
Just So Stories for Little Children
Just So Stories for Little Children
Rudyard Kipling
Retold by Anna Milbourne, Rosie Dickins, Rob Lloyd Jones
John Joven
Usborne, 2018
160 pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99
9781474938051
Since 1902 when Rudyard Kipling began to explain how certain creatures got their distinguishing features as bedtime stories to his daughter Josephine, children have been fascinated by this collection known as the “Just So Stories”, apparently because Josephine said they had to be told, “Just so.”
Continuously in print for almost 120 years, this new collection has been retold by a number of different authors and pulled together into a collection for a new generation by the distinctive illustrations of John Joven.
Collected together in the one volume are six of the stories – How the Elephant got his Trunk, How the Leopard got his Spots, How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin. How the Whale got his Throat, How the Camel got his Hump and Why the Kangaroo Jumps. – classic literature for young readers beautifully packaged in a 21st century container with much more simple language than the originals and stunning illustrations by John Joven. This is a perfect collection that meets the needs of many – a read-aloud bedtime story, one for independent readers and also one for those who are a bit older but who are learning English as a new language.