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The Just So Stories are a collection written by the British author Rudyard Kipling. Highly fantasised origin stories, especially for differences among animals, they are among Kipling's best known works.

The stories, first published in 1902, are pourquoi (French for "why") or origin stories, fantastic accounts of how various phenomena came about. A forerunner of these stories is Kipling's "How Fear Came," included in his The Second Jungle Book (1895). In it, Mowgli hears the story of how the tiger got his stripes.

The Just So Stories typically have the theme of a particular animal being modified from an original form to its current form by the acts of man, or some magical being. For example, the Whale has a tiny throat because he swallowed a mariner, who tied a raft inside to block the whale from swallowing other men. The Camel has a hump given to him by a djinn as punishment for the camel's refusing to work (the hump allows the camel to work longer between times of eating). The Leopard's spots were painted by an Ethiopian (after the Ethiopian painted himself black). The Kangaroo gets its powerful hind legs, long tail, and hopping gait after being chased all day by a dingo, sent by a minor god responding to the Kangaroo's request to be made different from all other animals.

Kipling illustrated the original editions of the Just So Stories. Other illustrators of the book include Joseph M. Gleeson.

The Just So Stories began as bedtime stories told to 'Effie' (Josephine, Kipling's firstborn); when the first three were published in a children's magazine, a year before her death, Kipling explained: "...in the evening there were stories meant to put Effie to sleep, and you were not allowed to alter those by one single little word. They had to be told just so; or Effie would wake up and put back the missing sentence. So at last they came to be like charms, all three of them,--the whale tale, the camel tale, and the rhinoceros tale."

Table of Contents:

• How the Alphabet Was Made - (1902)
• How the Camel Got His Hump - (1902)
• How the First Letter Was Written - (1902)
• How the Leopard Got His Spots - (1902)
• How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin - (1902)
• How the Whale Got His Throat - (1902)
• The Beginning of the Armadillos - (1902)
• The Butterfly That Stamped - (1902)
• The Cat That Walked by Himself - (1902)
• The Crab that Played With the Sea - (1902)
• The Elephant's Child - (1902)
• The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo - (1902)

A pair of children happen across an ancient shrine, where they conjure up an impish sprite named Puck, who treats them to a series of tales about Old England. Rudyard Kipling, the storyteller behind Puck's fables, lived in the East Sussex region of Pook's Hill. To amuse his children, Kipling created these quasi-historical stories about the people who lived in their neighborhood centuries ago.

Readers of all ages will treasure Puck's ten magical tales of adventure and intrigue. Kipling's imaginative blend of fact and fancy transports readers back to the days of William the Conqueror, to the camps of the Roman legions who guarded Hadrian's Wall against the Picts, and to the thirteenth-century court of King John. All of the stories abound in the freshness of invention and narrative vigor that have kept the author's books popular for generations. Each enchanting myth is followed by a selection of Kipling's spirited poetry.

Table of Contents:

• Puck's Song - (1905) - poem
• Weland's Sword - (1906) - shortfiction
• A Tree Song - (1906) - poem
• Young Men at the Manor - (1906) - shortfiction
• Sir Richard's Song - (1906) - poem
• Harp Song of the Dane Women - (1906) - poem
• The Knights of the Joyous Venture - (1906) - shortfiction
• Thorkild's Song - (1906) - poem
• Old Men at Pevensey - (1906) - shortfiction
• The Runes on Weyland's Sword - (1906) - shortfiction
• A Centurion of the Thirtieth - (1906) - poem
• A Centurion of the Thirtieth - (1906) - shortfiction
• A British-Roman Song - (1906) - poem
• On the Great Wall - (1906) - shortstory
• A Song of Mithras - (1906) - poem
• The Winged Hats - (1906) - shortfiction
• A Pict Song - (1906) - poem
• Hal o' the Draft - (1906) - poem
• Hal o' the Draft - (1906) - shortfiction
• A Smuggler's Song - (1906) - poem
• The Bee Boy's Song - (1906) - poem
• Dymchurch Flit - (1906) - shortfiction
• A Three-part Song - (1906) - poem
• Song of the Fifth River - (1906) - poem
• The Treasure and the Law - (1906) - shortfiction
• The Children's Song - (1906) - poem

Rudyard Kipling, celebrated author of The Jungle Book, the Just So Stories and other entertaining fictions, was also a master of the short story in which he was able to combine the strange and unnerving in order to draw the reader into the world of his own dark imaginings. This collection presents the best of these strange tales in which ghosts, monsters and inexplicable happenings abound.

From the exotic and magical locale of India, to the leafy suburbs of England and then to the blood-soaked trenches of the First World War, Kipling provides us with a chilling array of experiences and images which will linger long in the memory.

There is a timeless element to these tales which make them as relevant and as stimulating today as when they were first written.

Strange Tales includes:

• The Mark of the Beast
• The Return of Imray
• The Phantom Rickshaw
• The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes
• 'They'
• In the Same Boat
• The Dog Hervey
• The House Surgeon
• The Wish House
• A Matter of Fact
• 'Swept and Garnished'
• Mary Postgate
• A Madonna of the Trenches
• 'At the End of the Passage'
• The Bisara of Pooree
• The Lost Legion
• The Dream of Duncan Parrenness
• The Tomb of His Ancestors
• By Word of Mouth
• My Own True Ghost Story

Rudyard Kipling was a major figure of English literature, who used the full power and intensity of his imagination and his writing ability in his excursions into fantasy.

