How the Leopard got his Spots

Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories is a classic of children’s literature. The tales have enchanted children for generations with their blend of truth and fantasy, and the rich cadences of the language are just right for reading aloud.

How the Leopard Got His Spots is the story of how the leopard – “greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast” – had black spots painted on his yellow coat so that he could disguise himself and catch his breakfast in the “speckly-spickly shadows of the forest.”

The Just So Stories began as a series of tales that Kipling told to his first daughter Effie at bedtime. They went on to be published as a story collection in 1902 by MacMillan Publishers. The language Kipling uses reflects the period in which the stories were written, when the world was a very different place.

These stories have appeared in many different forms over the intervening years, both as a collection and separately, as here. In this version of How the Leopard Got His Spots, Kipling’s original text is beautifully illustrated in its full glory by Amanda Hall. Amanda uses a rich but subtle palette of colors to describe the southern African terrain of the story and decorates the page edges with carved wood-like borders. The fun and playfulness of the story and its characters are also beautifully captured in these colorful pages.

Email Amanda via her contact form and your inquiry will be forwarded to her licensing agent.

How the Leopard got his Spots

Written by Rudyard Kipling

“This is the story of how the leopard – ‘greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast’ – had black spots painted on his yellow coat, so that he could disguise himself and catch his breakfast in the speckly-spickly shadows of the forest’.”
— Publisher’s description