The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book is Rudyard Kipling's collection of stories and poems, best known for Mowgli, a child raised among wolves in India. Baloo and Bagheera help him learn the laws of jungle life while Shere Khan threatens his place within it. The collection also includes stories beyond Mowgli's adventures, such as Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and The White Seal. Kipling gives animal societies distinctive customs and duties, making belonging something learned through conduct as well as inherited through birth. Rhythmic language and accompanying poems connect the stories to oral storytelling and the remembered force of repeated instruction.