Kipling, Rudyard. The Complete Just So Stories. New York: Viking, 2003.
It took me a very long time to find a version of Just So Stories that had the exact stories I was looking for. My library has a book that it calls Just So Stories but isn’t the complete volume of all stories. It’s missing the two crucial stories I needed for the Book Lust Challenge, ” How the First Letter was Written” and “How the Alphabet was Made.”
Despite being published in 1902 I am glad I found a 2003 republication. Isabelle Brent’s illustrations are wonderful! She took some liberties modernizing Taffy and her father who were supposed to be ancient tribal people, but her depictions of animals are accurate and her use of color is great.
I only read two stories from Just So Stories, “How the First Letter was Written” and “How the Alphabet was Made.” Both were incredibly fun to read, especially aloud. Kipling pokes fun at the stereotypes of parents and children with names like, “Lady-who-asks-a-very-many-questions” for the mother and “Small-person-with-out-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked” for the child. In both stories the theme is the need for better communication skills and are meant to be read together. The first letter makes up the alphabet later on and one story is a continuation of the other. Rumor has it that both “How the First Letter was Written” and “How the Alphabet was Made” started out as oral stories, told to Kipling’s daughter Josephine in 1900.
Favorite line: “We must make the best of bad job” (p 70 from “How the First Letter was Written”).
BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Alphabet Soup” (p 11).
~*LunaSea*~ 