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.

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

Delightfully retold in humorous rhyming verse, with stunning illustrations throughout, this is a beautiful reworked edition of Rudyard Kipling's children's classic, Just So Stories. In this highly illustrated collection meet the cat who walked by himself, discover how the lazy camel got his hump, how the elephant got his long trunk, find out why the rhino has such wrinkly skin, and how the whale got his teeny tiny throat. These well known, richly imagined stories tell of how the world came to be as it is. This is a smart, funny and younger approach to Kipling's work, as you've never seen before. Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories are one of the enduring classics of children's literature and these witty, inventive tales have delighted generations of children. Combining the brilliant rhyming talent of Elli Woollard and beautiful illustrations from the award-winning Marta Altés, this is an enchanting retelling of a much-loved classic for a new generation. A book to truly treasure and one you will want to share. Stories include: How the Whale got his Throat, How the Camel got his Hump, How the Rhinoceros got his Skin, The Elephant's Child, and The Cat that Walked by Himself.

Displaying the same verve and wit as the Just So Stories, this charming collection brings together the series of letters Rudyard Kipling wrote to his children--his "dear people" as he called them--from 1906 to 1915. The correspondence with each child is eloquently presented--for Josephine, his daughter, who died at the age of six, the grief of whose loss almost stopped him from continuing with the stories; for his son John, who would become a young officer and be lost in the trenches of World War I, his father never forgiving himself afterwards for having pushed him into the service; and for his second daughter, Elsie, who would marry but had no children of her own. The letters are peppered with many impromptu pen and ink sketches, stories, and poems, as well as brilliantly graphic descriptions of travel in Europe, Egypt, and Canada.

The story of the life of a boy named Georgie living as a child in England and as a young man in India.