Just So Stories

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1902, is now considered to be a classic of children-s literature. The twelve tales included are all humorous -origin- stories purporting to tell how certain animals gained their distinctive features. For example, -The Elephant-s Child- tells how the elephant gained its long trunk because of a baby elephant having its nose pulled and stretched by a crocodile.The stories originated as bedtime tales Kipling invented for his daughter and told to her each night. The stories had to be told in exactly the same words each night--just sö-or his daughter would complain.Early editions of Just So Stories were illustrated in black and white by Kipling himself, which lends the collection a certain charm. We have reproduced these illustrations in the Standard Ebooks edition of the book.