Just So Stories
by Rudyard Kipling
Just So Stories are considered some of Kipling's best works. They give fantastical explanations for various phenomena.
Source: Kipling, Rudyard. Just So Stories.
- "The Beginning of the Armadillos"
- Tortoise and Painted Jaguar come across a new kind of creature in the woods and try to decide what it is with the help of Mother Jaguar.
- "The Butterfly that Stamped"
- The story involves King Solomon, a butterfly and their wives and the question of keeping up appearences in front of one’s spouse.
- "The Cat that Walked by Himself"
- A story about the animals in the Wet Wild Woods and how the cat that walked helped domesticate all the wild animals.
- "The Crab that Played with the Sea"
- The Eldest Magician helps the Man with the flooding problem caused by Pau Amma, the monster crab.
- "The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo"
- Why the kangaroo is very fast on land.
- "The Elephant's Child"
- How elephants got trunks, and how the Elephant’s Child learned to like his new feature.
- "How the Whale Got His Throat"
- A whale eats a crafty man, who finds a way to escape and dam up the whale’s throat.
- "How the Camel Got His Hump"
- A camel refuses to work and only says “humph” in response to requests for work...so a Dijnn gives him a “humph” as punishment for laziness.
- "How the First Letter Was Written"
- A drawing leads to misunderstanding then friendship.
- "How the Alphabet Was Made"
- Neolithic man Tegumai Bopsulai is out fishing with his daughter Taffy whose attempt to send a message in a drawing leads to complete misunderstanding. Taffy suggests a way of representing the sounds of the Tegumai language in pictograms. Together she and her father evolve a system using familiar objects and facial expressions, which when simplified become letters of the alphabet.
- "How the Leopard Got His Spots"
- How a leopard and an Ethiopian hunter changed the color of their skin to help them hunting the animals of the High Veldt.
- "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin"
- Extreme itching wrinkles the rhino’s skin.
- Year Published: 1902
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: England
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Readability:
- Flesch–Kincaid Level: 6.1
- Word Count: 30,268
- Genre: Fantasy
- Keywords: adversity, being different, camouflage, communication, discovery, growth, laziness, learning, manners, problem solving, problems and solutions, resourcefulness