Editing Just So Stories

{{Short description|1902 short story collection by Rudyard Kipling}}
{{for multi|the anthropological sense|Just-so story|the genre of which Kipling's stories purport to be examples|Pourquoi story}}
{{good article}}

{{EngvarB|date=October 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox book
|name         = Just So Stories
|translator   =
|image        = File:Just_So_Stories_Kipling_1902.jpg
|caption      = First edition
|author       = [[Rudyard Kipling]]
|illustrator  = Rudyard Kipling
|cover_artist =
|country      = United Kingdom
|language     = English
|genre        = [[Children's book]]
|publisher    = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]]
|release_date = 1902
|isbn         = <!-- NA -->
|preceded_by  =
|followed_by  = 
}}

'''''Just So Stories for Little Children''''' is a 1902 collection of [[Pourquoi story|origin stories]] by the British author [[Rudyard Kipling]]. Considered a classic of [[children's literature]], the book is among Kipling's best known works.

Kipling began working on the book by telling the first three chapters as bedtime stories to his daughter Josephine. These had to be told "just so" (exactly in the words she was used to) or she would complain. The stories illustrate how animals acquired their distinctive features, such as how the leopard got his spots. For the book, Kipling illustrated the stories himself.

The stories have appeared in a variety of adaptations including a musical and animated films. [[Evolutionary biology|Evolutionary biologists]] have noted that what Kipling did in fiction in a [[Lamarckian]] way,<ref name=Fitch/> they have done in reality, providing [[Darwinian]] explanations for the [[evolutionary developmental biology|evolutionary development]] of animal features.<ref name=Held/><ref name=BioScience/>

==Context==
The stories, first published in 1902, are [[pourquoi story|origin stories]], fantastic accounts of how various features of animals came to be.<ref name=OUP/> A forerunner of these stories is Kipling's "How Fear Came", in ''[[The Second Jungle Book]]'' (1895). In it, [[Mowgli]] hears the story of how the tiger got his stripes.

==Book==

===Approach===
The ''Just So Stories'' began as bedtime stories told by Kipling to his daughter "Effie" (Josephine, Kipling's firstborn); when the first three were published in a children's magazine, a year before her death, Kipling explained: "in the evening there were stories meant to put Effie to sleep, and you were not allowed to alter those by one single little word. They had to be told just so; or Effie would wake up and put back the missing sentence. So at last they came to be like charms, all three of them – the whale tale, the camel tale, and the rhinoceros tale."<ref name=OUP>{{cite web |last1=Karlin |first1=Daniel |title=How the Stories Got Their Name: Kipling and the Origins of the 'Just-So' Stories |url=http://blog.oup.com/2015/12/kipling-stories-names/ |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=27 October 2016 |date=23 December 2015}}</ref>

(The name ''Effie'' does not appear in the text of the stories, where the narrator now and again says ''O my Best Beloved'' to his listening child instead.)

Nine of the thirteen ''Just So Stories'' tell how particular animals were modified from their original forms to their current forms by the acts of human beings or magical beings. For example, the Whale has a tiny throat because he swallowed a ''[[mariner]]'', who tied a raft inside to block the whale from swallowing other men. The Camel has a hump given to him by a ''[[djinn]]'' as punishment for the camel's refusing to work (the hump allows the camel to work longer between times of eating). The Leopard's spots were painted by an [[Ethiopian]] (after the Ethiopian painted himself black). The Kangaroo gets its powerful hind legs, long tail and hopping gait after being chased all day by a [[dingo]], sent by a minor god responding to the Kangaroo's request to be made different from all other animals.

===Contents===
[[File:Justso rhino.jpg|thumb|''How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin'', [[woodcut]] by Kipling]]