Kipling, one of England's greatest writers, was born in Bombay. He was educated in England, but returned to India in 1882. He began writing fantasy and supernatural stories set in his native continent, such as 'The Phantom Rickshaw' and 'The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes', and his most famous weird story is 'The Mark of the Beast' (1890), about a man cursed to transform into a were-leopard.

This Masterwork, edited by Stephen Jones, Britain's most accomplished and acclaimed anthologist, collects all Kipling's weird fiction for the first time; the stories range from traditional ghostly tales to psychological horror.

Contains:

• The Phantom 'Rickshaw
• My Own True Ghost Story
• The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes
• The Man Who Would Be King

Rudyard Kipling's With the Night Mail follows the exploits of an intercontinental mail dirigible battling the perfect storm. Between London and Quebec we learn that a planet-wide Aerial Board of Control (A.B.C.) now enforces a technocratic system of command and control not only in the skies but in world affairs. HiLoBooks edition includes a follow-up story, "As Easy As A.B.C.," which recounts what happens when agitators in Chicago demand the return of democracy.

This is an omnibus edition of all the stories published in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book.

The Jungle Books can be regarded as classic stories told by an adult to children. But they also constitute a complex literary work of art in which the whole of Kipling's philosophy of life is expressed in miniature. They are best known for the 'Mowgli' stories; the tale of a baby abandoned and brought up by wolves, educated in the ways and secrets of the jungle by Kaa the python, Baloo the bear, and Bagheera the black panther. The stories, a mixture of fantasy, myth, and magic, are underpinned by Kipling's abiding preoccupation with the theme of self-discovery, and the nature of the 'Law'.

Table of Contents:

• Mowgli's Brothers - shortstory
• Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack - poem
• Kaa's Hunting - shortstory
• Road-Song of the Bandar-Log - poem
• 'Tiger! Tiger!' - shortstory
• Mowgli's Song - poem
• The White Seal - shortstory
• Lukannon - poem
• Rikki-Tikki-Tavi - shortstory
• Darzee's Chaunt - poem
• Toomai of the Elephants - shortstory
• Shiv and the Grasshopper - poem
• Her Majesty's Servants - shortstory
• Parade-Song of the Camp Animals - poem
• How Fear Came - shortstory
• The Law of the Jungle - poem
• The Miracle of Purun Bhagat - shortstory
• A Song for Kabir - poem
• Letting In the Jungle - shortstory
• Mowgli's Song Against People - poem
• The Undertakers - shortstory
• A Ripple Song - poem
• The King's Ankus - shortstory
• The Song of the Little Hunter - poem
• Quiquern - shortstory
• 'Angutivaun Taina' - poem
• Red Dog - shortstory
• Chil's Song - poem
• The Spring Running - shortstory
• The Outsong - poem

The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by English author Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893-94. The original publications contain illustrations, some by the author's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-a-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Vermont, United States. There is evidence that it was written for his daughter Josephine, who died in 1899 aged six, after a rare first edition of the book with a poignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter was discovered at the National Trust's Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire in 2010.

The tales in the book (as well as those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families, and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle." Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society of the time.[4] The best-known of them are the three stories revolving around the adventures of Mowgli, an abandoned "man cub" who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The most famous of the other four stories are probably "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", the story of a heroic mongoose, and "Toomai of the Elephants", the tale of a young elephant-handler. As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is followed by a piece of verse.

The Jungle Book came to be used as a motivational book by the Cub Scouts, a junior element of the Scouting movement. This use of the book's universe was approved by Kipling at the request of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement, who had originally asked for the author's permission for the use of the Memory Game from Kim in his scheme to develop the morale and fitness of working-class youths in cities. Akela, the head wolf in The Jungle Book, has become a senior figure in the movement, the name being traditionally adopted by the leader of each Cub Scout pack.

Table of Contents:

• Mowgli's Brothers - shortstory
• Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack - poem
• Kaa's Hunting - shortstory
• Road-Song of the Bandar-Log - poem
• 'Tiger! Tiger!' - shortstory
• Mowgli's Song - poem
• The White Seal - shortstory
• Lukannon - poem
• Rikki-Tikki-Tavi - shortstory
• Darzee's Chaunt - poem
• Toomai of the Elephants - shortstory
• Shiv and the Grasshopper - poem
• Her Majesty's Servants - shortstory
• Parade-Song of the Camp Animals - poem

Mowgli, the man-cub who is raised by a wolf-pack, is the main character in The Second Jungle Book which contains some of the most thrilling of the Mowgli stories. It includes "Red Dog", in which Mowgli and the python Kaa form an unlikely alliance, "How Fear Came" and "Letting in the Jungle" as well as "The Spring Running", which brings Mowgli to manhood and the realisation that he must leave Bagheera, Baloo, and his other friends for the world of man.

Between each of these marvellously powerful stories Kipling includes some of his most stirring ballads and songs, notably "Mowgli's Song Against People" and "The Law of the Jungle".

Table of Contents:

• How Fear Came - shortstory
• The Law of the Jungle - poem
• The Miracle of Purun Bhagat - shortstory
• A Song for Kabir - poem
• Letting In the Jungle - shortstory
• Mowgli's Song Against People - poem
• The Undertakers - shortstory
• A Ripple Song - poem
• The King's Ankus - shortstory
• The Song of the Little Hunter - poem
• Quiquern - shortstory
• 'Angutivaun Taina' - poem
• Red Dog - shortstory
• Chil's Song - poem
• The Spring Running - shortstory
• The Outsong - poem