful rendition of Kipling’s Just So Stories, which provide imaginative answers to simple questions, like how did the elephant get its long trunk?

In the first story in the collection, a curious elephant drives his parents crazy with his incessant questions and curiosities, until they and his other relatives send him away on his own to find out the answer to a question he’s asked. Kipling’s stories have a dark lining too them, but they also have a fantastical and humorous way of looking at the world.

McKenna narrates as a mother would to her child, engaging them with the vivid animal kingdom’s cast of characters — good and bad, king and ferocious. Her voice undulates as the stories unwind.

How the Elephant Got Its Trunk and Other Wild Animal Stories by Rudyard Kipling, narrated by Virginia McKenna, would be even more delightful to listen to with a full-color book to share with your children. Vivid imagery like the sunset cover of this Audible version attests to how well these stories could be rendered in color and illustration. Thoroughly enjoyable world of animals and the simple questions asked by children.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Author:

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in India, which inspired much of his work.

Mailbox Monday #487

Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.

It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.

Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.

Here’s what I received:

Death at the Netherfield Park Ball by Amelia Littlewood, a kindle freebie.

Elizabeth Bennet first encounters Sherlock Holmes at a public ball, where both are intrigued by the other. Although she finds him to be abrasive and uncouth, she cannot help but admire his ability to discover secrets and scandals with nothing more than a glance.
At a private ball, an officer is mysteriously murdered, his killer leaving little evidence behind. Holmes and Bennet join forces to solve the case, and as they dive deeper into the murder victim’s sordid past, they discover truths about those closest to them that they may have preferred to have kept hidden.

How the Elephant Got Its Trunk and Other Wild Animal Stories by Rudyard Kipling and Virginia McKenna, on audible.

“In the High and Far-Off Times…there was one Elephant – a new Elephant – an Elephant’s Child – who was full of ‘satiable curiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions….”

Rudyard Kipling’s famous Just So Stories provides imaginative answers to the many questions children ask about the world and the animals we share it with.

In this magical audio recording, iconic actress and wildlife conservationist Virginia McKenna OBE brings the best beloved of Kipling’s stories to a brand new audience. The reading is followed by a fascinating hour-long interview in which McKenna talks with Alison Larkin about her life, her work rescuing wild animals, the Born Free Foundation, and how children of all ages can help make a difference. She also reads a few poems of her own inspired by animals she has known!

Just So Stories included are “How the Elephant Got Its Trunk”, “The Cat That Walked by Himself”, “How the Whale Got His Throat”, “How the Camel Got His Hump”, “How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin”, “How the Leopard Got His Spots”, “The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo”, “The Beginning of Armadillos”, “The Crab That Played with the Sea”, and “The Butterfly That Stamped”, and from the Jungle Book, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”.

All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman for review.

Follow a group of children through a day in their school, where everyone is welcomed with open arms. A school where kids in patkas, hijabs, and yamulkes play side-by-side with friends in baseball caps. A school where students grow and learn from each other’s traditions and the whole community gathers to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

All Are Welcome lets young children know that no matter what, they have a place, they have a space, they are welcome in their school.

What did you receive?

314th Virtual Poetry Circle

Welcome to the 314th Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s book suggested.

Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Today’s poem is from Rudyard Kipling:

If

(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

What do you think?