# "How the Whale Got His Throat" – why the larger [[whale]]s eat only small prey.<!-- Descriptions are intentionally short, please do not extend them! -->
# "How the Camel Got His Hump" – how the idle [[camel]] was punished and given a hump.
# "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin" – why [[rhinos]] have folds in their skin and bad tempers.
# "How the Leopard Got His Spots" – why [[leopard]]s have spots. 
# "The Elephant's Child/How the Elephant Got His Trunk" – how the [[elephant]]'s trunk became long.
# "[[The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo]]" – how the [[kangaroo]] assumed long legs and tail. 
# "The Beginning of the Armadillos" – how a [[hedgehog]] and [[tortoise]] transformed into the first [[armadillo]]s.
# "How the First Letter Was Written" – introduces the only characters who appear in more than one story: a family of [[Caveman|cave-people]], called Tegumai Bopsulai (the father), Teshumai Tewindrow (the mother), and Taffimai Metallumai, shortened to Taffy, (the daughter), and explains how Taffy delivered a [[picture]] [[message]] to her mother.
# "How the Alphabet Was Made" – tells how Taffy and her father invent an [[alphabet]].
# "The Crab that Played with the Sea" – explains the ebb and flow of the [[tide]]s, as well as how the [[crab]] changed from a huge animal into a small one.
# "The Cat that Walked by Himself" – explains how man domesticated all the [[wild animals]], even the [[cat]], which insisted on greater independence.
# "[[The Butterfly that Stamped]]" – how [[Solomon]] saved the pride of a [[butterfly]], and the [[Queen of Sheba]] used this to prevent his wives from scolding him. 
# "The Tabu Tale" – how Taffy learnt all the [[taboo]]s. (Missing from most British editions; first appeared in the [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]] edition in the U.S. in 1903).

===Illustrations===
Kipling illustrated the original editions of the ''Just So Stories.''<ref>{{cite web|title=Illustrations by Rudyard Kipling |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/art/illustration/kipling/index.html |publisher=The Victorian Web |access-date=27 October 2016}}</ref> Later illustrators of the book include [[Joseph M. Gleeson]].<ref>''Just So Stories'', Rudyard Kipling, author and illustrator, additional color plates by Joseph M. Gleeson. Connecticut: Konecky and Konecky, {{ISBN|1-56852-377-7}} (reprint of Doubleday & Co 1912 edition)</ref>

===Editions===
As well as appearing in a collection, the individual stories have also been published as separate books: often in large-format, illustrated editions for younger children.<ref>{{cite web |title=Search results for 'ti:Just So Stories au:Rudyard Kipling' > 'Book' > 'Fiction' > 'Juvenile' |url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=ti%3AJust+So+Stories+au%3ARudyard+Kipling&fq=x0%3Abook+%3E+mt%3Afic+%3E+mt%3Ajuv&qt=advanced&dblist=638 |publisher=WorldCat |access-date=27 October 2016}}</ref>

==Adaptations==
{{main|Adaptations of Kipling's Just So Stories}}

Adaptations of ''Just So Stories'' have been made in forms such as cartoons, including several in the Soviet Union in the 1930s,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Smirnov |first1=Victor (director) |title=A Brave Sailor (How the Whale Got His Throat) |url=http://animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=2469 |publisher=Animator.ru |date=1936}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Suteyev |first1=Vladimir (director) |title=Why Rhinoceros Has Skin With Wrinkles |url=http://animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=2899 |publisher=Animator.ru |date=1938}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Shchekalin |first=V. (director) |title=A Little Elephant (How the Elephant Got His Trunk)) |url=http://animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=2473 |publisher=Animator.ru |date=1936}}</ref> and musicals, including one in 1984 by [[Anthony Drewe]] and [[George Stiles (composer)|George Stiles]].<ref name="SandD">{{cite web|url=http://www.stilesanddrewe.com/shows/justso/|title=Stiles and Drewe - Just So - History|publisher=Stiles and Drewe|access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref>

==Reception==

===Contemporary===<!--c. 1903, when book published-->
[[File:Illustration at p. 73 in Just So Stories (c1912).png|thumb|"How the Elephant Got His Trunk"]]

H. W. Boynton, writing in ''[[The Atlantic]]'' in 1903, commented that only a century earlier children had had to be content with the Bible, ''[[Pilgrim's Progress]]'', ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', and ''[[Foxe's Book of Martyrs]]''. But in his day "A much pleasanter bill of fare is being provided for them". Boynton argued that with ''Just So Stories'', Kipling did for "very little children" what ''[[The Jungle Book]]'' had done for older ones. He described the book as "artfully artless, in its themes, in its repetitions, in its habitual limitation, and occasional abeyance, of adult humor. It strikes a child as the kind of yarn his father or uncle might have spun if he had just happened to think of it; and it has, like all good fairy-business, a sound core of philosophy".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Boynton|first1=H. W.|title=Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling. A review by H. W. Boynton|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/unbound/classrev/kipling.htm|publisher=[[The Atlantic]]|access-date=27 October 2016|date=May 1903}}</ref>

