Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Just So Stories
Für wen es gedacht ist
For parents who read aloud, young listeners, and anyone who enjoys words that bounce and rattle, playful animal tales, chants and jokes.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Just So Stories is a book of tales for children by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1902. Each one tells how some animal or thing came to be as it is. The whale has a small throat, the camel has a hump, the leopard has spots, and the elephant has a long trunk. Kipling began as a bedtime storyteller for his own children, and the tales kept the sound of being told aloud. He also drew the pictures himself and wrote a poem to close most tales.
The voice speaks again and again to Best Beloved, a small listener who is always right there beside the teller. The tales are set in the High and Far-Off Times, when the world was new and animals were still being finished. They are full of made-up words, strange names, chants and jokes that grown-ups enjoy too. In this summary you will meet the greedy, the lazy and the curious, and a few tales about the first people. Let us begin with the scene in which the tales are told, and with the first creatures who learn a hard lesson.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A storyteller speaks to Best BelovedFree
- 2Greed and laziness get what they earn
- 3Rhino, Leopard, and the lessons of vanity
- 4Curiosity sends the Elephant's Child to the river
- 5Strange animals and the first people
- 6The Cat who walked by himself, and how it is told
Punkt 1 von 6
A storyteller speaks to Best Beloved
Kipling spent part of his childhood in India and later lived in England, and he knew how a story sounds when it is told at the end of a day. Just So Stories keeps that sound. The teller leans in and calls the listener Best Beloved, then says what happened in the High and Far-Off Times. The sentences repeat, the names are long, and a joke is often set up long before it arrives.
The tales were first told to his own children, and the book is closely tied to his daughter Josephine, who died young in 1899. Many readers feel that warmth in the text. Each tale had to work when read at bedtime, in the same words each time, because children notice any change. This is why the wording feels so fixed and so musical.
The title helps explain the style. Just so means exactly so, and a child who hears a tale told just so will not accept any other version. The stories claim to give the true reason for an animal's shape, and they do it with a straight face. The comedy comes from how seriously the teller speaks.
The book also has a look of its own. Kipling drew pictures for every tale, with long captions that add jokes to the story. Many of the tales end with a short poem, which gives the listener a rest before the next one. When you read the book, you are meant to hear it, and to want to hear it again.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Best Beloved
- The small listener addressed by the storyteller hears the tales as a child might hear bedtime stories.
- The Elephant's Child
- A curious young elephant with a short nose asks endless questions that try his family's patience.
- The Camel
- A lazy desert animal refuses requests to work, provoking the Djinn who watches over the desert.
- The Parsee
- A cake-baking island dweller has a grievance against the rude rhinoceros who eats his cake.
- Taffimai Metallumai
- Called Taffy, she is Tegumai Bopsulai's daughter, a resourceful cave girl who experiments with sending messages.
- The Cat
- An independent wild animal negotiates with the Woman while refusing to become anyone's servant.
- The Woman
- The first Woman shares a cave with the Man and bargains with animals seeking its comforts.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 31,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Just So Stories
What is Just So Stories about?
It is a book of twelve tales for children, each explaining how an animal or thing got its shape or habits, such as the camel's hump or the elephant's trunk, told in a playful, musical voice.
Who is Best Beloved in Just So Stories?
Best Beloved is the child the teller speaks to throughout the book. It reflects the way the tales were first told, at bedtime, to Kipling's own children.
What does just so mean in the title?
Just so means exactly so. In the book, a child expects each tale to be told in the same words every time, and the teller promises that these are the true reasons.
When was Just So Stories written, and is it true?
Kipling published it in 1902. The tales are invented fables and not true. They draw on myth, jokes and bedtime storytelling, and they mix places such as India, Africa and Arabia.
Is Just So Stories good for reading aloud?
Yes. It was made for the ear, with repeated phrases, rhymes and made-up names.