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Just So Stories, Illustrated Edition (Yesterday's Classics)
Fanciful explanations, that delight both young and old, of how some curious things came to be, including stories of how the elephant got his trunk, how the camel got his hump, and how the alphabet was invented. Suitable for ages 6 and up.
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
March 10th 2009
by Yesterday's Classics
(first published 1902)
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How The Kipling Got His Reputation
Once upon a time, Best Beloved, when the world was middle-aged and good Queen Victoria sat on the throne, there was a Kipling. And even though he constantly had to carry around a White Man's Burden (an object, by the way, which he had invented himself, and very proud he was of it too), he was as happy as the day is long. And he would often stop for a moment, and sing a little song he'd written, which began
Once upon a time, Best Beloved, when the world was middle-aged and good Queen Victoria sat on the throne, there was a Kipling. And even though he constantly had to carry around a White Man's Burden (an object, by the way, which he had invented himself, and very proud he was of it too), he was as happy as the day is long. And he would often stop for a moment, and sing a little song he'd written, which began
Mamma Pajama rolled out of bed and ran to the po-lice sta...more
These are such fun to read out loud, and I particularly like the descriptions of the illustrations.
My favorites are:
"How the Whale Got His Throat", featuring the small 'Stute Fish and the mariner of infinite-resource-and-sagacity wearing his suspenders (which you must not forget, Best Beloved).
"The Elephant's Child", who was full of 'satiable curiosity and who escapes from the croccodile with the aid of the Bi-Coloured Python Rock Snake on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River.
My favorites are:
"How the Whale Got His Throat", featuring the small 'Stute Fish and the mariner of infinite-resource-and-sagacity wearing his suspenders (which you must not forget, Best Beloved).
"The Elephant's Child", who was full of 'satiable curiosity and who escapes from the croccodile with the aid of the Bi-Coloured Python Rock Snake on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River.
Just so stories
Written and Illustrated by Rudyard Kipling
The ‘Just So Stories’ are a collection of eccentric myths that Kipling created to tell to his children. There are twelve in total: most of which are fanciful revelations of how certain animals came to possess their distinguishing features. The characters are humorous and archetypal and most of the tales offer some affectionate caution and insight into the consequences of indulging those sinful traits such as sloth, greed and envy.
The origi...more
Written and Illustrated by Rudyard Kipling
The ‘Just So Stories’ are a collection of eccentric myths that Kipling created to tell to his children. There are twelve in total: most of which are fanciful revelations of how certain animals came to possess their distinguishing features. The characters are humorous and archetypal and most of the tales offer some affectionate caution and insight into the consequences of indulging those sinful traits such as sloth, greed and envy.
The origi...more
2 likes
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Loved all the stories, but my personal favorite was about Elephant's Child. Sometimes 'satiable curiosity doesn't kill you; it gets you a very practical appendage with which you can spank your bossy Relatives and hove them into a wasp's nest. And let's face it, O Best Beloved, we've all had that impulse.
satu kata... KEREEEEEENNNNNNNNNN BANGETTTTTTTTTTT!!! eh itu jadinya dua kata ya hahahaha
Setuju banget dah kalau cerita-cerita dalam buku ini bukan Sekadar Cerita. Pokoknya nggak nyesel baca buku ini. Nggak peduli masih anak-anak, remaja, dewasa bahkan kakek-nenek, kisah-kisah fabel yang didongengkan Kipling bener-bener memikat hati. Saya saja senang membacanya, apalagi kalau anak-anak didongengkan dengan cerita-cerita ini, pasti nagih :)
Suka dengan ilustrasinya juga, ilustratornya sukses mengint...more
Setuju banget dah kalau cerita-cerita dalam buku ini bukan Sekadar Cerita. Pokoknya nggak nyesel baca buku ini. Nggak peduli masih anak-anak, remaja, dewasa bahkan kakek-nenek, kisah-kisah fabel yang didongengkan Kipling bener-bener memikat hati. Saya saja senang membacanya, apalagi kalau anak-anak didongengkan dengan cerita-cerita ini, pasti nagih :)
Suka dengan ilustrasinya juga, ilustratornya sukses mengint...more
3 likes
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Enjoyed it from the beginning to end. And I can't stop laughing and be amazed of Kipling's power of imagination.
*Update 16 Juli 2012*
Is there any book that makes you want to repeat childhood? After reading this book, I wish I could go back being a child and listen to my dad or mom reading aloud this book while I’m tucked in bed, getting ready to sleep. I just love these twelve hilarious pourquoi stories Rudyard Kipling wrote, along with the poems at the end of every short story.
