Just So Stories

The Just So Stories were written by Rudyard Kipling and published in 1902. The stories are fanciful accounts about how various phenomena came to be. How the Camel Got his Hump is an example. Each story is accompanied by a poem. The dialect is inspired by a formalized Indian speech pattern, which makes them wonderful to read aloud. Stories included in this collection are as follows: How the Whale got his Throat -- How the Camel got his Hump -- How the Rhinoceros got its Skin -- How the Leopard got his Spots -- The Elephant's Child -- The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo -- The Beginning of the Armadillos -- How the First Letter was Written -- How the Alphabet was Made -- The Crab that Played with the Sea -- The Cat that walked by Himself -- The Butterfly that Stamped.

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.