The Jungle Book (Illustrated Edition)

By Rudyard Kipling and John Lockwood Kipling

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The Jungle Book is a collection of stories. The tales in the book are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle." The best-known of them are the three stories revolving around the adventures of an abandoned "man cub" Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The most famous of the other four stories are probably "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", the story of a heroic mongoose, and "Toomai of the Elephants", the tale of a young elephant-handler. As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is preceded by a piece of verse, and succeeded by another.
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He wrote tales and poems of British soldiers in India and stories for children. He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Musaicum Books
• Release date: Dec 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9788027234868

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author and poet who began writing in India and shortly found his work celebrated in England. An extravagantly popular, but critically polarizing, figure even in his own lifetime, the author wrote several books for adults and children that have become classics, Kim, The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Captains Courageous and others. Although taken to task by some critics for his frequently imperialistic stance, the author’s best work rises above his era’s politics. Kipling refused offers of both knighthood and the position of Poet Laureate, but was the first English author to receive the Nobel prize.

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The Jungle Book

Table of Contents

Mowgli's Brothers

Table of Contents

IT was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in the tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived. Augrh! said Father Wolf, it is time to hunt again; and he was going to spring downhill when a little shadow with a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: Good luck go with you, O Chief of the Wolves; and good luck and strong white teeth go with the noble children, that they may never forget the hungry in this world.

"'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'"

'GOOD LUCK GO WITH YOU, O CHIEF OF THE WOLVES.'

It was the jackal—Tabaqui, the Dish-licker—and the wolves of India despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and telling tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village rubbish-heaps. They are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more than any one else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of any one, and runs through the forest biting everything in his way. Even the tiger hides when little Tabaqui goes mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it dewanee—the madness—and run.

Enter, then, and look, said Father Wolf, stiffly; but there is no food here.

For a wolf, no, said Tabaqui; but for so mean a person as myself a dry bone is a good feast. Who are we, the Gidur-log [the Jackal People], to pick and choose? He scuttled to the back of the cave, where he found the bone of a buck with some meat on it, and sat cracking the end merrily.

All thanks for this good meal, he said, licking his lips. How beautiful are the noble children! How large are their eyes! And so young too! Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children of kings are men from the beginning.

Now, Tabaqui knew as well as any one else that there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment children to their faces; and it pleased him to see Mother and Father Wolf look uncomfortable.

Tabaqui sat still, rejoicing in the mischief that he had made, and then he said spitefully:

Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting-grounds. He will hunt among these hills during the next moon, so he has told me.

Shere Khan was the tiger who lived near the Waingunga River, twenty miles away.

He has no right! Father Wolf began angrily. By the Law of the Jungle he has no right to change his quarters without fair warning. He will frighten every head of game within ten miles; and I—I have to kill for two, these days.

His mother did not call him Lungri [the Lame One] for nothing, said Mother Wolf, quietly. "He has been lame in one foot from his birth. That is why he has only killed cattle. Now the villagers of the Waingunga are angry with him, and he has come here to make our villagers angry. They will scour the jungle for him when he is far away, and we and our children must run when the grass is set alight. Indeed, we are very grateful to Shere Khan!"

Shall I tell him of your gratitude? said Tabaqui.

Out! snapped Father Wolf. Out, and hunt with thy master. Thou hast done harm enough for one night.

I go, said Tabaqui, quietly. Ye can hear Shere Khan below in the thickets. I might have saved myself the message.

Father Wolf listened, and in the dark valley that ran down to a little river, he heard the dry, angry, snarly, singsong whine of a tiger who has caught nothing and does not care if all the jungle knows it.

The fool! said Father Wolf. To begin a night's work with that noise! Does he think that our buck are like his fat Waingunga bullocks?

H'sh! It is neither bullock nor buck that he hunts to-night, said Mother Wolf; it is Man. The whine had changed to a sort of humming purr that seemed to roll from every quarter of the compass. It was the noise that bewilders wood-cutters, and gipsies sleeping in the open, and makes them run sometimes into the very mouth of the tiger.

Man! said Father Wolf, showing all his white teeth. Faugh! Are there not enough beetles and frogs in the tanks that he must eat Man—and on our ground too!

The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. They say too—and it is true—that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.

The purr grew louder, and ended in the full-throated Aaarh! of the tiger's charge.

Then there was a howl—an untigerish howl—from Shere Khan. He has missed, said Mother Wolf. What is it?

