Cinnamon
Written by Neil Gaiman
Narrated by Neil Gaiman
4/5
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About this audiobook
A perfect story from the Newbery Medal-winning and New York Times bestselling author of American Gods and Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman.
A talking tiger is the only one who may be able to get a princess to speak in this story set in a mythic India.
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling and multi-award winning author and creator of many beloved books, graphic novels, short stories, film, television and theatre for all ages. He is the recipient of the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and many Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner Awards. Neil has adapted many of his works to television series, including Good Omens (co-written with Terry Pratchett) and The Sandman. He is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and Professor in the Arts at Bard College. For a lot more about his work, please visit: https://www.neilgaiman.com/
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Reviews for Cinnamon
464 ratings27 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title to be a delightful short story that is suitable for all ages. They appreciate Neil Gaiman's narration and the originality of the story. Some reviewers mention that the production could do without the jarring music. Overall, readers enjoy the book and find it enjoyable and well-spoken.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a small collection of four children's short stories, apparently specifically made for audio, read – of course – by Gaiman, himself. It was cute. Less than an hour to listen to all four stories. For an (female) adult, listening to Gaiman is always a bonus.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I picked this up at the library for my four year-old, and he has had me read it to him every day we've had it on loan. The illustrations are beyond gorgeous, and the story itself is a delight for outloud reading.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book! Cinnamon was a girl who could not talk, and one day, a tiger came to teach her to talk. She talked after the tiger told her about the jungle.
Now this tiger, was a man-eater. But he only ate Cinnamon's great-aunt, who wasn't very nice. Cinnamon and the tiger went off into the jungle for adventures.
I read this book on October 4, 2022. I also listened to this book 10 times on October 8, 2022. Neil Gaiman did a fantastic job performing this story! I thoroughly enjoyed his narration. I also listened to this book two times on October 9 and three times on October 11, 2022.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exceedingly brief and obviously fiction, but rather deep and philosophical.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5These are lovely little stories. The child is the center of the universe and the answer to everything, but the stories are fun, imaginative and just a bit twisty. I am now on a quest to own all of Gaiman's audio books, because I could listen to him read the telephone book and it would be good. His voice and inflection are just what is needed to make a story leap into life. There is also a sweet interview of him at the end by his daughter, one of the more intelligent interviews of authors I've heard.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A selection of Neil's children's stories are narrated by himself in this neat audio collection. I enjoyed listening to the stories the way they were meant to be heard and I especially liked the poem "Crazy Hair", which is both surreal and funny.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A nice short bed time story for child or adult. I love Neil narrating his own stories.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I find it really fit for a child's entertainment indeed.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Neil Gaiman has fast become one of my all-time favorite authors, and this is a prime example of why. He is also a talented narrator, which is partly how I grew to love his work. A tiger could, and would, sound like the voice Neil Gaiman gave the one in this story.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5good book to listen . . . . . .
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One of the most interesting books I have ever heard.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is one of our family's favorite audiobooks. It's a collection of several of kids' stories read by Gaiman himself. There's lots of humor (especially in The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish) and plenty of creepy (but not too scary) stuff too.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/58 minute short story, magical realism, set in India. Entertaining to our whole family.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Delightful little story, nicely read, the production of which could do without the jarring music that comes too quickly after the last syllable is breathed. -iim
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed it, but I didn’t really understand the message.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I picked this up at the library for my four year-old, and he has had me read it to him every day we've had it on loan. The illustrations are beyond gorgeous, and the story itself is a delight for outloud reading.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short, lovely, original and well spoken. I enjoyed it immensely.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Wonderful images from author but story stopped after a few lovely sentences. I hope there is more as this was off to a nice start.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a delightful short story for all ages. Of course, everyone gets what they deserve.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Average and boring , also in this scenario the princess should have been called dalchini ?
