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Rating: 
Summary: The Jungle Book - Malvina Vogel Adaptation
Review: Don't get me wrong. Kipling's Jungle Book is Awesome. The problem with this adaptation is that it is not Kipling's Jungle Book. Be careful what you order!! The language and tone of Vogel's adaptation is changed in ways that strip the stories of the sense of pride and self that made the originals such tremendous lessons, and of the subtle darkness that gave them the ring of truth. It's almost worse than Disney's handiwork, because in a certain sense it purports to be the orginal story! Some examples: Original Version: Ye choose and ye do not choose! What talk is this of choosing? By the bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog's den for my fair dues? It is I, Shere Khan who speak! Adapted Version: How dare you talk of choosing. I, Shere Khan, demand that cub.
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Original Version: They fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera - the Panther - and no man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my paw and came away. Adapted Version: After my mother died there, I broke the silly lock with one blow of my paw and escaped. ***
Original Version: He is a man, a man's child, and from the marrow of my bones I hate him! Adapted Version: Remember, he is just a man. ****
Original Version: "Also, I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted. The worth of a bull is little, but Bagheera's honor is something that he will perhaps fight for," said Bagheera in his gentlest voice. "A bull paid ten years ago!" the Pack snarled. "What do we care for bones ten years old?"
"Or for a pledge?" said Bagheera, his white teeth bared under his lip. "Well are ye called the Free People!" Adapted Version: And I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted into the pack," added Bagheera. "What do we care about a bull we ate ten years ago" snarled the young wolves. "What do you care about promise either?" snapped Bagheera. And so on.... Virtually every paragraph is watered down like this. Was this done to make it easier reading for today's reading-challenged youths? Or to introduce PC to this classic (we obviously can't have any talk of "brown men", killing, hatred, or of fighting for principles). Whatever the reason, the entire flavor of the original is changed. Kipling was doing fine without the help.
Rating: 
Summary: Kipling's original masterpiece
Review: I've been looking for the "Jungle Book" book since I watched both Disney films. Both are wonderful but I do understand what reviewer rockdoc28 meant by there being a watering down of Rudyard Kipling's work.
However, has anyone watched a Chuck Jones' cartoon?
Known as Charles Jones during the earlier cartoon age with Merry Melodies and Loony Tunes, when Jones took over directing the Tom & Jerry cartoons during the 60's, he took a well-gifted hand at directing animated films based on Kipling's stories. Namely "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and even "The White Seal"(the latter I didn't know was within "The Jungle Book"). Chuck Jones really did these stories more justice than even Disney and he should have been given the right to redo the entire collection but, I digress... However, to rockdoc28,- and others- I found the comparison/contrast of original and adaptation helpful! So thanks! Also, to Jorge Frid and rockdoc28, the particualr edition I own I found when I attended Downtown Miami's annual Book Fair International.
It's called the Illustrated Junior Library by Grosset & Dunlap Publishers (c) 1950.
It is Kipling's original voice and style and it's simply magnificent.
Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: Kipling's Jungle Book is one of the great classics of children's literature. The central story, that of Mowgli, is an engaging adventure with a much deeper theme of alienation, abandonment and the struggle to find a place for oneself in the world. This partially reflects Kipling's own conflict as a Briton who was both extremely racist and imperialistic yet tied very much to India. Mowgli's story also reflects Kipling's views of race through the racialization of the animal characters. Parents should be warned that in other parts of the book, Kipling's very outdated view of race is much more overt.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: The book The Jungle Book is a book about a young boy who was found by a black panther in the jungle. The panther took the boy and for ten years the boy grew up with wolfs and learned how to scratch and pick out thorns of paws. The he goes and learns different things from different animals. But one animal that hates him is a tiger; because he thinks some day he will be hunter. After the tiger tries to kill the boy the boy goes and live with humans. I like this book because it has bigger words and it has good fun with animals. I recommend it to anyone. And the movie is even better.
