Unaware of the connection, I read this book right before reading Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Gaiman states in the acknowledgments that he wrote his book in part as an homage to Kipling's book.

This was my second time reading this with my children, but the first with this edition and I really enjoyed the illustrations of this book, they were beautiful, but didn't dwarf the text. The book gets better with the second retelling.