Father Wolf ran out a few paces and heard Shere Khan muttering and mumbling savagely, as he tumbled about in the scrub.

The fool has had no more sense than to jump at a wood-cutters' camp-fire, so he has burned his feet, said Father Wolf, with a grunt. Tabaqui is with him.

Something is coming uphill, said Mother Wolf, twitching one ear. Get ready.

The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf dropped with his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had been watching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world—the wolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it was he was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result was that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landing almost where he left ground.

Man! he snapped. A man's cub. Look!

Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked brown baby who could just walk—as soft and as dimpled a little thing as ever came to a wolf's cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf's face and laughed.

Is that a man's cub? said Mother Wolf. I have never seen one. Bring it here.

A wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary, mouth an egg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf's jaws closed right on the child's back not a tooth even scratched the skin, as he laid it down among the cubs.

How little! How naked, and—how bold! said Mother Wolf, softly. The baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide. Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man's cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub among her children?

I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our pack or in my time, said Father Wolf. He is altogether without hair, and I could kill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and is not afraid.

The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan's great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance. Tabaqui, behind him, was squeaking: My Lord, my Lord, it went in here!

Shere Khan does us great honor, said Father Wolf, but his eyes were very angry. What does Shere Khan need?

My quarry. A man's cub went this way, said Shere Khan. Its parents have run off. Give it to me.

Shere Khan had jumped at a wood-cutter's camp-fire, as Father Wolf had said, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But Father Wolf knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in by. Even where he was, Shere Khan's shoulders and fore paws were cramped for want of room, as a man's would be if he tried to fight in a barrel.

The Wolves are a free people, said Father Wolf. They take orders from the Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man's cub is ours—to kill if we choose.

Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By the Bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fair dues? It is I, Shere Khan, who speak!

The tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan.

"THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER."

THE TIGER'S ROAR FILLED THE CAVE WITH THUNDER.

"And it is I, Raksha [the Demon], who answer. The man's cub is mine, Lungri—mine to me! He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs—frog-eater—fish-killer, he shall hunt thee! Now get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (I eat no starved cattle), back thou goest to thy mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than ever thou camest into the world! Go!"

Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran in the Pack and was not called the Demon for compliment's sake. Shere Khan might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against Mother Wolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the ground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave-mouth growling, and when he was clear he shouted:

Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say to this fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he will come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!

Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, and Father Wolf said to her gravely:

Shere Khan speaks this much truth. The cub must be shown to the Pack. Wilt thou still keep him, Mother?

Keep him! she gasped. He came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; yet he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my babes to one side already. And that lame butcher would have killed him, and would have run off to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all our lairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little frog. O thou Mowgli,—for Mowgli, the Frog, I will call thee,—the time will come when thou wilt hunt Shere Khan as he has hunted thee!

But what will our Pack say? said Father Wolf.

The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that any wolf may, when he marries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to; but as soon as his cubs are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the Pack Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in order that the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubs are free to run where they please, and until they have killed their first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills one of them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and if you think for a minute you will see that this must be so.

Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on the night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the Council Rock—a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone, to young black three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a year now. He had fallen twice into a wolf-trap in his youth, and once he had been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs of men.

THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK.

THE MEETING AT THE COUNCIL ROCK.

There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over one another in the center of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look at him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a mother would push her cub far out into the moonlight, to be sure that he had not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: Ye know the Law—ye know the Law! Look well, O Wolves! And the anxious mothers would take up the call: Look—look well, O Wolves!

At last—and Mother Wolf's neck-bristles lifted as the time came—Father Wolf pushed Mowgli, the Frog, as they called him, into the center, where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened in the moonlight.

Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with the monotonous cry, Look well! A muffled roar came up from behind the rocks—the voice of Shere Khan crying, The cub is mine; give him to me. What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?

Akela never even twitched his ears. All he said was, Look well, O Wolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save the Free People? Look well!

There was a chorus of deep growls, and a young wolf in his fourth year flung back Shere Khan's question to Akela: "What have the Free

Reviews for The Jungle Book (Illustrated Edition)

[linyarai · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A great classic.

