November 8-12

This story was written by Rudyard Kipling.  It is one of his "Just So Stories", which are stories about why certain animals are the way they are.  This book explains elephants how the elephant got his trunk.  It starts out in Africa, when elephants had little stumps for noses.  The main character is a young elephant, the Elephant's Child.  He is constantly asking questions and getting spanked for his "'satiable curiosity".  When he wants to know what the Crocodile eats for dinner, he ends up going to the  Limpopo river to ask the crocodile himself.  The Crocodile tricks the Elephant's Child into getting very close, and the Crocodile grabs him by the nose.  The Elephant's Child resists, and is able to pull free with the help of the "Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake".  The Elephant's Child's nose gets very stretched out, and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake shows him all the advantages of his new, long trunk.  Then the Elephant's Child goes home and spanks all of his family with his new trunk.  Eventually, all of the elephants go to get trunks from the Crocodile.

This book fits into at least two fantasy genres:  Beast tales (in which the characters are animals that act like humans) and Pourqoui Tales (stories that explain why things are the way they are).  While I like the illustrations, they confused me when I was younger.  I didn't understand that certain illustrations were supposed to represent a spank.

My very favorite element of this story is the language--funny, descriptive, and poetic.  Every once in a while the narrator addresses the reader as "O Best Beloved".  When the Elephant's Child asks the Kolokolo Bird what the Crocodile has for dinner, the Kolokolo Bird directs him to "the banks of the great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees".  When the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake is helping the Elephant's Child to discover all of the many uses of his new trunk, he says, "'Vantage number one!  You couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose.  'Vantage number two!"  I could go on and on about the language.  (However, some of the language is probably a bit difficult for young children, but I think some of the language was meant to sound confusing).

I love Rudyard Kipling's stories, and this one is probably my favorite.  I give it Five Stars.