Reading to Ben. Old language but we are both getting into it. ( )

One of my favorite childhood books, it was one of the first hardcover books I bought other than series fiction, and I still revisit it from time to time. ( )

This book is difficult to assess. It is quite funny in parts and quite exciting in parts and the character of Mowgli captures the imagination. The very last story was the very first one written and is the worst. The way some animals are just by nature better than others is jarring (what's wrong with having hair between your toes, like a hobbit or a dhole?) Some of the bloodthirstiness is just pointless and so many of these jungle laws are meaningless.

The new word is reboisement, but it means what it looks like it means and it's only there because the forest officer was educated in Nancy (a French city). ( )

9/5/10-ETA This remains my desert island book.
*****
Practically perfect. I think that everyone should read these stories, here collected independent of the First & Second Jungle Books and including In The Rukh, a coda that tells us how Mowgli grew up. I first read these as a little girl, and if I am being completely honest, must confess that the Disney movie led me to them. These stories tower over and transcend the movie in every way, and stay quite firmly on my short list of very favorites year after year. ( )