[keylawk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Kipling was born in India, was removed to England when ten, to return for work as an adult for 6 years. The Jungle stories are here compiled from magazine articles written while the author was living in Vermont (!). Also contains Baloo's Maxims [46], Mowgli's Song [131], other song-verses [e.g. 42, 89, 300], and the law of the Jungle, interspersed, which lays down rules for the safety of all, as taught to all cubs, by Baloo the sleepy brown bear. Speaking of cubs, there is Mowgli, the feral child, raised by wolves. Other much-loved stories include the heroic mongoose, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and the elephant-handler, Toomai. Bracketed by the jungle stories is a tale out of the Bering Sea: Kotick, a fur seal, searches for a home for his kind where they will not be persecuted by humans. Since Kipling was a great admirer of Theodor Herzl who sought self-determination for the Jewish people, it is difficult not to view this otherwise out-of-place message as a metaphor in support of a fellow journalist and friend. Ironically, three decades later, a social irritant in Germany usurped a reverse of Kipling's symbol, the Swastica, as an insignia for a political party devoted to persecution.

[lynleys-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My standard four teacher placed this collection into my hands knowing that I was a keen reader. I think he was trying to steer me towards the classics and away from Enid Blyton. I'm glad someone did. I read it, but I had no further guidance, so I was a bit perplexed. I asked my father to take a look. He's a non-reader really. He read a few paragraphs and said, 'What a load of rubbish.' (This didn't help.)

[whybehave2002 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorites.

[cedargrove_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What can you say about such a classic as this? Mowgli is raised in the wilds of the Indian Junble by wolves, and has a series of adventures, in which he proves himself brave, and kind and fair. I enjoyed reading the stories that make up The Jungle Book, for all they were a product of the era in which they were written.

[themulhern · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful descriptions...but all the laws that must be obeyed just because get under my skin. Why is Akela "The Lone Wolf" when he is the leader of the pack? This is not the only bit that doesn't make sense.When I was young I found the stories about Mowgli tremendously exciting and longed to go live in the jungle with a wolf pack myself. Killing my enemy and being the darling of all other reputable creatures in the jungle seemed like great fun. I also wanted to be a mongoose. I found many of the poems moving and evocative.The chatter of the livestock in the camp in the last story was obviously intended as some kind of allegory about the social structure of the British Empire and neighboring Afghanistan.As an adult I'm much more interested in finding out the truth behind the tales. For example, fur seal rookeries are really as crowded as Kipling describes them and fur seals really do live out in the ocean for a good eight months at a time. Sexual dimorphism is extremely pronounced with full grown males weighing up to five times as much as full grown females. The seals can way up to 500 lbs. Clubbing the seals was the preferred way to begin the process of skinning them, and so forth.The reading by Rebecca Burns was too fast, almost breathless.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Verzameling verhalen waarvan alleen eerste 5 over Mowgli. Verhalen telkens gevolgd door bijhorend lied; zeer mooi geschreven.

[john5918 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful, brilliant, nostalgic...

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very enjoyable. Kipling knows his Subcontinent thoroughly and this epic yarn of an orphan boy raised by a menagerie of animals is priceless. Even Kaa the snake is a wise teacher to the boy. Much more involved than the wonderful cartoon movie by Disney, this book should be read first.

[clicksclan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed the main story of The Jungle Book, didn't enjoy the other stories in the book quite as much. Other than The Jungle Book I liked the story of Little Toomai.Wonder if J.K. Rowling was inspired by Rudyard Kipling when she created Nagini as there are two snakes in a story named Nag and Nagaina.Made me want to read The Just So stories again. I might look out for it on the Kindle.Think it tied in well with my EA300 course though I enjoyed it more for not having to study it!Would love to get a pretty illustrated version to read again in the future.

[mozzie_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even better now than when I was a child

This is the first time I have read this book since I was a little girl. The stories are well written, for adult and child alike. It is a great thing to get to know these classical characters.

[mossjon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This small paperback edition contained the first three stories of Kipling's Jungle Books - "Mowgli's Brother"; "Kaa's Hunting"; and "Tiger! Tiger!"

Kipling's prose impressed me with it's poetry and imaginative metaphors. A beautiful love letter to his adopted homeland of India. These stories have aged remarkably well.

A must read for children, tweens, teen, young adults, and the young at heart.

[eustaciatan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Previously, I only knew about The Jungle Book if it was the Disney movie, which I didn't even watch. The show looked a little infantile and frankly, I didn't really get it. Later on, I read and loved The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which I heard was based on The Jungle Book. Interesting, but still not enough to get me to read it. Finally, I read The God of Small Things by Arundathi Roy. In it, they quoted The Jungle Book's "We be of one blood, thou and I". After meeting all these instances of intertextuality, I had to read the book. The book follows a fairly predictable format: story, then a poem about the story. While I was a little disappointed that not all the stories was about Mowgli, the other stories were interesting. I'm not sure about all this imperialism stuff, since I've not studied that aspect of literature in detail, but all I saw was the noble savage idea, such as that of Huckleberry Finn.Although the stories lagged towards the end, I still enjoyed the book, if not for the content, then for all the wonderful instances of intertexualities within it.

