This is a fantastic collection of short stories and poems all centered around the animals who live in the jungle. Only three of the seven stories in this book focus on Mowgli, and his stories are quite different from either of the Disney movies with the same title. Kipling's writing style is very poetic and enjoyable, and I loved that he chose to include poems and songs in between his short stories. Like most readers, my favorite story was Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and my least favorite was Her Majesty's Servants. I also really enjoyed Toomai of the Elephants. I never was fortunate enough to have read this as a child, but I feel you would take away much different ideas as a child than as an adult. That is not to say that I think this book is exclusively for either. As a child I would have loved the animal characters and sense of adventure. As an adult however, I think there is real meaning behind these stories. I often found myself pausing after each of the stories to reflect back on the message Kipling was trying to get across.