Just-So Stories (1902)

They were clever enough. I'm torn between wanting to read them to my niece, or being afraid it will just make her dumber! You know, like how people think it's cute when kids say "pasketi" or "Valentimes Day" or "birfday"...then kids wind up talking like illiterate morons for most (if not all) of their lives! It is actually a pet peeve of mine when people talk baby talk to kids, my sister does it all the time and I have to restrain myself from yelling at her (since it is, in fact, her kid and not mine)! If I read this to my nephew Colton, he would ask me if it was true...he already has trouble differentiating between movies and reality. I did enjoy it, but it seems like a real mind trip for kids... ( )

I never actually read these as a kid. I remember having them read to me, but I never read them for myself. Which, as Phillip Pullman says in the introduction, is a shame, because they're wonderfully playful and easy to read, and even if there are words you don't understand (there weren't, for me now, but when I was little...) they're bright and lively and I can bet I'd have had more fun imagining what they might mean than actually finding out. These stories were definitely the kind I couldn't help but whisper to myself. I think they'd make even a non-synesthetic taste the words. I enjoyed the illustrations and the notes that went with them, too. In general they were just playful and fun to read, even now I'm all growed up. I especially liked the armadillo one, but perhaps that's because it included a character called Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog, and I do adore hedgehogs. The next one we rescue in our garden will have to be called Stickly-Prickly, I think. ( )

I can't recall how many times I checked this book out from the library as a child. ( )

This is truly magnificent. I can;t wait to finish listening to this. Geoffrey Palmer is FANTASTIC reading these stories. And the music that goes along with them are so sweet. I would recommend this to anyone who loves Palmer, or who has children. I could see listening to this with kids on a family vacation long drive. It is about 3.5 hrs long. ( )

I enjoyed these so much that I was crushed when I realized I had listened to the last story. The narrator was Geoffrey Palmer - I now have another reason to think he is marvelous, he was such a storyteller. ( )