In the Indonesian...more
*Update 16 Juli 2012*
Is there any book that makes you want to repeat childhood? After reading this book, I wish I could go back being a child and listen to my dad or mom reading aloud this book while I’m tucked in bed, getting ready to sleep. I just love these twelve hilarious pourquoi stories Rudyard Kipling wrote, along with the poems at the end of every short story.
In the Indonesian...more
The book that made me fall in love with storytelling. I still have my mother's hardbound edition, with marvelous color plates, published in the 20s. Kipling may have been a romantic apologist for the British Empire, but the man knew how to weave a spell in children's stories, and he can be quite playful and inventive with language. Just read the first line of any number of stories and you'll immediately understand his timeless appeal. My favorites are from The Cat that Walked by Himself -- "Here...more
My parents read these stories to me when I was young and re-reading them brought it all back.The Elephants Child has been in my head all these years and is still my favorite. I read this book in one afternoon.I can't wait to read more Rudyard Kipling. Thanks Dad for reminding me!
Kipling’s Just So Stories are timeless tales of “the beginning of years”, richly illustrated in words as much as pictures. Kipling’s imitation of oral folklore traditions begs to be read aloud with words and phrases that roll off the tongue with a sound like the magic they invoke. The narrative itself even occasionally asks the reader to give voice to the words (“Say that quickly aloud, and you will see how very shadowy the forest must have been”). Brent’s illustrations are not necessary to Kipl...more
This is one of the most imaginative, playful, writerly books I have ever read. And re-read. Twenty-nine year-old Kipling wrote this collection of twelve stories in collaboration with his young daughter, Josephine. It is a series of fantastical accounts of creation and re-creation within the animal kingdom. For instance, it explains: "in the "squoggy marshy country somewhere in Africa," and "on the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River," the elephant got its long trunk when a crocodile got hold...more
Originally published on my blog here in January 2001.
Of all Kipling's writing for children, the Just So Stories are aimed at the youngest readers, and, in fact, are clearly intended to be read aloud to small children. The stories are basically whimsical original myths, mostly about how the world came to be "just so". (The Butterfly That Stamped doesn't quite fit into this category, and is more like one of the Arabian Nights tales.)
The charm of the well known stories remains, both for adults and...more
Of all Kipling's writing for children, the Just So Stories are aimed at the youngest readers, and, in fact, are clearly intended to be read aloud to small children. The stories are basically whimsical original myths, mostly about how the world came to be "just so". (The Butterfly That Stamped doesn't quite fit into this category, and is more like one of the Arabian Nights tales.)
The charm of the well known stories remains, both for adults and...more
JUST SO STORIES. (1902). Rudyard Kipling. **.
This particular edition was published simultaneously in 1991 by The Folio Society and The British Library, and incorporates the original illustrations done by Kipling for his original edition. The stories are told as to a young child (“O My Best Beloved”), which puts me in mind of the Golem from Lord of the Rings and his “My Precious.” I wonder if there is any relationship there? The stories are truly absurd, and in today’s world would hardly qualify...more
This particular edition was published simultaneously in 1991 by The Folio Society and The British Library, and incorporates the original illustrations done by Kipling for his original edition. The stories are told as to a young child (“O My Best Beloved”), which puts me in mind of the Golem from Lord of the Rings and his “My Precious.” I wonder if there is any relationship there? The stories are truly absurd, and in today’s world would hardly qualify...more
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Saya menemukan buku ini secara tidak sengaja dan dengan harga yang cukup miring. Yah, namanya juga jodoh buku ^_^
Oiya, suka dengan warna cover buku ini dan suka juga dengan gambar serta ilustrasi2 gambar dari cerita2 dalam buku ini. Tapi setelah membaca kata pengantar si pembuat ilustrasi saya jadi sempat tertarik mencari gambar2 lain atau ilustrasi asli dari buku ini.
Yah, buku ini memang sangat layak dibaca untuk orang dewasa maupun anak-anak. Dan sangat menghibur.
Sempat senyum-senyum atau ket...more
Oiya, suka dengan warna cover buku ini dan suka juga dengan gambar serta ilustrasi2 gambar dari cerita2 dalam buku ini. Tapi setelah membaca kata pengantar si pembuat ilustrasi saya jadi sempat tertarik mencari gambar2 lain atau ilustrasi asli dari buku ini.
Yah, buku ini memang sangat layak dibaca untuk orang dewasa maupun anak-anak. Dan sangat menghibur.
Sempat senyum-senyum atau ket...more
Karya klasik dari penulis zaman dulu, Rudyard Kipling. Sama seperti kecintaanku pada Karya Edgar Allan Poe ditambah kesukaanku akan cerita-cerita klasik, buku ini sangat direkomendasikan bagi mereka yang ingin mengetahui karya terbaik penulis masterpiece era lampau.
Hehe, formal banget bahasaku!
