# The Elephant's Child — Just So Stories character guide

> The Elephant's Child in Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** The Elephant ’s Child

**First appearance:** 0004-the-elephant-s-child

## Snapshot

An insatiably curious elephant child whose endless questions about the Crocodile's dinner earn him a stretched, useful nose.

## Who they are

He pesters every relative with 'what does the Crocodile have for dinner,' and their spankings only sharpen his appetite for answers. At the great grey-green Limpopo the Crocodile grabs his nose and pulls it into a trunk, with the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake's help. His delight in mud-caps, fly-whisks, and spanking hippopotamuses turns a punishment into the first pachyderm advantage.

## In the story

### [The Elephant's Child](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/the-elephant-s-child)

The protagonist whose insatiable curiosity drives the story; he undergoes a physical transformation when his nose is pulled into a trunk.

### [List of Illustrations](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/list-of-illustrations)

Shown having his nose pulled by the Crocodile and later using his new trunk to pull bananas.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/the_elephants_child
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters