The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling (Children's Classics)

(Children's Classics) The adventures of Mowgli, an abandoned man-cub who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle and many other tales in this book use animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give lessons. The other stories in this Fantastica edition include Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a heroic mongoose, and Toomai of the Elephants, the tale of a young elephant-handler. "This is the hour of pride and power, talon and tush and claw. Oh hear the call!-good hunting all that keep the Jungle Law!"" The Jungle Book contains seven short stories and seven poems. The first three stories are about Mowgli, while the remaining four each focus on different protagonists. On the night of a big hunt, Father Wolf and Mother Wolf discover a man's cub in the bushes, abandoned and naked. Mother Wolf immediately decides she will raise him as one of her own cubs, much to the tiger Shere Khan's dismay. Shere Khan believes the child was his to eat, and he is not happy to be turned away. Mother Wolf names the child Mowgli, which she says means frog. At the wolf Pack Council, Mowgli is accepted by the other wolves only after Baloo, a kind bear who teaches the cubs about the Jungle Law, and Bagheera, the black panther, vouch for him.