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish*3 stars*The unnamed narrator, who is only a child, finds himself in a world of trouble when he trades his dad to his friend Nathan for two goldfish. They were marvelous goldfish, and his dad was wasn’t very exciting anyways, but his mother took issue and sent him off to get his dad back. Once he gets to Nathan’s house he finds that Nathan also thought his dad uninteresting and didn’t actually have him anymore because he had been traded to another friend for an electric guitar. The pattern continued.A very odd story at face-value but is essentially a sententious story of the hazards of trading and I suppose a lesson in ownership. Will children be able to understand this? I suppose it depends on the age but if it was one of my children reading this, my guess would be their brains would quickly begin to concoct ways on how they could trade me for some goldfish.The Wolves in the Walls*3 stars*When Lucy started hearing noises in the walls that hustled and bustled, crinkled and crackled and knew that there were most certainly wolves inside the walls. Her mother tried to silence her fears by telling her it was more than likely just mice because it certainly couldn’t be wolves because once the wolves come out, it’s all over. But Lucy knew it couldn’t possibly be mice.Once the wolves come out it’s up to Lucy to save her family. ‘The Wolves in the Walls’ is a tale I believe kids would identify with because of the ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’ nature of it all and the adults dismissal of her beliefs as simply a case of an overactive imagination. Despite the obvious embellishments to enhance the entertainment of the story I found this to be a cute lesson for kids on learning how to trust your instincts and face your fears.Cinnamon*4 stars*Cinnamon was a princess and was not only blind but did not speak. Her father’s concern increases until he offers many riches to anyone who could get his daughter to finally speak. Many come and many fail but when a man-eating tiger arrives at the palace no one believes he would be of any help to Cinnamon, other than a help to his appetite.The night the tiger had with Cinnamon was spent telling her of the land outside of the palace and inevitably spurred her interest and curiosity. Rich in symbolism yet simple in scope, Cinnamon is a perfect lesson in seeing past riches, experiencing new things and finding the true value of life itself.Crazy Hair*3 stars*Bonnie’s encounters a stranger that has hair that is so incredibly crazy that there is a honest-to-goodness jungle inside of it. Bonnie insists that it’s definitely manageable and just needs a good brushing. As she begins to brush, something entirely unexpected occurs.Neil Gaiman clearly wrote this story about himself. Crazy Hair is a bizarre imagining of what takes place within hair that is crazy and beyond control. The rhyming rhythm puts a smile on your face and would likely be a fantastic read-aloud to any child.All four of these stories were the whimsical sort of tales full of symbolism and life lessons that I’ve come to expect from Gaiman. I enjoyed Crazy Hair the most because of the wonderful rhyming style but Cinnamon was the best overall for it’s fantastic message. Would love to check all of these out someday to be able to appreciate the artwork of Dave McKean.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A charming fairytale with hints of the grimness that such tales once had accompanied by lovely art and Gaiman's delightful humor. Appropriate for ages 4 -8 (though possibly not for those who might be upset at the implication of a human being eaten).
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was an interesting story, the artwork was beautiful but the tale didn't turn out quite like I thought.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5When a princess doesn’t speak her royal parents will do anything to get her to talk. A tiger takes them up on the offer and gets her to talk. A simple kids story with very good art.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5cinnamon is a princess who cannot speak. Her mother and father offer land and treasures to anyone who can get her to speak but all who come leave without succeeding. A tiger comes one day and teaches the girl to speak. When he does she decides that she must go with him. Her parents give the land and treasures to the people and Cinnamon and the tiger disappear into the jungle.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Long ago, there was a young princess that couldn't talk. So her parents offered food, and comfort in the castle to any one who could make her talk, but no one could. Then, a tiger that could speak said that he could make her talk. At the end, the tiger does make the young princess talk, and takes her to the jungle where he promised to her that she will learned and love the jungle.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Princess Cinnamon, the royal child of the Rajah and Rani of a small, hot country, had lovely, pearl-like eyes incapable of sight, and had been mute her entire life. Her concerned parents offered a room in the palace, a field of stunted mango trees and a portrait of the Rani's aunt to anyone who could make her talk. No one succeeded, until a fierce tiger, one who "moved like a god through the world," arrived, and taught the sheltered Cinnamon about some of the things she had been missing...With a copyright date of 1995, Neil Gaiman's Cinnamon was apparently originally available as an ebook, and has only now, in 2017, been made into a picture-book, with beautiful illustrations by the talented Divya Srinivasan. I enjoyed this original fairy-tale, set in an unspecified Indian locale, and thought that it was telling that it was knowledge of the real world - of things like pain - that finally prompted Cinnamon to speak. It's tempting to interpret this as a commentary on the mistake of trying to shelter young people from every stray wind, and from knowledge of life's less palatable aspects. The artwork here, as mentioned, is just gorgeous, with a vivid, jewel-like palette, and stylized figures that suggest Indian art. Recommended to Gaiman fans (of course), and to all young fairy-tale lovers.