Just So Stories
Complete textA whale's enormous appetite opens a collection of playful explanations for how animals and other familiar things acquired their distinctive features. Curious children, stubborn creatures and improbable bargains inhabit tales that turn everyday questions into fanciful adventures addressed to a listening companion.
Continue readingAbout Just So Stories
Repeated phrases, rhythmic lists and interruptions make the telling itself part of the pleasure. The narrator's confidence in impossible explanations invites participation rather than scientific belief. Changes between prose, verse and direct address encourage attention to sound, while the characters' literal interpretations often send simple instructions in unexpected directions.
Reading focus
Read the repeated phrases aloud and notice how the narrator turns explanation into a shared game.
This reading edition contains 28,843 words in 12 original sections. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: Rudyard Kipling. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
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. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth—so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small ‘Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale’s right ear, so as to be out of harm’s way. Then the Whale stood up on his tail and said, ‘I’m hungry.’ And the small ‘Stute Fish said in a small ‘stute voice, ‘Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted…
Contents
All sections- HOW THE WHALE GOT HIS THROAT5 min
- HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP5 min
- HOW THE RHINOCEROS GOT HIS SKIN4 min
- HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS10 min
- THE ELEPHANT’S CHILD12 min
- THE SING-SONG OF OLD MAN KANGAROO6 min
- THE BEGINNING OF THE ARMADILLOS12 min
- HOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS WRITTEN16 min
- HOW THE ALPHABET WAS MADE15 min
- THE CRAB THAT PLAYED WITH THE SEA17 min
- THE CAT THAT WALKED BY HIMSELF19 min
- THE BUTTERFLY THAT STAMPED16 min
Reading & download help
Is this the complete Just So Stories?
This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 12 sections and 28,843 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.
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