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How the Whale Got His Throat
From Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
This story is from Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1902. Kipling wrote these playful tales to explain how animals came to look the way they do. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. The story shows how cleverness and courage can solve a problem, and how one small action can change everything.
- Band
- Purple · Pre-readers and first readersTypical starting range: ages 4–5
- Length
- short · about 332 words in 4 sections · 4 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 (6 questions) with answer key
- · Read-aloud script
- · Colouring page
- · Teacher’s Edition (members)
Lesson at a glance
- Reading
- about 8 minutes at this band
- Pause questions
- 3
- Words to Know
- 4
- Quick Check
- 6 questions, with the answer key
- Let’s Talk
- 3 questions for afterwards
- Worksheet
- questions, an activity and a drawing prompt
About 35 minutes with one story, all of it.
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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