Half to this book is about Mowgli, a child who is raised by wolves, grows up in the jungle, learns life lessons from Baloo the Bear and Bagheera the Black Panther, and goes to battle with Shere Khan the tiger.  The other (and less interesting) half focuses on different animals and their interactions with humans.

I did not know this was a collection of short stories going into it. I finished the third chapter and suddenly it was talking about seals and i was wondering what happened to Mowgli and if I had somehow started reading the wrong book. That being said I enjoyed the other stories too that weren't about our classic jungle friends. 

Now for my reviews of each story ranked by how much I liked them:

1. "Tiger! Tiger!" - The conclusion of Mowgli vs Shere Khan was awesome. Mowgli uses his smarts to defeat the awful tiger, but unfortunately has to leave the village because they become scared of him. This one is cool because it combines his knowledge of the jungle with his education from man. 

2. Kaa's Hunting - This one was interesting because it gives a different look than how Kaa has been portrayed in the Disney versions of the story. He's not a bad guy in this, just a monstrous snake, that actually saves the day. 

3. Mowgli's Brothers - Mowgli's "origin story" if you will. It was cool that Bagheera and Baloo had to basically pay to let Mowgli join the wolf tribe. I don't think that's in the Disney version either. 

4. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" - This one was really cool. My favorite of the non-Mowgli stories. Rikki Tikki is a mongoose that gets adopted by a family and then he saves them from snakes. Some cool "duels" between the mongoose and the snakes. 

5. The White Seal - This was the first one after Mowgli's stories and for the first few pages I kept expecting Mowgli to show up again. Besides that it was cool. The seal decides that he should find a safer place for the seals, so he does. Then he beats up the ones that don't listen and makes his dad proud. 

6. Toomai of the Elephants - This one reminded me a little bit of one of my favorite books called Elephant Run. 

7. Her Majesty's Servants - A bunch of animals sit around and talk about the different ways they are used in the army. 

Underwhelming 

Just couldn’t find it within me to care to be honest