Just So Stories: 150th Anniversary Edition

by Rudyard Kipling, Avi (Introduction), Shashi Deshpande (Afterword)

Overview

A classic collection of fantastic tales from the author of The Jungle Books, in honor of his 150th birthday.

Cats and kangaroos, crabs and camels, whales and jaguars, hedgehogs and leopards, magicians and little children, and many other beings are brought to life in an exotic Eastern landscape during “the High and Far-Off Times.” Drawn from the wondrous tales told to Kipling as a child by his Indian nurses, Just So Stories creates the magical enchantment of the dawn of the world, when animals could talk and think like people. The laziness of the Camel, the curiosity of the Elephant’s Child, the cleverness of the Hedgehog, the confusion of the Painted Jaguar, and all the rest of Kipling’s delightful menagerie make Just So Stories unforgettable reading for generations to come.

With Illustrations by the Author

With an Introduction by Avi and an Afterword by Shashi Deshpande
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451531506
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/02/2010
Edition description:	150th Anniversary Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was born in Bombay, the son of an Anglo-Indian Professor of Architectural Sculpture. There he was brought up in the care of “ayahs,” or native nurses, who taught him Hindustani and the native lore that always haunted his imagination and can be seen clearly reflected in Just So Stories. At the age of six, he was sent to school in England at Westward Ho!, the scene of Stalky & Co. In 1883, he returned to India and embarked on a career in journalism, writing the news stories as well as the tales and ballads that began to make his reputation. After seven years, he went back to England, the literary “Star of the Hour.” He married an American and stayed in Vermont from 1892 to 1894. Then he settled down in the English countryside, where he remained, except for a few trips abroad, for the rest of his life. The author of innumerable stories and poems, Rudyard Kipling is especially known for Soldiers Three (1888), The Light That Failed (1890), The Jungle Books (1894-95), Captains Courageous (1897), Stalky & Co. (1899), Kim (1901), and Just So Stories (1902). Among many other honors, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Boston, Avi is the author of more than fifty books for children and young adults beginning with Things That Sometimes Happen (1970). Among his numerous awards are the Newbery Award and two Newbery Honors, two Horn Book awards, the O’Dell Historical Fiction Award, and a Christopher Award.

Shashi Deshpande is the author of nine novels, most notably The Dark Holds No Terrors, That Long Silence, A Matter of Time, Small Remedies, and In the Country of Deceit, which was shortlisted for the Regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She also has four books for children, a collection of essays, several volumes of short stories, as well as translations from two Indian languages into English to her credit. Her own novels and short stories have been translated into many Indian and European languages. She lives in Bangalore, India.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

How The Whale
Got His Throat

In the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale,, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth — so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small 'Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale's right ear, so as to be out of harm's way. Then the Whale stood up on his tail and said, I'm hungry." And the small 'Stute Fish said in a small 'stute voice, "Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?"

'No, said the Whale. "What is it like?"

"Nice," said the small 'Stute Fish. "Nice but nubbly."

"Then fetch me some, said the Whale, and he made the sea froth up with his tail.

"One at a time is enough,"' said the 'Stute Fish. "If you swim to latitude Fifty North, longitude Forty West (that is Magic), you will find, sitting on a raft, in the middle of the sea, with nothing on but a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must not forget the suspenders, Best Beloved), and a jackknife, one shipwrecked Mariner, who, it is only fair to tell you, is a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity."

So the Whale swam and swam to latitude Fifty North, longitude Forty West, as fast as he could swim, and on a raft, in the middle of the sea, with nothing to wear except a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you mustparticularly remember the suspenders Best Beloved), and a jackknife, he found one single, solitary shipwrecked Mariner, trailing his toes in the water. (He had his Mummy's leave to paddle, or else he would never have done it) because he was a man of infinite -resource- and-sagacity.)

Then the Whale opened his mouth back and back and back till it nearly touched his tail, and he swallowed the shipwrecked Mariner, and the raft he was sitting on, and his blue canvas breeches, and the suspenders (which you must not forget), and the jackknife —He swallowed them all down into his warm, dark, inside cupboards, and then he smacked his lips — so, and turned round three times on his tail.

