Kipling wrote these as bedtime tales for his own daughter, and it shows: each one answers a child's daft, brilliant question (why the whale has that throat, how the leopard got its spots) with a story built to be read out loud. The direct address to "O my Best Beloved" and the rolling, repeating phrases ("the really truly twirly-whirly eel") practically perform themselves. Short enough for one sitting, silly enough to ask for again.
About this book
First published 1902 · Kipling's only self-illustrated book · Began as bedtime stories
Kipling made these up at bedtime for his eldest daughter, Josephine. She insisted on hearing them exactly "just so", word for word as before, and would object if a single phrase changed. Josephine died of pneumonia in 1899, aged six, three years before the book appeared. The refrain "O Best Beloved" that runs through every tale is addressed to her.
The collection came out in 1902, and Kipling drew every illustration himself, the only one of his books he illustrated in full. The stories explain, with a straight face, how the whale got his throat, how the camel got his hump, how the leopard got his spots, and how the elephant got his trunk. They have stayed in print ever since, and are made to be read aloud.
The copy on this shelf carries Kipling's own illustrations, the drawings he made to sit beside the words.
Chapters
A long one: read it a chapter a night.
- How the Whale Got His Throat
- How the Camel Got His Hump
- How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin
- How the Leopard Got His Spots
- The Elephant’s Child
- The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo
- The Beginning of the Armadillos
- How the First Letter Was Written
- How the Alphabet Was Made
- The Crab That Played with the Sea
- The Cat That Walked by Himself
- The Butterfly That Stamped
Public domain. Source text via Project Gutenberg, PG boilerplate removed. View the source edition