Other editions of book Just So Stories - For Little Children

1."How the Whale Got His Throat" — why the big whale eats such small prey. 2."How the Camel Got His Hump" — how the idle camel was punished and given a hump. 3."How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin" — why rhinos have folds in their skin and bad tempers. 4."How the Leopard Got His Spots" — why leopards have spots. 5."The Elephant's Child/How the Elephant got his Trunk" — how the elephant's trunk became long. 6.The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo — how the kangaroo turned from a grey, woolly animal with short, stubby legs, to one with long legs and tail. 7."The Beginning of the Armadillos" — how the hedgehog and the turtle transformed into the first armadillos. 8."How the First Letter Was Written" — introduces the only characters who appear in more than one story, a family of cave-people, called Tegumai Bopsulai (the father), Teshumai Tewindrow (the mother), and Taffimai Metallumai, (the daughter). Explains how Taffimai delivered a picture message to her mother. 9."How the Alphabet Was Made" — Taffy and her father invent the earliest form of the alphabet. 10."The Crab That Played with the Sea" — explains the ebb and flow of the tides, as well as how the crab changed from a huge animal into a small one. 11."The Cat That Walked by Himself" — the longest story, explains how man domesticated all the wild animals except for the cat. 12."The Butterfly That Stamped" — how Solomon rid himself of troublesome wives, and saved the pride of a butterfly.

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.The stories have appeared in a variety of adaptations including a musical and animated films. Evolutionary biologists have noted that what Kipling did in fiction, they have done in reality, providing explanations for the evolutionary development of animal features.