The Jungle Book & The Second Jungle Book: (Complete Edition with the Original Illustrations by John L. Kipling) Paperback – July 3, 2022

Easy read, with great insights on Indian philosophy. It gives a positive outlook on British colonialism, versus primitive tales and values. I suggest reading Kipling’s biography to understand such subtleties. It is also interesting to read the original Jungle Book stories that have been misrepresented by the media.

Excellent read. I got this after seeing the movie. I could not remember it from my childhood.

I just got it, it's nice cover, pics if any are black & white.Format looks good, only problem is print is a bit smaller than expected but still OK and worth it.Buying these two books separately would cost 2x.

As wonderful to read as the movie was to see.

A classic

The attitudes are, of course, dated but it's still a great bunch of stories. I appreciated the original illustrations which are beautiful and a long way from the Disney art. In fact, I purchased this book to reacquaint myself with the "real" Jungle Books after going to see the latest Disney version ( a great improvement on the first animated version but still taking a number of liberties with the book).

People get images from the Disney movie, but I haven't watched this one yet in fact. So I tried the book before I try the movie. The stories were interesting, that those are full with animals. I found some of the animals I have never heard before (such as dhole, widgeon, and teal). It was full of love to the animals. I enjoyed each episode especially related to Mowgli. He had to choose where he belong, the Jungle or human world. And this was interesting. But I found it hard to read through each episode. Story itself is interesting but I think it is the writing. It's not modern, maybe, so I had hard time turning the pages. But other than that, it's enjoyable.

J'ai lu les deux ouvrages en anglais. Kipling était un grand styliste. La langue est précise, élégante, claire, colorée. Les deux livres se somposent de récits entrecoupés de poèmes. Les personnages, comme chacun sait, sont des animaux de la jungle indienne, au milieu desquels Mowgli, un petit humain a été élevé. Mowgli dialogue avec les animaux, il agit, il les défend si nécessaire et, accidentellement, peut aussi se mêler aux humains. La violence et le mécchanceté sont communes à toutes les espèces, humaines et animales. Chaque espèce animale a ses lois propres et se défend.Ce n'est pas une histoire de bisounours, mais une histoire où chaque animal est doté d'une dignité, mais aussi d'une cahrge négative.Un grand classique, parfois un peu ennuyeux.

Like most people, I have seen the Disney classic film, Jungle Book, and it is actually one of my favourite Disney films.I always thought that I had read this book as a child and the first story is basically the story that we all know and love with Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Shere Khan and Kaa the snake. However, there are so many different stories in this book, some I had heard of like Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the mongoose who can kill even the biggest snake, but we are introduced to so many different characters that I realised I had never read the whole book. I am so pleased that I now have had the opportunity to do this because there are so many good stories regarding various jungle creatures.However, even better for me were the stories of creatures not living in the jungle. There is one about seals that I particularly enjoyed but probably my favourite is the one describing the life of Eskimos living in the very frozen North. I almost felt the cold whilst I was reading this story of incredible hardship in finding food just in order to live.Kipling was such a brilliant storyteller and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It really should be in the school curriculum and if it is not the parents should read this with their children as it is a delight.DexterBreakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review