Just So Stories: Volume II

Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Illustrated by Ian Wallace

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-213-4

140 pp.

Ages 5+

April 2014

Though there are numerous versions of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, I truly believe that Canadian artist Ian Wallace has created the quintessential illustrations for Rudyard Kipling's classic children's tales, just as he did in Just So Stories: Volume I  (Groundwood, 2013).  

In this second volume of the two-volume set, the six stories included are: The Beginning of the Armadilloes; How The First Letter Was Written; How the Alphabet Was Made; The Crab That Played with the Sea; The Cat That Walked by Himself; and The Butterfly that Stamped. For each story, Ian Wallace provides six full-page illustrations and manages to find ways to connect elements within stories as well as between them. From the wonder of the young Painted Jaguar for the armadillo, to the bold turbulence of the misbehaving sea and the adoration of Balkis for her husband, Ian Wallace matches Kipling's details with his own. Sadly I believe that, as the Head Chief claims in How The First Letter Was Written,

"pictures are not always properly understood." (pg. 45)

and only Ian Wallace can fully explain the depth of his illustrations. 

However, judging by his extensive Illustrator's Note at the conclusion of the stories, Ian Wallace gave great thought to more than the content of the stories.  He pays homage to Kipling by including original illustrations, to the history of the Paleolithic Era, to Maurice Sendak, to the geography of the stories, and to the wonder of children. By considering so many elements, both apparent in the text and not so, Ian Wallace has ensured unsurpassed richness in his volumes of Just So Stories. 

Just So Stories (Volume I)

Written by Rudyard Kipling

Illustrated by Ian Wallace

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-212-7

64 pp.

Ages 5+

September 2013

It would be absurd to review Rudyard Kipling's famous Just So Stories For Little Children, first published in 1902.  A hundred years of reading easily secure these stories in the realm of classics.  But having Ian Wallace put his artistic genius to work in this new interpretation of Kipling's work is worthy of note.

Ian Wallace, who has authored a number of books and illustrated over twenty picture books including The Sleeping Porch (Groundwood, 2008), Chin Chiang and the Dragon's Dance (Groundwood, 1990), and The Mummer's Song (Groundwood, 2009), allows each of the six Just So Stories here to stand alone with respect to their illustrations, while still providing a filament of similar artistry in them.  The soft textures and colours of the jungle or the ocean or the desert all suggest the dream-like lyricism of Kipling's words. No illustrations are so bold in colour or outline that they overwhelm the stories.  Ian Wallace astutely illustrates to enhance and complement the stories, never to overtake them. 

While I have neither the expertise nor direct knowledge of Ian Wallace's techniques, I consumed his thorough "Illustrator's Notes" appended to the stories.  Here he discusses his work with watercolour, pencil crayon, pastel pencil and chalk in different combinations.  The melding of media under Ian Wallace's careful eye and hand affect the alarm of the crocodile pulling at the elephant's nose (in The Elephant's Child);  the dry, sandy desert in How the Camel Got His Hump; or the Mariner's ruckus inside the Whale in How the Whale Got His Throat.  The illustrations are detailed and comprehensive, as well as evocative and whimsical, exactly as Rudyard Kipling wrote his stories.  Ian Wallace has done great justice to Kipling's Just So Stories and created an exquisite edition that will be cherished as a classic in itself.

Just So Stories, Volume II is scheduled for release in April, 2014.