Rating:
Summary: WELL BEYOND DISNEY
Review: The Jungle Book When we say "The Jungle Book" most of us invariably think of Disney's films, both animated and live action, that have become the norm for Rudyard Kipling's immortal children's stories. While the Disney interpretation is fun and enchanting, it makes a dramatic departure from the actual stories and takes considerable creative license in telling just a part of the Kipling stories. Even what we get from Disney falls considerably short of the applicable parts of Kipling's original that Disney used. What? Kaa, the snake, as Mowgli's friend and powerful ally? What? A deeper story of Mowgli's experience as a wolf and his relationships with Mother wolf and Father wolf? Oh yes, much, much more. Kipling's original masterpiece also includes several other wonderful chapters about the continuing adventures of Mowgli and also adds the marvelous tale of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," the heroic mongoose whose battles with wicked cobras in an Indian garden easily matches Mowgli's showdowns with Shere Khan. The book also includes the tale of "The White Seal." This short chapter of "The Jungle Book(s)" provides a wonderful commentary, in the form of animal parable, on human society, competition, male ego and human pride. Our hero, Kotick, the white seal, through his fearless explorations and his willingness to fight for a dream, changes the minds of his parents, his peers and his society for the better. The invitation to each of us is very clear to find and free the white seal that exists in all of us. Don't get balled up in the notion that "The Jungle Book" is just for kids. A look beneath Kipling's wonderful prose reveals, like most great children's classics, that the author is using the unintimidating forum of children's literature to speak to kids of all ages with the hope that somehow we'll all finally get it. Buy the book, read it, read it to the kids you know and learn the lesson. Douglas McAllister
Rating:
Summary: A True Original
Review: The Jungle Books are usually marketed as juvenile fiction. True, this is essential reading for children, but it's even deeper when you read it as an adult. Although "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The White Seal" are just as good as the least of the Mowgli stories, it is the various tales of the boy raised in the jungles of India that are - and justifiably - the heart of the collection. As a baby, Mowgli is found and raised by a clan of wolves and three godfatherly mentors who each teach him about life in different ways - Baloo the Bear, who teaches him the technical laws he'll need to survive; Kaa the Python, the nearly archtypal figure who teaches him even deeper lessons; and Bagheera the Panther, who perhaps loves Mowgli most of all but understands all too well the implications of the ambiguous humanity of the boy he's come to care for. The stories have it all, from the alternately humorous and frightening "Kaa's Hunting", where Mowgli learns an important lesson about friendship and it's responsibility, to the epic "Red Dog" that reads like something out of Homer, to "Letting in the Jungle" which, without giving anything away contains a disturbing paragraph that's both glaring and a long time in coming if you've read between the lines in the previous Mowgli stories and yet at the same time so subtle you can almost miss it's importance. If you didn't read it as a child, read it now. If you did, read it again as an adult.
Rating: 
Summary: The Grandest Book Entitled: The Jungle Book
Review: This is a touching book about a boy who is abandoned by the villagers of India when he is just a little baby. He is found by a pack of wolves and they raise him as one of their own pups. When he grows up, he finally has contact with humans. He meets his little brother and his mother. I would recommend this book for older people such as high shcoolers, or people going to collage. This book has content that might be harder for younger children, so I wouldnt recommend it for them. But for the older people, I think you should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: WELL BEYOND DISNEY
Review: This was probably one of my most favorite books as a young child if not my favorite. The way Kipling shows the struggle of this young boy in the jungle is amazing. He fails to leave out any detail and throughout the whole story your totally caught up in it without one point of boredom. I recommend this to any parent looking for a good book to read to their children or to have their kids read. Kipling is a great author and after doing a report on him and reading some of his other works I recommend those as well, especially A White Man's Burden. If your looking for books by a author who mixes fiction with truth, action and adventure with tales that bring in more serious aspects Kipling is the author for you.
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Summary: I read this book just to compare
Review: When I started this book I just didn't like it, but then I remembered the movie of Walt Disney and I kept reading just to compare the original story with the movie, I definitely stay with the movie.
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