Just so stories, paperback/rudyard kipling

The Camel gets his Hump, the Whale his Throat, and the Leopard his Spots in these bewitching stories that conjure up distant lands, the beautiful gardens of splendid palaces, and the jungle and its creatures.

Inspired by Rudyard Kiplings delight in human eccentricities and the animal world, and based on bedtime stories he told to his daughter, these strikingly imaginative fables explore the myths of creation, the nature of beasts, and the origins of language and writing.

They are linked by poems and scattered with Kiplings illustrations, which contain hidden jokes, symbols, and puzzles.