The Jungle Book is seven mostly unrelated short stories—some not even in the jungle—and seven short works of verse related to the story.
The first set of three stories stars a young boy named Mowgli. He is raised by wolves, trained by a bear, kidnapped by monkeys, rescued by a panther and a snake, and kills and skins a tiger. All this before he hits puberty.
In "The White Seal," Kotick, the titular white seal, who lives in the Bering Sea (which is not the jungle), sees his adorable, cute, cuddly, fuzzy seal buddies get clubbed to death and their bloody skins ripped from their little bodies. Yikes. He decides to search for an island where all seals can be safe, but when he finds it, all the seals are too lazy to move. Talk about ungrateful, right? Kotick, who's all big and strong from all the swimming, kicks all the seals' tails. Impressed by his strength, they follow him to safety.
Our protagonist in "Toomai of the Elephants" is Toomai (of the elephants). He follows his elephant Kala Nag into the jungle and witnesses a top-secret elephant dance ritual.
Finally, there's "Our Majesty's Servants," in which a bunch of military service animals—donkeys, camels, and horses, oh my—chat about fear and obedience.
We didn't forget "Rikki-tikki-tavi" either. The most iconic star of The Jungle Book next to Mowgli the boy wonder gets his Shmoop on over here.
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature, and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
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