Rudyard Kipling — Just So Stories (Penguin Modern Classics)

Penguin Classics 2000 Paperback, 176pp. Kipling's bewitching stories conjure up distant lands, the beautiful gardens of splendid palaces, the sea, the desert and the jungle and its beasts. Inspired by Kipling's natural empathy with the animal world and by his obvious delight in human foibles and eccentricities, these strikingly imaginative fables explore a range of subjects from the animals themselves to the origins of things. The stories are linked by poems and scattered throughout are Kipling's illustrations, which, intriguingly, contain hidden jokes and puzzles. Just So Stories was written for children, but the book transcends the boundaries of age and is of equal appeal to adults. (ISBN: 9780141183626). Good.