Aku sangat setuju kalo bacaan ini untuk anak-anak karena mengandung unsur pelajaran yang mendidik. Tapi entah mengapa, mungkin aku sedikit ragu kalo ini dibaca 'khusus' untuk anak-anak. Kenapa kata itu ak...more
Hehe, formal banget bahasaku!
Aku sangat setuju kalo bacaan ini untuk anak-anak karena mengandung unsur pelajaran yang mendidik. Tapi entah mengapa, mungkin aku sedikit ragu kalo ini dibaca 'khusus' untuk anak-anak. Kenapa kata itu ak...more
Kipling writes down stories that follow the oral storytelling tradition from third world cultures. They are rich and relevent even today and contain messages both poignant and silly (often in the same tale).
I checked this out of the library because it was the book for my "polite church ladies book club" for September, but I did read a couple of them aloud to my children, who laughed and asked me to read them again. They enjoyed the tale of how the armidillo was created. It's a trickster tale, w...more
I checked this out of the library because it was the book for my "polite church ladies book club" for September, but I did read a couple of them aloud to my children, who laughed and asked me to read them again. They enjoyed the tale of how the armidillo was created. It's a trickster tale, w...more
Sep 28, 2011
Julia Hughes
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
children-s,
short-stories
I love Kipling. I love his Jungle Books (Rikki Tikki Tavi the brave mongoose is my hero), his poetry, and these - the 'Just so' stories - so called because they are 'Just So'. This is a collection of whimsical animal stories for small children and are delightful.
Kipling falls in and out of fashion, his name forever associated with the British Empire and "jingoism." Yet his poetry (The Power of the Dog) and his books (The Man who would be King) deserve to be judged on their own merits. Autobiogr...more
Kipling falls in and out of fashion, his name forever associated with the British Empire and "jingoism." Yet his poetry (The Power of the Dog) and his books (The Man who would be King) deserve to be judged on their own merits. Autobiogr...more
Just So Stories:
Simple stories can have a deeper meaning
What if animals could talk? In Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, this is the case. This delightful collection of fables has many different topics that are explained through short stories in which animals can talk and people can understand them. The setting varies throughout the book; at some points the stories take place in a jungle and at others, near the sea. The main characters are usually animals like whales, tigers, leopards…etc. I...more
Simple stories can have a deeper meaning
What if animals could talk? In Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, this is the case. This delightful collection of fables has many different topics that are explained through short stories in which animals can talk and people can understand them. The setting varies throughout the book; at some points the stories take place in a jungle and at others, near the sea. The main characters are usually animals like whales, tigers, leopards…etc. I...more
For me, Just So Stories was extremely boring. i do appreciate the creativity and the originality of each story though. the main reason that i did not enjoy the book was because the stories were told in a very uninteresting way. the language used was very dull and it did not help in grabbing my attention.
as you can tell by the title, this book talks about why animals do certain things that they do or why they look a certain way. i thought it would be interesting to read about how a leopard got i...more
as you can tell by the title, this book talks about why animals do certain things that they do or why they look a certain way. i thought it would be interesting to read about how a leopard got i...more
Though I largely enjoyed Kipling's Just So Stories and appreciate the work's standing as a classic of children's literature, the collection does have a somewhat dated feel. This datedness is lessened by the fact that these stories are modeled after pourqoui folk tales, so there is something of an implication of age and the oral tradition. When this works, the stories are wildly creative and employ very enjoyable rhetorical elements of repetition and rhythm (among other devices). My favorites wer...more
Sep 23, 2011
Jake Kilroy
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
short-stories,
kids-book
I can't figure out if I miss stories like these or they simply didn't exist in my lifetime. Somewhere along the lines of time, I feel as though kids' books became either mature or childish, one or the other. Both are great (The Hunger Games vs The Giving Tree), but fables are neither. They endure somewhere in between, balancing an older sensibility with younger ambition. Fables come off as simplistic weaves of a more baffling world, always with an eerie charm of universality. To me, fables never...more
Delightful stories from the natural world where animals talk and where man is but a cameo and nature waves its magic wand. Kipling was one of the authors i loved as a kid owing to "The Jungle Book" coming as an animated series in the National Television channel. I even remember seeing this book at a book fair quite a few years back too, but then it took me so long to get this book . Until I went through the foreword penned for this book, I never understood the tinge of tragedy that surrounded th...more
I bought this book some time back and grabbed the chance to read it when I had to hop on a flight to Mumbai yesterday. Bought this book for two reasons first one being that I have heard a lot about Kipling and from a lot of different people but never came around to read any of his works. Second, the names of the short stories being very intriguing to say the least. With the name of the stories like 'how the camel got his hump', 'how the first alphabet was written', 'the cat that walked by himsel...more
Rudyard Kipling put this collection of stories together for his daughter. The stories are all about animals, and how they came to be. "How the Camel Got His Hump", "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin", and "How the Leopard Got His Spots" are just a few from the book. They are beautifully written stories, with lots of repetition and play on the sounds of words, which makes the stories great for read alouds. The characters (and the narrator!) have strong voices, so it is easy to distinguish exactly w...more
I was always disappointed that my book of creation stories by Rudyard Kipling did not include my favorites of his animal stories--Kotick the White Seal, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, or Toomai of the Elephants. But, in trying to find public domain works to record for my independent research this semester (into YouTube as a forum for educational works to support students who find reading difficult), I discovered value in the Just So Stories.