[gacyayoshi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a brave young boy story.A boy is grown in jungle.He has alot of friends.friends are animals.And he can learn jungle rules thanks for a bear and a black panther witch are his friends. For example, langage of snake.The boy is very blave and he fight with bad tiger ,and so on.When I read this book,I was given brave feeling by this book.This book is very good.Nature told us various things.So,I read book very fast!

[tkeo_7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The delightful tales in The Jungle Book can and should be enjoyed by young and old. Mowgli, a human child in India, is rescued by wolves and raised by them with wolf brothers and sisters by wolf parents, after an evil lame tiger chased away his human parents. The tiger who not only kills humans wants to control the wolf pact. He tells the wolves insistently that Mowgli belongs to him. Mowgli has many adventures among the wolves and later among humans. Once, for instance, he was captured when he was ten or eleven years old by monkeys, who are portrayed as stupid forgetful creatures in the book. He is saved during a lengthy battle by Bagheera the black panther who loves him and by Baloo the bear that is his instructor, as well as the python Kaa who respects him. Mowgli leaves the jungle and goes to live in the human village. He thinks that people act and think strangely, speak foolishly, and believe that they can change things, which Mowgli knows cannot be changed. These are just some of Mowgli's many adventures. The book also contains exploits by many different animals, such as the story of the white seal that saves other seals from being killed by men for their skins, the mongoose who rescues a family from husband and wife cobras, and a boy who sees elephants dance.

[elliegiles · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kipling's famous story about a boy who is left to live in the jungle. A charming and timeless tale.

[isabelx_21 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has always been my favourite story in this book.

[deusxmachina-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A classic that I loved since I read it for the first time at age 5. My favourite till today is Rikki Tikki Tavi, the mongoose who makes friends with beings so totally different from itself and protects them with wit and skill.Oh, and Bagheera, of course. Every child should have a Bagheera.

[kcshankd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Picked up as premium on Folio Society order instead of 'Autumn' offering. Later saw a preview for new CGI Jungle Book Disney movie, so a refresher read seemed timely. I enjoyed all the stories, most especially 'Toomai of the Elephants' that I had never before encountered.

[michael_rose-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Don't rely on Disney, read the book(s) for yourself! The cartoon I've seen of Rikki Tikki Tavi is a faithful adaptation, and there are other stories I was wholly unaware of, but everything involving Mowgli is a bit different. There's more too. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the film adaptations too, but the book is likewise worth your time, if not more so.

[albertpascal · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This a collection of tales that include Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, and Shere Khan; the great snake Kaa and the Monkey People; the white seal Kotick; Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the human family he saves from the cobra couple Kala Nag and Nagaina; Little Toomai and the elephants; and a mule named Billy. "Mowgli's Brothers" is Chapter 1 and it's the basis for the popularized story and film called "The Jungle Book."These are stories of adventure and exploration of the world and its inhabitants. The adventures contain life's lessons along the way. I think most of these stories are fantastic in how they engage the reader through a fun plot and an easy reading style, especially "Mowgli's Brothers" and "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."

[aryadeschain-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think this book is a bit gruesome for children, but... oh well, that's just me. Maybe it's all a matter of point of view, the original fairy tales are not half as glamorous as it is shown by the Disney universe.

I usually dislike books with talking animals, and this one was no exception. I found that this book was rather bland and it failed to draw my attention to any of its tales. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's was, by far, the most interesting one. As for the other ones, well, they're not really impressive. Indeed, perhaps I'm not the target audience of this book, thus my lack of interest for most of its aspects.

[sirfurboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Most people will be familiar with this story, and will know why it is a classic. On the other hand, they may have not read the original version with the additional tales and poetry. It was worth reading these, even though the story of Mowgli is certainly the best known story for a good reason! The other tales though show the versatility of the author, and are engaging in their own way

[bzedan_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My mom gave me a lot of classics when I was growing up, all big-text on pulpy paper and bright covers, perfect for the young book nerd. I loved the Jungle Books, I always thought she'd read them too, but talking to her recently, I guess she never read much Kipling. I'd forgotten that the first Jungle Book has side stories about Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the bit about the elephants dancing and whatnot. Only the first half is really about Mowgli at all. The point of reading this, besides my obvious addiction, is so that I have the story straight in my head during The Second Jungle Book, which had passages that stuck in my brain like nothing else over the years.

