The Jungle Book

by Rudyard Kipling and John Lockwood Kipling

Book Overview

Among the most popular children's books ever written, The Jungle Book (1894) comprises a series of stories about Mowgli, a boy raised in the jungle by a family of wolves after a tiger has attacked and driven off his parents. Threatened throughout much of his young life by the dreaded tiger Shere Khan, Mowgli is protected by his adoptive family and learns the lore of the jungle from Baloo, a sleepy brown bear, and Bagheera, the black panther.Subtle...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486410242
• ISBN13: 9780486410241
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.8" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 8 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 9

Customer Reviews

I bought The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. What I received was a Disney edited, highly abridged ve

To be clear, I LOVE The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. I do not love the Disney edited and abridged drivel I received when I ordered this book

Wonderful Edition of a Classic

This unabridged edition includes both Jungle Book and Jungle Book 2. The stories are a wonderful length for read alouds. The Jungle Book is, of course, a classic and not in need of a review; however, if your only exposure to the Jungle Book is Disney, please give this a try. I wanted to commend Sterling Publishers on making a quality, affordable edition of this and other classics. The paper quality was nice, not thin or translucent. The font is also pleasant--not to small or cramped. I know this may seem faint praise, but so many classics collections are very poorly executed. The price is also very agreeable--only slightly more than a paperback.

Disney's the Jungle Book (Little Golden Book)

ISBN 0307003264 - I have had my illusions shattered by this edition of this book! Believing that Disney books are, essentially, flawless, I'm sad to report that this one doesn't quite reach the high standards of most others. Mowgli, left in the jungle as an infant, is taken, by Bagheera the panther, to a wolf family's den to be raised. The animals are his friends and he learns from them until, suddenly, Shere Khan returns to the jungle. Like all tigers, Shere Khan hates man - and Mowgli, now ten, is a "man". His friends work to convince him to leave the jungle, but Mowgli doesn't want to go, facing various dangers to stay in the place he knows as his home. Until, that is, he sees a young human girl singing at the water and follows her home to her village. Young fans of the Disney film might enjoy this book, but if this is your first introduction to the story, it's a good one but not a great one. The story, compacted to fit Golden Books' standard 24 pages, feels like it's missing far too much in an attempt to hit just the highlights. From the moment he is "sent away", Mowgli is kidnapped by and rescued from monkeys, and assaulted by and scares off Shere Khan - all of which seems to take place in an amazingly short time span. The illustrations, however, are definitely stellar Disney. Bright and colorful, they depict the action in the story perfectly, from the jungle itself to the facial expressions of everyone in it. As a way to bring Kipling's classic series The Jungle Books (Signet Classics) into your child's life, this is a nice route to take, just lacks in detail. - AnnaLovesBooks

The Jungle Book

This is a beautiful edition of the wonderful childhood classic. I gave it to my twelve-year-old grandson, and he is enjoying it very much. The book is so much better than the movie! I love the way Kipling talks with his reader. I loved this book as a child myself and am very happy to have this great edition to give to my grandchildren.

WELL BEYOND DISNEY

The Jungle BookWhen we say "The Jungle Book" most of us invariably think of Disney's films, both animated and live action, that have become the norm for Rudyard Kipling's immortal children's stories. While the Disney interpretation is fun and enchanting, it makes a dramatic departure from the actual stories and takes considerable creative license in telling just a part of the Kipling stories. Even what we get from Disney falls considerably short of the applicable parts of Kipling's original that Disney used. What? Kaa, the snake, as Mowgli's friend and powerful ally? What? A deeper story of Mowgli's experience as a wolf and his relationships with Mother wolf and Father wolf? Oh yes, much, much more.Kipling's original masterpiece also includes several other wonderful chapters about the continuing adventures of Mowgli and also adds the marvelous tale of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," the heroic mongoose whose battles with wicked cobras in an Indian garden easily matches Mowgli's showdowns with Shere Khan.The book also includes the tale of "The White Seal." This short chapter of "The Jungle Book(s)" provides a wonderful commentary, in the form of animal parable, on human society, competition, male ego and human pride. Our hero, Kotick, the white seal, through his fearless explorations and his willingness to fight for a dream, changes the minds of his parents, his peers and his society for the better. The invitation to each of us is very clear to find and free the white seal that exists in all of us.Don't get balled up in the notion that "The Jungle Book" is just for kids. A look beneath Kipling's wonderful prose reveals, like most great children's classics, that the author is using the unintimidating forum of children's literature to speak to kids of all ages with the hope that somehow we'll all finally get it.Buy the book, read it, read it to the kids you know and learn the lesson.Douglas McAllister

I finally have my own copy

I grew up reading and re-reading theses stories. I never found a compilation of the Mowgli stories I liked though, at least not an affordable one.This one gave me not only Mowgli but Rikki-tikki-tavi. All with excellent illustrations that add but do not intrude on the stories.This is a classic that should be on every bookshelf.