The Jungle Book & The Second Jungle Book

‘The Jungle Book’ introduces Mowgli, the human foundling adopted by a family of wolves. It tells of the enmity between him and the tiger Shere Khan, who killed Mowgli’s parents, and of the friendship between the man-cub and Bagheera, the black panther, and Baloo, the sleepy brown bear, who instructs Mowgli in the Laws of the Jungle. ‘The Second Jungle Book’ contains some of the most thrilling of the Mowgli stories. It includes ‘Red Dog’, in which Mowgli forms an unlikely alliance with the python Kaa, ‘How Fear Came’ and ‘Letting in the Jungle’ as well as ‘The Spring Running’, which brings Mowgli to manhood and the realisation that he must leave Bagheera, Baloo and his other friends for the world of man. AUTHOR: Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865
1936) was an English poet, short-story writer and novelist. His stories of the British in India reached their height of popularity in the 1890s, but opinion turned against him as the public perception of the days of the Empire changed. With the passing of years, he can now be viewed from a historical perspective as a recorder of the world as it was then. His books for children, including ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘The Second Jungle’ have an enduring appeal.