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How the Alphabet Was Made

From Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

This reader is from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, first published in 1902. Kipling wrote playful origin tales to explain how animals and things came to be the way they are. In this story, a Neolithic father and daughter invent the alphabet by the banks of a river, turning sounds into pictures and discovering that marks on bark can carry messages across distance and time. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. The story shows the leap of imagination that made writing possible—and reminds us that every letter we read began as someone's inventive surprise.

Band

Green · Independent readers, earlyTypical starting range: ages 9–11

Length

medium · about 776 words in 6 sections · 3 pictures

Source

Just so stories, Rudyard Kipling

First published

1902

Regions

Canada · United States

Included formats

• · Web reader and PDF
• · EPUB for e-readers
• · Home-print sheet
• · Folded booklet
• · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
• · Worksheet
• · Quick Check (10 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Teacher’s Edition (members)

Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.

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