Fireside Reading of The Jungle Book

By Rudyard Kipling

Experiencing a story read out loud is one of the oldest forms of entertainment there is. Fireside Reading is a way to slow down, reconnect with the timeless wisdom of great books and rediscover the simple pleasure of being read to. Join Gildart Jackson in front of a cozy fire as he reads The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling to you and your family from beginning to end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666567649

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865. After intermittently moving between India and England during his early life, he settled in the latter in 1889, published his novel The Light That Failed in 1891 and married Caroline (Carrie) Balestier the following year. They returned to her home in Brattleboro, Vermont, where Kipling wrote both The Jungle Book and its sequel, as well as Captains Courageous. He continued to write prolifically and was the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 but his later years were darkened by the death of his son John at the Battle of Loos in 1915. He died in 1936.

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The Jungle Book

by

Rudyard Kipling

A Fireside Reading Companion

With Introduction by

Gildart Jackson

Fireside Reading

Fireside Reading is a whole new way to look at books and this Fireside Reading of The Jungle Book is available as a videobook, audiobook, and ebook.

Fireside Reading is an innovative way to enjoy some of the most classic novels of all time. This Fireside Reading ebook companion can be used as a read-along guide for the Fireside Reading video, starring Gildart Jackson. Follow along with Gildart as he takes viewers on an adventure into to Never-never-land with Peter and Wendy and all their friends and enemies. Or enjoy the story at your own pace, chapter by chapter.

An Introduction by Gildart Jackson

Hello there and welcome to a Fireside Reading of The Jungle Book By Rudyard Kipling.

Now, I love the movies that were made about The Jungle Book, but did you know that the original Jungle Book was written way back in 1894, and mostly it took place in the jungles of India. It was hugely successful, as successful as the movies were many years later. And there’s a reason for that: It’s a wonderful book.

 Fireside Reading is a whole new way to look at books. Very simply, together we’re going to sit in front of the fire and I’m going to read you the whole of the original Jungle Book, just like they did in the old days, from beginning to end.

When my mother was young she was read this book by my grandmother, her mother; when I was young my mother read it to me; and when my daughter was young I read it to her. My daughter has written a little song for us, because in the book there are some poems, and it seemed to me that it might be easier for us to be able to understand where the poems are if we have a little song playing underneath as I read them to you.

I do hope you enjoy this Fireside Reading of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

The Jungle Book

by

Rudyard Kipling

CONTENTS

Mowgli’s Brothers

Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack

Kaa’s Hunting

Road-Song of the Bandar-Log

Tiger! Tiger!

Mowgli’s Song

The White Seal

Lukannon

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

Darzee’s Chant

Toomai of the Elephants

Shiv and the Grasshopper

Her Majesty’s Servants

Parade Song of the Camp Animals

Mowgli’s Brothers

Now Rann the Kite brings home the night

That Mang the Bat sets free—

The herds are shut in byre and hut

For loosed till dawn are we.

This is the hour of pride and power,

Talon and tush and claw.

Oh, hear the call!—Good hunting all

That keep the Jungle Law!

Night-Song in the Jungle

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 their 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. He was going to spring down hill 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 noble children that they may never forget the hungry in this world.

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. But they are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more than anyone else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of anyone, and runs through the forest biting everything in his way. Even the tiger runs and 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 anyone else that there is nothing so unlucky as to compliment children to their faces. 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 for 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 due 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 below in the 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 he hunts to-night, said Mother Wolf. It is Man.

The whine had changed to a sort of humming purr that seemed to come from every quarter of the compass. It was the noise that bewilders woodcutters and gypsies 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 woodcutter’s campfire, and 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 atom 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 woodcutter’s campfire, 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 forepaws 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.

And it is I, Raksha [The Demon], who answers. 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,

Reviews for Fireside Reading of The Jungle Book

[wanderlustlover_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Spring 2019, audiobook:

Guuuhhh. This was multicast and it made the experience SO Magical. I loved every bit of it, and it was glorious to watch myself transition from moments of "Ah ha! I remember that section from reading it in my early twenties" to just wistful sighing, and falling in love with the character as himself, and all those around him. I love the poetry pieces that begin to appear in the later third of the book, and the music put throughout it, and the ending quote from our beloved panther still gets me right in the heart of myself.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This particular book included more tales than just the Jungle Book tales. My favorite by far was Rikki-Tikki-Tavi which I have not read since I was a child.

[bdgamer-669415 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Having grown up with the animation, and enjoying the recently released live-action film, I went into the book with my arms wide open. Sadly, I didn’t enjoy it as much as most others did.

The problem isn’t the book or the stories themselves. Kipling’s writing is solid—practical and concise. The stories are great metaphors for growing in life and can act as coming-of-age stories for younger readers. Characters were built well and developed throughout.

No, the problem lies in the exoticization and the ‘other’-ing of the natives, aka Indians, in the stories. Yes, these are colonial stories and it shows such attitudes through and through. We are shown as “exotic” people who are technologically and culturally challenged. The “white sahibs” are far more refined and framed as ‘good’ against their darker counterparts.