[dulac3_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rudyard Kipling’s _The Jungle Book_ is an enjoyable read. A collection of short stories, all of which revolve around the lives and troubles of different animals and the people who interact with them, it has a surprising amount of depth coupled with rather pleasant prose. The most famous of these stories are probably those that revolve around Mowgli, the jungle boy raised by wolves in India whose adventures with Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther against the machinations of Shere Khan the tiger are fairly well-known (even resulting in a typically watered-down Disney movie from many years ago).

All of the stories are notable for their fairly even handed treatment of the interactions between animals and men. The tragedy and pathos of the tribulations and abuse animals often have to suffer at the hands of man are not glossed over, but neither is it implied that all interactions between mankind and the animal kingdom are destructive or unwarranted. The animals are presented as having languages and customs of their own and Kipling generally does a pretty neat trick of managing to straddle the line between having his animal characters behave too much like humans and having them fall into unrelatability by being purely ‘animals’. The most significant contravention of this occurs, I think, in the story “Her Majesty’s Servants” in which, in my opinion, a group of animals serving various roles in a British regiment shade a bit more towards taking on the roles of their all-too human handlers. That quibble aside I enjoyed these morality fables and adventure stories, with those centring on Mowgli and his lessons in the Laws of the Jungle topping the list. Good clean fun with enough meat to the bone to give you something to think about.

[auntieknickers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not only a ripping yarn, but one with many lessons to be learned -- I have met far too many of the Bandar-Log in my time. It's been quite a while since I've read it, so parents might want to make this a read-aloud to be able to explain some of Kipling's outdated ideas. Take what's good and leave the rest.

[chelseagriffin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Jungle Book, a three star rated book, would be a good book for elementary or middle level students. The book comes in pictures or just words. This book is a classic tale that teachers could have a good time with to introduce the jungle and/or wild animals.

[simon998877 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

best book ever... couldn't recommend enough

[judithproctor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this as an adult far more than I did as a child. When young, I expected the whole book to be about Mowgli. As an adult, I remembered that it was a collection of many things and thus wasn't disappointed. In fact, some of my favourites were not Mowgli stories. I particularly liked the story of the white seal.Kipling has a real gift with words (reminds me a little of Ursula le Guin) and some of his tales read like myth.I also appreciate the poems a lot more now. Kipling has a wonderful sense of rhythm, which I totally failed to appreciate when younger, but now really love.A small bonus for me was realising that the poem with 'Her Majesty's Servants' was set to the rhythm of several songs that I knew. When he talks of the cavalry cantering to 'Bonnie Dundee', the metre is that of 'Bonnie Dundee'. He also works 'British Grenadiers' and 'Lincolnshire Poacher' into the same poem.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first three stories here are more or less in our literary DNA at this point (I mean, really, who calls up more vivid associations for you, Noah, Achilles, and King Arthur, or Baloo, Bagheera, and Shere Khan?). Mowgli is the child raised by wolves, of course, but he's also the perfect man in a way, the transcendently alive (and lithe) hunter gatherer, domiciling amongst the beasts not because he's fallen off the map of human civilization but because we left him behind, adopted agriculture and superstition. He's not an animal and he's not a man, at least given what man has become--he's the treetopper and tool-user we might have been.And then there is "The White Seal," Kotick the seal on his requisite quest through underwater amazement-scapes, and the seals have their own language based on Aleut, which is amazing, and it's just a really well-fleshed-out and enchanting world. Also Kipling manages to pull off a (gory) seal massacre in a way that's not too awful to teach small children some thoughtful lessons about mortality. The equal of Mowgli in every way.And Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the mongoose, lesser, and Kipling dwells fetishistically on the "Big Englishman," but still a classic David/Goliath story.And then "Toomai of the Elephants," which to me is just mahout fanfic, and then the one about the horse and the mule and the camel, which to me is befuddled and pointless as if Kipling got too much sun.And the poems, which range from evocative in a"Jungle-Floor Ballads" kind of way to extraneous plot sommary of the stories to which they attach. This is a comprehensive rating, but Mowgli and Kotick are five-star bros for sure.