The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo

A story retold from Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling published Just So Stories in 1902, a collection of playful tales explaining how animals came to look the way they do. This text reflects its era; a few period terms have been modernised. 'The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo' is a mythic pourquoi story—a tale that answers 'why?'—telling how the kangaroo got his long back legs and his hop. Kipling's inventive language, repetition and rhythm have delighted children for over a century, and the story rewards a young reader's curiosity about the natural world with imagination and humour.

Band

Yellow · Emerging readers, about 6 to 8

Length

medium · about 548 words in 6 sections · 4 pictures

Source

Just so stories, Rudyard Kipling · Project Gutenberg

First published

see the About page in the reader

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 (8 questions) with answer key
• · Read-aloud script
• · Colouring page

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.