A lot has been said about colonialism and post-colonialism. While I enjoyed Mowgli’s stories in the jungle greatly—in fact, they were the best in the collection—the others I didn’t quite enjoy.

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

Haven't read this one, I don't think, since childhood, and that would be well over a half-century ago, so it was definitely due for a reread. Only reason I rank it at 4½**** is that it's not the 5***** that Kim is (and Kim's one of those books, like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and The Master and Margarita, that I reread every some years, with a planned reread of Kim coming up with the supplemental materials in the Norton Critical Edition).Never realized, though, that there's also a story "In the Rukh" about Mowgli's marriage. Seems, though, that it was the first Mowgli story Kipling wrote and doesn't have all that impressive a reputation. It apparently appears in some Jungle Books editions but not the one that I've got, so I printed it from a website and do mean to get around to it.

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

A classic, everyone should read his stories.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Digital audiobook performed by Ralph Cosham3.5*** Of course I was familiar with Mowgli, Shere Khan, and Baloo, but I had never read the stories that make up this classic of children’s literature. This edition had Mowgli’s tale, but also included three bonus stories: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (the mongoose who battles the cobras), Toomai (who watches the elephants dance), and Kotick (the white seal who leads his herd to a safe haven). They are marvelous adventure stories with a few life lessons included. The exotic nature of the setting appeals to the imagination as well. I remember a children’s book I had as a child that had a one of the Jungle Book stories in it. I loved when my Daddy would read it because he of the voices he used for the different animals. Well, sorry, Daddy, but Ralph Cosham does an even better job when performing the audio. His underlying sibilant hiss for the cobras was just chilling. And his deeply sinister voice for Shere Khan would make anyone afraid. It was an absolute delight to listen to him read this classic.

[fulner · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was not very good. Maybe the first book I ever read that the movie was way better (and not just for the singing). This is a collection of short stories about anamorphic animals in the Inidan Jungle of the 19th century. I added it to my queue when I wanted more English stories from India in hopes of better communiating with my Indian colleagues. They aren't well written, they have no redeeming or overarching story and even though they are very short, they feel very long and boring. This audio book collection was particularly poor. there Were three distinct different narrators, I believe it was first recorded for Tape in the 80s and then re-released on CD in the 90s (and maybe digital in the 21st) and each time they added some artifacts and its just not good. Not worth stabbing yourself in the eye, but not worth reading.

[linyarai · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A great classic.

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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.

[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.

[whybehave2002 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorites.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[krizia_lazaro_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

After re-reading "Jungle Book" I still did not enjoy it. It's a book for children but as a child I did not enjoy it that much so I decided to put it off for x number of years. I guess a boy who grew up with wolves, bears and panthers just does not sit well with me but I did love the Disney movie. Maybe I'm just not a jungle girl and the Rules of the Jungle does not apply to me ;p.

[thewallflower-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Public domain book. It's been a long time since I saw the movie, and I've never read the novel. There's not actually a lot of "The Jungle Book" in this. Two, maybe three stories. And Shere Kahn is killed in the beginning. The rest are some stories about elephants and seals that involve a lot of "not things happening". It's not dissimilar from "Just So Stories". The stories just don't hold up well. They were meant for another time. Except "Rikki Tiki Tavi", which could take place in space with aliens if you switched some characters and settings around. I started skipping towards the end, because I just didn't feel like the stories mattered. If you want a Jungle Book fix, see the movie.

[scribblekey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved the parts with Mowgli, but the other stories completely lost my interest, so I didn't read them. They could be good. Maybe great. I will never know.

[.monkey.-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I somehow never read any of the Kipling stories as a child, I only knew the Disney animated movie, and later the Jason Scott Lee [as Mowgli] live-action version. So I was very pleased to find just how good the stories are, even to an adult. They're much heavier than the movie portrayed, and there's a lot the movie left out, even from such a short book. Definitely something young people should read.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These are among the first books that I remember reading as a young boy. Of them my favorites were the Mowgli tales (developed by Disney for the cinema). Mowgli is an Indian infant who is lost in the jungle after Shere Khan (the tiger) kills his family. Bagheera (the black panther) places him with a wolf family that has a newborn litter. Mowgli's new "parents" and Bagheera and Baloo (the brown bear) sponsor him for membership in the Wolf Pack and, much to Shere Khan's chagrin, he is admitted. Thus Mowgli is raised according to Jungle Law, but has engendered the enmity of Shere Khan who is plotting his revenge and ingratiating himself with the younger wolves. This leads to an exciting denouement and with the several other Mowgli stories--there are some prequels--impressed this young reader. Kipling strikes a nice balance between anthropomorphizing the animals and understanding Mowgli's natural superiority. Also appearing in this collection is the story of Rikki Tikki Tavi--all about an intrepid young mongoose and his life or death battle to protect an Indian villa from a couple of particularly unpleasant cobras. Truly Rikki Tikki Tavi is one of the great heroes in all of literature. These stories are a great introduction for children (girls and boys) to the work of a true master storyteller. I enjoyed the adventures of Mowgli and his friends and eventually discovered more Kipling as I grew older.