Racially problematic? Yes. Unscientific? Well, that's the point of a...more
Racially problematic? Yes. Unscientific? Well, that's the point of a...more
Feb 17, 2013
Robert Federline
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
all ages
This is a book not read since elementary school. Rudyard Kipling's short stories explaining how things came to be are charming and amusing. They are told in a vernacular no longer current, but clearly understood.
As a child, the story of how the elephant got its trunk was one of the most memorable, although even then it was obviously fictional. As an adult, the story of how writing and the alphabet was developed, while still fictional, is more compelling than ever, and is even plausible.
It is a f...more
As a child, the story of how the elephant got its trunk was one of the most memorable, although even then it was obviously fictional. As an adult, the story of how writing and the alphabet was developed, while still fictional, is more compelling than ever, and is even plausible.
It is a f...more
Kalau anda suka membaca cerita tentang asal usul Danau Toba, Gunung Tangkuban Perahu, Kisah Candi 1001 malam dan cerita rakyat lainnya, anda pasti akan menyukai buku ini.
Ada 12 cerita dalam bentuk fabel yg menerangkan tentang asal usul kejadian. Diantaranya adalah kenapa unta berpunuk, asal-usul alfabet, kenapa macan kulitnya bertotol-totol, dsb.
Diceritakan dengan cara yg jenaka dilengkapi dengan ilustrasi yg menarik dan selalu diakhiri dengan sebuah puisi yg indah.
Saya sempat penasaran kenapa...more
Ada 12 cerita dalam bentuk fabel yg menerangkan tentang asal usul kejadian. Diantaranya adalah kenapa unta berpunuk, asal-usul alfabet, kenapa macan kulitnya bertotol-totol, dsb.
Diceritakan dengan cara yg jenaka dilengkapi dengan ilustrasi yg menarik dan selalu diakhiri dengan sebuah puisi yg indah.
Saya sempat penasaran kenapa...more
Jun 26, 2009
Wayne
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
as an awful contrast to real myths
Recommended to Wayne by:
Kipling's own excellent short stories
Shelves:
children-s-books
Anyone who addresses his stepdaughter as 'O my Best Beloved' just has to be putting it on!!!Or has a slight touch of the "Lolitas"!!
And the same goes for these very cutsie "myths" which are pretty trite when set against real myths where ancient peoples tried to explain the wonders and mysteries and significant phenomena of their worlds.These ancient stories have lasted because they were worth retelling.They were never published but handed on and polished over centuries.
Kipling's have NOT and it...more
And the same goes for these very cutsie "myths" which are pretty trite when set against real myths where ancient peoples tried to explain the wonders and mysteries and significant phenomena of their worlds.These ancient stories have lasted because they were worth retelling.They were never published but handed on and polished over centuries.
Kipling's have NOT and it...more
Hmmmm...a hard book to rate. I didn't give this two stars because I DISLIKED it, but I certainly didn't love it. It was a bit of a chore. But I can also tell this is a very skilled writer. Some of the things in the book were just downright confusing. At some points I didn't even know if the author knew what he was talking about, but it was good. It entertained and eased your head up into dreamy clouds. More like a bedtime story. :) I don't think I'll read it again though. It was a once time thin...more
I cannot speak highly enough about these stories. I have been reading them to my kids since they were 3 years old and they never get tired of them. The language is rich and beautiful and a blast to read out loud. This book is an absolute must for your personal library.
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A book with 13 little stories of how the leopard got his spots, how the elephant got his trunk, how the camel got his hump etc. At the beginning those are really funny but after some time things just repeat themselves and it gets a little annoying.
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Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_...
More about Rudyard Kipling...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_...
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“Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe your feet, dear, when you come in, and now we'll keep house.”
—
13 people liked it
“Hear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was: O my Best Beloved, when the tame animals were wild.”
—
6 people liked it
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22 mar. 09:31
I can see that quite a lot of people love this book and are less than happy about my review. And as I said, I don't hate all the storie...more
updated 22 mar. 09:52