Adventure · Animals
The Jungle Book
Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves, learns the law of the jungle and faces the tiger Shere Khan.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
The man-cub
One warm evening in the Seeonee hills of India, a small child toddles into a wolves’ cave. Father Wolf and Mother Wolf take him in, and the pack accepts him, though the lame tiger Shere Khan, who was hunting the boy, claims him as his own. They call him Mowgli, the Frog. He grows up among the wolves, taught the Law of the Jungle by Baloo, the sleepy brown bear, and protected by Bagheera, the black panther. Rudyard Kipling published The Jungle Book in 1894. Alongside three Mowgli stories it includes four others, among them “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, about a brave mongoose in a garden, and “The White Seal”.
Why it works for learners
Each story is complete, with a clear moral and a memorable confrontation, and the animals speak in distinct, formal voices that are easy to tell apart. The vocabulary is animals, hunting, rules, family and the natural world: wolf, tiger, snake, monkey, tree, river, hunt, law, pack. The Law of the Jungle itself, with its simple, repeated rules, sticks in the mind. Many readers know the characters from films, which makes the outline easy to follow in a new language, though Kipling’s stories are darker and stranger than the cartoons.
Which level to start at
A2 is a very good start; the stories are short and the action is clear. B1 keeps more of the formal, slightly old-fashioned speech Kipling gives his animals, which is part of their character. At C1 and C2 you’ll meet the songs and poems that close each story. Lexo’s narration gives Baloo, Bagheera and Shere Khan their own voices, so you can follow a council of animals by ear.
Read next
- The Call of the Wild, a dog learning the law of the North
- Tarzan of the Apes, another child raised by animals
- Captains Courageous, Kipling at sea