Just So Stories - Hardcover

Kipling, Rudyard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688139574 ISBN 13: 9780688139575

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1996

Synopsis

How did the camel get his hump? How did the leopard get his spots? How did the elephant get his trunk?

These are questions that children around the world have asked for centuries, but it took Nobel Prize winner Rudyard Kipling's lively, hilarious stories to give them answers. For one hundred years, these classic tales -- drawn from the oral storytelling traditions of India and Africa and filled with mischievously clever animals and people -- have entertained young and old alike.Intertwined within these delightful tales are little pearls of wisdom about the pitfalls of arrogance and pride and the importance of curiosity, imagination, and inventiveness. Kipling's rhythmic prose makes these tales perfect for sharing aloud with the whole family.

This deluxe edition contains all of Kiplin's unforgettable stories as well as ten stunning watercolors, along with numerous black-and-white drawings, from award-winning artist Barry Moser, bringing this timeless masterpiece brilliantly to life for a whole new generation of readers.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

How did the camel get his hump? Why won't cats do as they are told? Who invented reading and writing? How did an inquisitive little elephant change the lives of elephants everywhere? Kipling's imagined answers to such questions draw on the beast fables he heard as a child in India, as well as on folk games with language, exploring the relationships between thought, speech, and the written word. He also celebrates his own joy in fatherhood. The tales were told to his own and his friends' children over many years before he wrote them down, adding poems and his own illustrations. They invite older and younger readers to share a magical experience, each contributing to the other's pleasure, but each can also enjoy them alone, as more jokes, subtexts, and exotic references emerge with every reading. This fully illustrated edition includes two extra stories and Kipling's own explanation of the title.

From the Inside Flap:

Kipling's own drawings, with their long, funny captions, illustrate his hilarious explanations of How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, How the Armadillo Happened, and other animal How's. He began inventing these stories in his American wife's hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont, to amuse his eldest daughter--and they have served ever since as a source of laughter for children everywhere.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0688139574
• ISBN 13: 9780688139575
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 160
• Illustrator: Moser Barry