Just So Stories: including 'The Tabu Tale' and 'Ham and the Porcupine' & original illustrations by Rudyard Kipling (Aziloth Books) - Softcover

Kipling, Rudyard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 190973568X ISBN 13: 9781909735682

Publisher: Aziloth Books, 2015

Synopsis

Born in Bombay in 1865, Rudyard Kipling was taken from the exotic sights and sounds of India just five years later and sent to foster parents in England, where he was by his own admission, utterly miserable. When he had children of his own, Kipling made sure that his offspring's young lives were full of mystery and delight, entertaining them by inventing ingenious and amusing explanations to such important childhood questions as how the elephant got its trunk, or the leopard its spots. The original book, published in 1902, contained more than thirty of Kipling's own brilliant illustrations, all of which have been faithfully reproduced in this Aziloth Books edition. Written in comical, grandiloquent style, shot through with beautiful poems and improbably long and hilarious invented words, the 'Just So Stories' have been a firm favourite of children (and adults) for more than a century, and are likely to remain a first choice for bedtime stories for many years to come.

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Aziloth Books
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 190973568X
• ISBN 13: 9781909735682
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 122