The Elephant's Child

Kipling's language is almost poetic. It's meant to be read aloud. When read aloud to a child, say, a beloved girl of six, at bedtime, she stops fidgeting, she listens carefully, she asks questions about what this word means or why the family members are all so mean and have to spank the little elephant with the "'satiable curtiosity." Most of all, she's not bored and she wants to hear it again. And again. And she gets very excited when she finds out that her daddy got the whole series of "Just-So Stories." I don't know how other children experience this. We're starting to teach our daughter about evolution of species; she asks a lot of questions about what elephants used to look like, and did they really once not have the really long noses they have today? I think she's starting to understand that this is a tall tale, but it's a great springboard for talking about the real-life origin of species (I think this statement is true even if you're trying to raise a creationist child). Yes, there is a lot of spanking. It didn't seem to upset my daughter, and she's pretty high-strung. All in all, a nicely rollicking story, and a good introduction to another classic in English-language children's literature.

Rabbit Ears: THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD by Rudyard Kipling. Read by Jack Nicholson, music by Bobby McFerrin. Buy a copy of this before it's out of print. Jack Nicholson (usually scary, but here quite gentle sounding) slyly gets deep into the characterizations of Kipling's tale, and Bobby McFerrin provides incidential music, songs, and even sound effects throughout. This is one of my favorite Rabbit Ears' productions. I only wish I'd snagged videos of the "Camel" and "Rhino" tales as well. Again, if you're at all a fan of Jack Nicholson or good storytelling, you cannot get any better than this release.

This is a great reading of Kipling's "The Elephant's Child" (from the "Just So" stories). Jack Nicholson is the perfect narrator, and does a fine job with different voices for the various characters, and the vocal music by Bobby McFerrin goes well with the story. For lovers of language, the vocabulary and sentence structure of this hundred-year-old story are a welcome change from television-era children's stories. My daughther listened to the CD version so many times, she learned to "read" the story from memory. The story is about a young elephant who lived before elephants had long trunks, this young elephant goes to learn what the crocodile has for dinner, and the crocodile gives him a new nose to keep! There are many other fine products (CDs and videos) from Rabbit Ears, for example: "How the Leopard Got His Spots", "How the Rhino Got His Skin", "How the Camel Got His Hump", etc. All of them are top-rate. Note that these are not fully "animated" cartoons -- rather, the pictures and narration are more like the experience of having a book read aloud. The CDs and audiotapes are also highly recommended.

Every weekend for two years, my young grandchild and I would trudge to the "libary" (as he called it) to check out "Ephalent's Child" (as he also called it). Jack Nicholson does a superior job and in spite of the fact that I have watched and heard this video at least a hundred times, I never tire of listening to it. It's extremely well done. The narration is superior. The music is marvelous. The artwork simply perfect. He's now nearly eight years old and he's "sharing it" with his younger brother. Truly one of life's little treasures. Not only did I purchase my own copy, but I'm purchasing one for a birthday party gift today.

This book was recommended by our wonderful musical teacher. We gave our 3 year old daughter the video narrated by Jack Nicholson (music by Bobby McFerrin) for Xmas and she just loved it and begged for the book, which she has now almost completely memorized. It's a delightful story about a curious and independent minded young elephant who follows his imagination and gains tremendously as a result. This book introduced us to the wonderful world of Rudyard Kipling books for children that answer some of their "why" questions.