Just So Stories

Kipling's own drawings, with their long, funny captions, illustrate his hilarious explanations of How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, How the Armadillo Happened, and other animal How's. He began inventing these stories in his American wife's hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont, to amuse his eldest daughter—and they have served ever since as a source of laughter for children everywhere.

From the insatiable curiosity of the elephant's child to the crab who played with the...