But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of infinite -resource- and- sagacity, found himself truly inside the Whale's warm, dark, inside cupboards, he stumpedand he jumped and he thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled) and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes where he shouldn't, and the Whale felt most unhappy indeed. (Have you forgotten the suspenders?)

So he said to the 'Stute Fish, This man is very nubbly, and besides he is making me hiccough. What shall I do? "

"Tell him to come out," said the 'Stute Fish.

So the Whale called down his own throat to the shipwrecked Mariner, "Come out and behave yourself. I've got the hiccoughs."

"Nay, nay!" said the Mariner. "Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and I'll think about it." And he began to dance more than ever.

"You had better take him home," said the 'Stute Fish to the Whale. "I ought to have warned you that he is a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity."

So the Whale swam and swam and swam, with both flippers and his tail, as hard as he could for the hiccoughs; and at last he saw the Mariner's natal-shore and the white - cliffs - of-Albion, and he rushed halfway up the beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide, and said, "Change here for Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua,) Keene.) and stations on the Fitchburg Road"; and just as he said "Fitch" the Mariner walked out of his mouth. But while the Whale had been swimming, the Mariner, who was indeed a person of infinite-resource- and- sagacity, had taken his jackknife and cut up the raft into a little square grating all running crisscross, and he had tied it firm with his suspenders (now you know why you were not to forget the suspenders!), and he dragged that grating good and tight into the Whale's throat, and there it stuck! Then he recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard it, I will now proceed to relate —

By means of a grating I have stopped your ating.

For the Mariner he was also an Hi-ber-ni-an. And he stepped out on the shingle, and went home to his Mother, who had given him leave to trail his toes in the water; and he married and lived happily ever afterward. So did the Whale. But from that day on, the grating in his throat, which he could neither cough up nor swallow down, prevented him eating anything except very, very small fish; and that is the reason why whales nowadays never eat men or boys or little girls.

The small 'Stute Fish went and hid himself in the mud under the Doorsills of the Equator. He was afraid that the Whale might be angry with him.

The Sailor took the jackknife home. He was wearing the blue canvas breeches when he walked out on the shingle. The suspenders were left behind, you see, to tie the grating with; and that is the end of that tale.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 1-6-This collection includes Kipling's 12 original Just So Stories narrated by Geoffrey Palmer, whose deep and resonant voice is perfectly suited to the tales. It is satisfying to hear the stories as they were meant to be told-aloud. Kipling originally told the stories to his own children over a century ago. The language is reflective of Kipling's time and place, and children who may have trouble with the language and phrasing will benefit from hearing the stories read. Among the stories included here are "How the Whale Got His Throat," "The Butterfly That Stamped," and "The Elephant's Child." Many of them include a moral or lesson, such as "How the Camel Got His Hump," in which the camel learns a lesson about being lazy and procrastinating. The tales are nicely complemented by bits of classical music including pieces from Saint-Saen's "Carnival of the Animals." The accompanying booklet provides information about Kipling's life and some additional material about the stories. An excellent addition to classic audiobook collections in school and public libraries.-Maren Ostergard, Bellevue Regional Library, King County Library System, WA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Of all the editions of Kipling's stories available, this is surely one of the most splendid. Each page carries either text with a narrow, vertical border of painted geometric figures on the outer edge or a full-page illustration within a wide, richly patterned frame in related jewel-bright hues. The richness of colors in the paintings is heightened by the use of gold throughout the artwork. Handsomely designed and beautifully illustrated, this is a book that children will treasure for its opulent look as well as its opulent language.

Carolyn Phelan

"These stories have the ageless resonance of myth, for beneath his addictive adventures and hypnotic prose, Kipling was grappling with big questions: who are we? Where do we come from? How should we live?"  —Daily Telegraph

"They sing in my head even now . . . What a wonderful storyteller/poet he was."  —Michael Morpurgo, author, War Horse

"The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling have always held a fascination for me, and doubtless sparked off my love of India."  —HRH The Prince of Wales

From the Publisher