The Paper Gardens

I picked up this book to read originally because my husband was telling me that a character I liked who was raised by wolves sounded an awful lot like Mowgli. The only exposure I'd had to the story before was the Disney film, which he assured me didn't do the book any sort of justice. So, expecting a fairly dry read, I started The Jungle Books.

To start, I had never realized that The Jungle Books were more than just Mowgli's story. The only other one I had heard of (besides the main story) was Rikki-tikki-tavi, and that was from a terrifying animated short I was shown in 7th grade English.

I enjoyed all of the stories more than I thought I would, though it definitely took a while to get from page to page. I especially liked the story of the elephants dance, and the one with the various military animals talking to each other. I can't remember the name of that story. I also loved all of the stories with Mowgli, following him as he grew from Mowgli the Frog into the Master of the Jungle.

My favorite part of the stories were the poems, though. The rhyme and meter flowed just perfectly, and they were all very fun to read.