Although touted as a children's book, I think this reads much better for older readers. I know when I was a kid, Disney was my canon. As an adult, I'm ready to look deeper. The Jungle Book is actually a collection of stories--many which feature Mowgli and others that range through the jungle to the arctic. Most of them I enjoyed although I wondered why he wrote so many stories where animals talked among themselves with the odd human thrown in at times to tell the tales. I have to assume that he's conveying a nobility in nature that's lacking in human society (a twist in the 'noble savage').
Obviously the stories are rather fanciful although there is cleverness in the plots and how things are solved. What tickled me the most was the relationship between Mowgli and Kaa (the snake) --not the enemies depicted in Disney's interpretation. This particular edition is beautiful with its own ribbon bookmark as well as black and white illustrations. Perhaps for someone who reads these stories at a more leisurely pace, this would be a great edition to track down. I found mine at a thrift store and it'll probably go back to one since I don't plan on re-reading it.