I do enjoy a good Kipling story. BUT my all-time favorite would have to "How the Elephant Got Its Trunk." It's hard to beat the adventures of the baby elephant with the 'satiable curiosity' who travels along the Limpopo River. ( )

Independent Reading Level: Grade 1-2nd
Awards: Notable Computer Software for Children (1996)

A play for younger readers/audiences about how the leopard got his spots.Could be used to teach about play's an skits, the kids could learn the play and perform it. Great for 2nd or 3rd graders.

A South African tale about why animals and people look the way they do. When Leopard and Ethiopian drive the animals off the high veldt, because they are all so visible being, exclusively yellowish, grayish, brownish, and hunt them at will, the animals walk for days until they find the forest of flora and fauna, enter and change their skins to match the forest. When Ethiopian and Leopard become so hungry that they eat rats and beetles and give themselves a tummy ache they ask Pavian, the wisest, for advice. Pavian tells Ethiopian he must change, and Leopard must find his spots. They travel, find the forest, enter, can smell and hear Zebra and Giraffe, but cannot see them. They finally learn the secret of change and adaptation, and to this day, you can see the five fingerprints on Leopard where his friend Ethiopian helped him change.
If You Liked This, Try: How the Camel Got His Hump by L. Zwerger, The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling, American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne. ( )