A wonderful collection of six of Kipling's well-loved stories, telling how animals came to be the way they are, comprising: How the Camel got his Hump, How the Whale got his Throat, How the Elephant got his Trunk, How the Rhino got his Skin, How the Leopard got his Spots and Why the Kangaroo Jumps. *Lively text, specially written for little children, accompanied by John Joven's stunning illustrations. A pleasure to read aloud and share. Enchanting artwork and a high-quality hardback production make this Kipling collection a book to treasure.

A fascinating, richly illustrated exploration of the poignant origins of Rudyard Kipling’s world-famous children’s classic From "How the Leopard Got Its Spots" to "The Elephant’s Child," Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories have delighted readers across the world for more than a century. In this original study, John Batchelor explores the artistry with which Kipling created the Just So Stories, using each tale as an entry point into the writer’s life and work—including the tragedy that shadows much of the volume, the death of his daughter Josephine. Batchelor details the playful challenges the stories made to contemporary society. In his stories Kipling played with biblical and other stories of creation and imagined fantastical tales of animals' development and man's discovery of literacy. Richly illustrated with original drawings and family photographs, this account reveals Kipling’s public and private lives—and sheds new light on a much-loved and tremendously influential classic.

How did the rhinoceros get his wrinkly skin? Why won't cats come when they're called? How did one curious elephant change the lives of all elephants? These eight best-loved stories give answers to these and other intriguing questions.

Just So Stories for Little Children is a 1902 collection of origin stories by the British author Rudyard Kipling. Considered a classic of children's literature, the book is among Kipling's best known works. Kipling began working on the book by telling the first three chapters as bedtime stories to his daughter Josephine. These had to be told "just so" (exactly in the words she was used to) or she would complain. The stories describe how one animal or another acquired its most distinctive features, such as how the leopard got his spots. For the book, Kipling illustrated the stories himself.

Relates how the leopard got his spotted coat in order to hunt the animals in the dappled shadows of the forest.

Rare edition with unique illustrations. Kipling wrote some of the best animal stories for children, including his Jungle Books and Just So stories. His language is rich, inventive, and sonorous. He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature. Originally collected in Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories in 1902, The Cat that Walked by Himself is one of the best-loved cat tales ever written. It is a story of the beginning of domesticated life: Man meets Woman and they move into a cave and set up the first household. Dog, Horse, and Cow come out of the Wild Woods and become tame. But Cat refuses, "I am not a friend and I am not a servant. I am the Cat who walks by himself and all places are alike to me." Woman makes a bargain with Cat to allow him to come into the cave and sit by the fire and drink milk. But when night comes, he is once again the Cat that walks by himself.