===Modern===

John Lee described the book as a classic work of children's literature.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lee |first1=John |title=Rudyard Kipling |url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199799558/obo-9780199799558-0120.xml |website=Oxford Bibliographies |access-date=27 October 2016 |date=July 2013}}</ref>
Sue Walsh observed in 2007 that critics have rigidly categorised ''Just So Stories'' as "Children's Literature", and have in consequence given it scant literary attention. In her view, if critics mention the book at all, they talk about what kind of reading is good for children and what they are capable of understanding. The stories are discussed, she argues, by critics such as Elliott Gose "in terms of ideas about the child’s pleasure (conceived of in sensual terms divorced of intellectual understanding) in the oral aspects of the text which are said to prompt an ‘active Participation’ which seems largely to be understood in terms of the ‘oral savouring’ of repetition".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Walsh |first1=Sue |title=Kipling's Children and the Category of 'Children's Literature' |url=http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_kent_walsh.htm |publisher=The Kipling Society |access-date=27 October 2016 |date=September 2007}}</ref>

===Evolutionary developmental biology===

The molecular biologist [[Walter M. Fitch]] remarked in 2012 (published posthumously) that the stories, while "delightful", are "very [[Lamarckism|Lamarckian]]", giving the example of the stretching of the elephant's snout in a tug-of-war, as the acquired trait (a long [[trunk (elephant)|trunk]]) is inherited by all the elephant's descendants.<ref name=Fitch>{{cite book |last=Fitch |first=Walter M. |author-link=Walter M. Fitch |title=The Three Failures of Creationism: Logic, Rhetoric, and Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_yfYwK9224C&pg=PA157 |year=2012 |publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95166-2 |pages=157–158}}</ref> 
[[Lewis I. Held]]'s 2014 account of [[evolutionary developmental biology]] ("evo-devo"), ''[[How the Snake Lost its Legs|How the Snake Lost its Legs: Curious Tales from the Frontier of Evo-Devo]]'', noted that while Kipling's ''Just So Stories'' "offered fabulous tales about how the leopard got its spots, how the elephant got its trunk, and so forth [and] remains one of the most popular children's books of all time", fables "are poor substitutes for real understanding." Held aimed "to blend [[Darwinism|Darwin's rigor]] with Kipling's whimsy", naming the many "Curious Tales" such as "How the Duck Got its Bill" in his book in the style of ''Just So Stories'', and observing that truth could be stranger than fiction.<ref name=Held>{{cite book |last1=Held |first1=Lewis I. |author1-link=Lewis Held |title=How the Snake Lost its Legs. Curious Tales from the Frontier of Evo-Devo |date=2014 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-107-62139-8 |pages=ix-xi}}</ref>
[[Sean B. Carroll]]'s 2005 book ''[[Endless Forms Most Beautiful (book)|Endless Forms Most Beautiful]]'' has been called a new ''Just So Stories'', one that explains the "spots, stripes, and bumps" that had attracted  Kipling's attention in his children's stories. A reviewer in ''[[BioScience]]'' suggested that "Kipling would be riveted."<ref name=BioScience>{{cite journal |title=The New "Just So" Stories |journal=BioScience |date=2005 |volume=55 |issue=10 |pages=898–899 |doi=10.1641/0006-3568(2005)055[0898:tnjss]2.0.co;2|last1=Mabee |first1=Paula M. |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Children's literature}}
* [[Just So Songs]]
* [[Just-so story]]
* ''[[The Jungle Book]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource|Just So Stories}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/rudyard-kipling/just-so-stories}}
* {{Gutenberg|no=2781|name=Just So Stories}}
* {{librivox book | title=Just So Stories | author=Rudyard KIPLING}}
*[http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/ Full text of the stories, including Kipling's illustrations]
*[http://storynory.com/2006/01/24/the-elephants-child/ "The Elephant's Child"], free audio story, ''Storynory,'' January 24, 2006
*[https://archive.org/details/HowTheElephantGotHisTrunk "How the Elephant Got His Trunk"], archived audio recording by ArtsSmarts
*[http://bigbible.org/children/justso.htm ''The Just So Stories''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130819094957/http://bigbible.org/children/justso.htm |date=19 August 2013 }}, read by Tim Bulkeley, Bib Bible

{{Rudyard Kipling}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1902 children's books]]
[[Category:1902 short story collections]]
[[Category:20th-century British children's literature]]
[[Category:Animal tales]]
[[Category:British children's books]]
[[Category:Children's short story collections]]
[[Category:Jinn in popular culture]]
[[Category:Macmillan Publishers books]]
[[Category:Short story collections by Rudyard Kipling]]
[[Category:Short stories by Rudyard Kipling]]
[[Category:Illustrated books]]