Printed on heavy, coated stock, with wide floral borders adding further notes of luxury, these three complete tales from Kipling’s classic, with attendant verses, get both sumptuous packaging and a generous helping of small, finely detailed illustrations. This treatment not only captures the action and exotic locales, but, most expressively, the power and beauty of the wolves, Bagheera, Balloo and the other animals among whom young Mowgli is raised. As always, Kipling’s measured prose and poetry is a treat to read alone or, especially, aloud; here the story of Mowgli’s education in the Law of the Jungle, his first try at living among humankind, his kidnapping by the Monkey People, and his triumph over the tiger Shere Khan will keep young audiences rapt. An ideal replacement for the edition of these tales illustrated by Inga Moore (1992), and other edited versions. (Fiction. 9-11)
