Just So Stories for Little ChildrenHow did the camel get his hump? Why won't cats do as they are told? How did an inquisitive little elephant change the lives of elephants everywhere? Kipling's imagined answers to such questions draw on the beast fables of India, and they are full of jokes, subtexts, and exotic references. This fully illustrated edition includes two extra stories and Kipling's own explanation of the title. - ;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 traditions he later collected all over the world. He plays games with language, exploring the relationships between thought, speech, and 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 icludes two extra stories and Kipling's own explanation of the title. - |
Contents
General Preface | vii |
Acknowledgements | xiii |
Introduction | xv |
Note on the Text | xliii |
Select Bibliography | xliv |
A Chronology of Kiplings Life and Works | xlviii |
JUST SO STORIES | liii |
Appendices | 189 |
Explanatory Notes | 219 |
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Common terms and phrases
Akhoonds animals Armadilloes Baby Balkis Baviaan beautiful Beaver Best Beloved Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake Butterfly Camel canoe Cave Crab Crocodile Daddy daughter Dingo Djinn draw drew Eldest Magician Elephant's Child Ethiopian garden Giraffe girl-daughter Head Chief Hedgehog hump Humph India Jungle Book Kangaroo Kipling's laughed legs Leopard Limpopo River London look Magic mother mouth Mummy necklace Neolithic Neolithic ladies never nose Nqong Old Man Kangaroo Painted Jaguar Palace Parsee Pau Amma Perak River picture play Porcupine pulled Pusat Tasek Queen RK's Roger Lancelyn Green round Rudyard Kipling sclusively shell skin spanked spear stamp Stickly-Prickly stories Stranger-man Stute Fish Suleiman-bin-Daoud T. S. Eliot Tabu Taffy tail tale Teshumai Tewindrow Tewara thing told Tortoise tree Tribal Tribe of Tegumai turbid Amazon Wagai river walked Wet Wild Woods Whale Wild Dog Woman Zebra