Just So Stories

For the anthropological sense, see Just-so story. For the genre of which Kipling's stories purport to be examples, see Pourquoi story.

Just So Stories
First edition
AuthorRudyard Kipling
IllustratorRudyard Kipling
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's book
PublisherMacmillan
Publication date
1902
Publication placeUnited Kingdom

Just So Stories for Little Children is a 1902 collection of 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 biologists have noted that what Kipling did in fiction in a Lamarckian way,[1] they have done in reality, providing Darwinian explanations for the evolutionary development of animal features.[2][3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fitch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Held was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference BioScience was invoked but never defined (see the help page).