Kipling's stories are so vividly told that you are taken to the locales he describes. This collection also includes The Drums of the Fore and Aft (India), Mandalay, and Mary Postgate (a dark story set in England). These are not children's stories so if you only think of The Jungle Book when you consider reading Kipling, think again. The Man Who Would be King was made into a movie with I think Michael Caine, but I had never heard of the other stories. They are all good and it is easy to see why Kipling's work was so popular in his day.