Just So Stories
Common Sense Note
Lively language, humorous stories, and fanciful animals rendered in watercolor and pen-and-ink make for an unusual and delightful read-aloud.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Katherine Olney
There is nothing else quite like Just So Stories. Written in lyrical, sing-song, half made-up words, they flow from the tongue in a way that delights both reader and listener. Designed to be read aloud, they are less successful as a read-alone.
Whether they are reading about the leopard who "lives in the stripy, speckly, patchy blactchy shadows", or the armadillo's scales, which "lie lippety-lappety one over the other" kids know that Kipling is on their side. He wrote these stories for his daughter, and they got their name because she wanted them "just so."
The captions to his black and white illustrations are whimsical and gently naughty. They elaborate on the story (and sometimes things that don't even happen in the story) as if the author has pulled the child conspiratorially aside and whispered in his ear: "There are two lions, two camels... and two other things that look like rats, but I think they are rock-rabbits. I put them in just for fun."
Sometimes this endearing style doesn't work. In The Crab that Played Kipling's showy language is sometimes more confusing than playful. But in How the Whale Got His Throat, every word is aptly chosen.
From The Book
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.
Plot Summary:
Why do elephants have trunks? Where did the alphabet come from? How did the leopard get his spots? In these twelve creation fables the mysteries are answered in the most creative ways. Informal pen-and-ink sketches along with detailed watercolor paintings draw the viewer into this charming world.
Related Books:
In the same way that Kipling captured (and parodied) the splendor of the far east, Carl Sandburg wrote creation stories with a midwestern flair in Rootabega Stories. Julius Lester's The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit introduces kids to African American folktales that have moral twists.
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