Publisher's Synopsis
Just So Stories is a collection of short origin stories by the British author Rudyard Kipling.
- The stories evolved from a fatherly tradition in which Kipling invented bedtime fairy tales for his daughter Josephine Kipling (1892-99). Josephine delighted in her father's storytelling style and demanded that each story be told "just so.
- Kipling plays the role of the narrator throughout the collection and Josephine is represented by Best Beloved who the narrator addresses throughout Just So Stories.
- The stories invent explanations for natural phenomena such as an elephant's long trunk or a leopard's spots. How the Camel Got His Hump. The Butterfly That Stamped, and How the Alphabet Was Made.
- Each of these explanations is unscientific and almost all are incorrect but they provide moral tales and humorous lessons for young children.
- Now over a century old, Just So Stories has drawn criticism from critics for Kipling's interpretations of race and colonialism. Racial slurs and outdated beliefs are present in the stories.