[adams.b1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a story about a little boy Mowgli. At the beginning of the story his parents are killed by the lame tiger Shere khan . Shere khan vows to eat Mowgli. But Mowgli learns the law of the jungle , how to hunt and how to make fire! as he is learning this, the evil savage monkeys catch him and make him teach them to weave stick and do man skills. But then Baloo and Bageera his two friends try to rescue him.He eventually kills Shere khan with a landslide of buffaloes when he is acting herd boy at a man village. At the end he hunts freely with his brother wolfs.This book was very good. I recommend this book to many young readers. It helps you expose your mind to literature. There is lots of action in this book,there is lots of humor as well. I like how mowgli is brave . He is very courageous, he fought a tiger,can't get more courageous than that! Once again I recommend this book!

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

Summary: During the times of the British Raj in India, Mowgli is the 5-year-old son of the widowed Nathoo. Nathoo works as a tour guide. On one of his tours, he is leading Colonel Geoffrey Brydon and his men as well as Brydon's 5-year-old daughter Katherine, with whom Mowgli nicknames "Kitty" and is close friends. That night, Shere Khan attacks the encampment, killing some soldiers who had been hunting for fun in the jungle earlier, which had enraged Khan. When he tries to kill the third hunter, Buldeo, Nathoo defends Buldeo and is mauled to death by Shere Khan. In the confusion, Mowgli is lost in the jungle (so is left unaware of his father's death) - Brydon and his men now believe Mowgli has too been killed. Mowgli is soon spotted by Bagheera the gentle panther, who brings the boy to the wolf pack. Mowgli also befriends a bear cub named Baloo. Years later, Mowgli, now a young man, discovers Monkey City, a legendary ancient city filled with treasure, owned by King Louie who has his treasure guarded by Kaa the python.Elsewhere, Katherine and her father are still stationed in India. She and Mowgli meet again, but neither recognise the other. Katherine is also in a relationship with one of Brydon's soldiers, William Boone. Mowgli enters the village in search of Katherine. Boone and his men manage to capture him and see that he is in possession of a valuable dagger that he took from Monkey City. Katherine discovers an old bracelet of her mother's: one she gave Mowgli when they were children, and instantly realizes who Mowgli is. She and Dr. Julius Plumford (a good friend of Brydon's) decide that they must re-introduce Mowgli to civlization. In doing so, Mowgli and Katherine fall in love, much to Boone's displeasure. Boone later proposes to Katherine and she accepts. Around this time, Mowgli returns to the jungle as he does not feel at home in the village, among Boone's friends. After Boone's cruel treatment of Mowgli, Katherine realizes she cannot marry Boone, so her father decides to send her back to England.Meanwhile, Boone and his friends (Buldeo, Tabaqui, Lieutenant Wilkins, and Sergeant Harley) gather some bandits to capture Mowgli in order to find out where the treasure is. The men shoot and badly wound Baloo when he comes to Mowgli's defense. They then kidnap Katherine and her father (who is shot and wounded in the process) and use them as blackmail: if Mowgli leads them to the treasure, Katherine and her father shall live. That night, the group learns that Shere Khan has returned to the area and is following them.The next morning, Harley catches Mowgli escaping (from the aid of Bagheera) and gives chase, only to fall in quicksand and drowns, despite Wilkins' help. Mowgli then has an elephant take the injured Brydon back to the village and promises to rescue Katherine. Later, Tabaqui falls to his death when attempting to kill Mowgli. As the remaining group get nearer to the lost city, they hear Shere Khan nearby and separate. Wilkins accidentally shoots Buldeo in the leg and is then chased down and killed by Shere Khan. In Monkey City, Buldeo accidentally sets off a trap while trying to kill Mowgli and is buried alive, while Mowgli narrowly escapes. Only Mowgli, Katherine and Boone reach the treasure. In the treasure room, with King Louie and his fellow monkeys watching in amusement, Mowgli and Boone engage in a fight until Mowgli injures the soldier. Mowgli then escapes with Katherine, not before Boone tries to make up with Katherine by offering the wealthy life they would live together, to which she rejects. After they leave, Boone begins pocketing as much gold as he can, only to notice the primates have become silent; he is then attacked by Kaa. Boone falls into a moat at the center of the room and sinks to the bottom due to his backpack filled with treasure. The last thing Boone sees before Kaa kills him is the skeletal remains of people whom Kaa had killed in the past.As Mowgli and Katherine leave, they are ambushed by Shere Khan: when Mowgli shows no fear towards the tiger, Shere Khan sees him as a creature of the jungle and accepts him. Mowgli and Katherine return from the jungle and meet Katherine's father and Baloo, both of whom have recovered from their injuries under Plumford's care. Mowgli now becomes lord of the jungle and begins a relationship with Katherine.Personal Reaction: I love the story of this book. Classroom Extension: After reading the book I would have the kids watch the movie and compare and contrast them.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.