Reviews

Loved the design and the interactive elements in this HarperDesign/MinaLima edition. I was surprised to find out that only 3 of the 7 chapters/stories deal with Mowgli and his adventures in the Indian jungle. The other ones are about completely different characters/animals. My favorite was "Kaa's hunting" in which Bagheera and Baloo enlist Kaa's help to free Mowgli from the Bandar-logs (a bunch of monkeys, there's no King Louis though), and "The White Seal" in which a seal tries to find a secluded island that would provide his companions with a place to live far away from dangerous humans.

bloomingsouls's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

gingerliss's review against another edition

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3.0

The Jungle Book surprised me, as it isn't what I'd been thinking it was through all these years. I thought it was the story Disney gave us but then with a bit more to it. The story Disney gave us in there, with quite a bit more to it, though I have to say it's a long time since I saw that film. But it's actually a book of short stories, which I had no idea of. If you usually read my reviews you will know that I find it difficult to be very enthusiastic about a book of short stories. This is mainly because each story is different an I enjoy some stories more than others. Which makes it difficult to give a book a proper overall score. It does help when the short stories are all written by one author, which is the case here. I liked the stories about Mowgli, but I think my favourite stories were Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's story and Kotick the White Seal's story. Like it says in my edition of the book, The Jungle Book is so much more than what Disney showed to us, I agree completely and I am glad I have finally read it.

jackdziatkowiec's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

From this collection of short stories, the story of Mowgli is great, and I liked the poems/ songs.

ciciwilkie's review against another edition

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2.0

I think I would like this more if I had read versus listened to this. It's a little slow. I enjoyed the differences in the story of Mowgli. There were also many more stories of the jungle included that I hadn't heard before. I did enjoy them but I found it hard to pay attention and the audio just was dreadfully slow. I listened to the version by Ralph Cosham and he has a voice that lulls me to sleep.

_ash0_'s review against another edition

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3.0

I had no idea that this was a short story collection. There are only 3 short stories on Mowgli and the rest of them are pretty boring stories. I did not like the writing too and found the dialogues pretty boring.

There are 7 short stories and 7 poems in this book.
1. Mowgli's brothers - probably the best short story in the book. You should read this book just for the sake of reading this story. This is the actual Mowgli story.

2. Kaa's hunting - this is the story where we get introduced to Kaa and it was pretty good too.

3. 'Tiger-Tiger'- the story where Mowgli encounters the tiger. This was probably the second best story in this book.

I gave the first three stories - 4/5 stars.

4. The white seal - this story is about a white seal who tries to find a new island for seals where humans are not there. It was mildly interesting and I gave it 3/5 stars.

5. 'Rikki-tikka-tavi' - this is a story about a mongoose and a family of cobras. It was pretty okay too and I gave it 3/5 stars.

6. Toomai of the elephants - this was a pretty long story and also boring with nothing much happening. It did give us a glimpse of India when it was under British rule so for that reason alone I gave it 2/5 stars.

7. Servants of the queen - probably the most boring story in this book and it was so boring that I just skimmed through and could not read it completely. Giving this story 1 star.

The poetry was okay but I am not a huge fan of poetry so did not enjoy reading them anyway.

Overall, I guess reading the first 3 stories in this book makes sense. Rest of them are dated and pretty silly for adults. Kids might enjoy all the stories.

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