Just So Stories, Volume II

by Rudyard Kipling, Ian Wallace (Illustrator)

Overview

Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories is one of the best-loved story collections ever written for children. In this companion to Volume I, acclaimed children’s book illustrator Ian Wallace once again reinterprets the famous tales with luminous art, bringing Kipling to a new generation of young readers. Many of the tales are origin stories, explaining, for example, how an animal came to be, or the how the alphabet and writing began. They all display Kipling’s vivid imagination, inventive vocabulary, and engaging wordplay. And once again Ian Wallace makes intriguing connections between the stories in his richly imagined illustrations. This volume includes “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” and “The Butterfly That Stamped.” The first edition of Just So Stories was published in Great Britain in 1902, along with black-and-white illustrations by Kipling himself. The stories have remained in print ever since, delighting young readers in many countries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554982134
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	04/15/2014
Edition description:	Illustrate
Pages:	88
Product dimensions:	3.70(w) x 4.30(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	NC980L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 11 Years

About the Author

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was born in India, where he returned for a time and began to write after years of schooling in England. His best-known children’s works include The Jungle Book, Kim and Just So Stories. Kipling achieved high acclaim as an author of books for children and adults, winning the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature and the Nobel Prize in Literature, among many other awards. Ian Wallace has had a distinguished career as an author and illustrator of picture books. He has won the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Picture Book Award, the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award, and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. He has also been nominated for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award. He lives in Brookline, MA.

Read an Excerpt

From “The Beginning of the Armadilloes”

This, O Best Beloved, is another story of the High and Far-Off Times. In the very middle of those times was a Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating shelly snails and things. And he had a friend, a Slow-Solid Tortoise, who lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating green lettuces and things. And so that was all right, Best Beloved. Do you see?

But also, and at the same time, in those High and Far-Off Times, there was a Painted Jaguar, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon too; and he ate everything that he could catch. When he could not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetles; and when he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and she told him how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises…

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From “The First Letter”

So he gave Taffy the shark’s tooth, and she lay down flat on her tummy with her legs in the air, like some people on the drawing-room floor when they want to draw pictures, and she said, “Now I’ll draw you some beautiful pictures! You can look over my shoulder, but you mustn’t joggle. First I’ll draw Daddy fishing. It isn’t very like him; but Mummy will know, because I’ve drawn his spear all broken. Well, now I’ll draw the other spear that he wants, the black-handled spear. It looks as if it was sticking in Daddy’s back, but that’s because the shark’s tooth slipped and this piece of bark isn’t big enough. That’s the spear I want you to fetch; so I’ll draw a picture of me myself ’splaining to you. My hair doesn’t stand up like I’ve drawn, but it’s easier to draw that way. Now I’ll draw you. I think you’re very nice really, but I can’t make you pretty in the picture, so you mustn’t be ’fended. Are you ’fended?”

Editorial Reviews

"Glorious as the illustrations are, they complement rather than undercutting Kipling’s rolling lines . . . A triumph." — Kirkus, starred review

"The distinguished art honors each tale and engages readers with memorable imagery." — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

With fresh new illustrations, these classic stories come to life and are perfect vehicles to introduce children to witty and imaginative pourquoi tales. In “How the First Letter Was Written,” Taffy’s clever, intricate and albeit misunderstood picture letter to her mother will elicit giggles. Readers will be delighted to meet up with Taffy again in “How the Alphabet” was made as she and her Daddy improves upon their letter writing by creating the Alphabet. “The Crab That Played with the Sea” explains not only why the tides ebb and flow but also why crab must shed his shell once a year. The three tales that round out the collection are, “The Beginning of Armadillos,” “The Cat That Walked by Himself” and “The Butterfly That Stamped.” The outstanding feature of these tales is the remarkable language that is at once rich and lyrical and begs to be read aloud. Teachers will find these stories perfect for an end of the day read aloud when children can just close their eyes and let the words and satisfying stories wash over them. The soft-hued illustrations bring to life the long ago world of early man. Reviewer: Beverley Fahey; Ages 5 to 10.

Children's Literature - Beverley Fahey

★ 2014-02-26
Wallace follows up his first volume of reillustrated Kipling pourquois tales (2013) with its companion. Limpid mixed-media paintings depict Painted Jaguar lecturing the Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog (a tiny ball of spines), Tegumai the Neolithic man thigh-deep in the river lamenting his broken spear, and the Cat that walked by himself going deep into the Wet Wild Woods. Following the format of the earlier volume, one full-page painting opens each story, and then three more appear within, sometimes occupying a whole page and sometimes stretching across the tops of two and straddling the gutter. Appropriately for this illustrated book of stories, he focuses the cover on the pieces of birch bark from "How the First Letter Was Written" and "How the Alphabet Was Made," held by Taffy Metallumai and her daddy; on the wraparound rear cover are Cat, Hedgehog and King Crab, all staring solemnly out at readers. Detailed illustrator's notes explain Wallace's approach, story by story, revealing connections among them and providing background information. He plants a smiling "wild thing" on Taffy's Neolithic cave wall in homage to Sendak and uses pencil crayon, pastel pencil and chalk to "capture the scorching sun of a desert country" in another story. Glorious as the illustrations are, they complement rather than undercutting Kipling's rolling lines: "But…when the moon gets up and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him." A triumph. (Short stories. 5 & up)

Kirkus Reviews