The Jungle Book

Why I picked it up: I have been trying to read books people consider as “classics” and seeing that the new Jungle Book movie came out recently, this book was an obvious choice.

Even though I was slightly hesistant about the book because it is meant for kids, my doubts soon disappeared. The book contains a bunch of stories :

1. Mowgli's Brothers
2. Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack.
3. Kaa's Hunting
4. Road-Song of the Bandar-Log
5. “Tiger! Tiger!”
6. Mowgli's Song

The first six are a collection of short stories revolving around Mowgli and his friends (or foes, for that matter). These were undoubtedly the best out of the bunch for me. They reminded me of waking up early on Sundays to watch your favourite cartoon on TV while eating your cereal. There's something nostalagic about it all. Only downside would be the poems which ruined the flow, but that maybe me because I'm not a poem person.

7. The White Seal
It is about a white seal who goes on a search for a safe place for his fellow seals and succeeds. It was okay. Sort of.

8. Lukannon
Another poem. Meh.

9. “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”
This was a part of my syllabus in school so I chose to skip over it. But I distinctly rememmber all of us hating it. We had a collection of short stories such as The Gift of Magi by O.Henry and Dusk by Saki among others and this was undoubtedly the least favourite of our class as evident by the groans that broke out when we had anything to do with it. Anyway, it is about a pet mongoose, the titular character, and his fight with a snake. The story is unnecessarily dragged out and gets on my nerves.

10. Darzee's Chant
Another poem. Mehh.

11. Toomai of the Elephants
About an Indian boy and an elephant called Toomai. Okay-ish.

12. Shiv and the Grasshopper
A song by Toomai's mother.

13. Her Majesty's Servants
About a bunch of animals each boasting about their part in fighting for the British Army. Kinda left a bitter taste in my mouth seeing that I'm an Indian and not so hot about the British Army.

14. Parade Song of the Camp Animals
Poem about the previous story.

Frankly, in my opinion, you could skip all of the non-Mogwli related stories and you would not be missing much. But I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with me. And it is probably blasphemous to say this but : I liked the 2003 movie better. I know, I know the book is always better than the movie but sue me.

Not going to read anything else from Kipling.

This is an interesting book thanks to which we learn about the adventures of Mowgli and the animals living in the jungle. A book with a message, but with a touch of brutality

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The Jungle Book is a collection of seven stories, three of which (my favorites) center on Mowgli. Mowgli is a human child raised by wolves in the jungle. Mowgli learns how to survive in the jungle from his animal teachers.

The laws of the jungle are clear and the consequences of not obeying them are stark: generally death or death-like exclusion from the group.

I've never seen the movies and I knew little about the book until I began to listen to the audiobook this week. I wasn't as captivated by the other stories (the mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi; an elephant-handler; the animals of the English army in India; and, oddly, the story of a seal in the Bering Sea), but I was so intrigued by Mowgli that I listened to those stories twice.

One of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read.

Finally I read the original of this very beloved to me story. And I quite liked it!
Though I must admit that my modern smooth brain struggled a bit with all the “thou”s and “thee”s throughout the story.

I did enjoy the highly structured law of the jungle that is followed and the atmosphere was quite enveloping.
It brought back so many sweet memories of childhood and watching this same cartoon over and over again.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of Mowgli's story!

A great book. Not only the well known story of Mowgli, but a bunch of other ones too, and in each, the author does a masterful job of anthropomorphizing jungle animals, not as a cutesy caricature but as multi-faceted being, understanding their place in society, following their needs, desires, and a deeper honor code by which all animals of the jungle must abide.

No wonder this is a classic.