The adventures of Mowgli, the young man raised by wolves in the jungles of Central India, and his friends Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther and Kaa the python, as they face the arch villain Shere Khan the tiger, have become so popular that they have achieved an almost mythical status throughout the world. They were collected by Kipling in The Jungle Book and its sequel, The Second Jungle Book, which also contain other stories set in India which prominently feature animals, such as the well-known 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', which describes the struggles of a mongoose against venomous cobras. Here presented with brand-new illustrations by Ian Beck, these hugely popular tales, inspired by ancient fables and Kipling's own experiences in India, form a vivid account of the relationship between humans and nature, and will continue to inspire readers young and old. Originally told by Rudyard Kipling to his children at bedtime, The Just-So Stories, a compendium of witty tales imagines how animals came to be as they are now. Discover how the massive whale got a tiny throat by swallowing a mariner, how the lazy camel got a hump so that he had no excuse not to work, and why the leopard's spots were painted on.Kipling's imagination runs wild as he creates charming origin stories that still enchant and delight children to this day. This edition featuresKipling's iconic original illustrations. Kimball O'Hara, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, spends his childhood on the bustling streets of Lahore, begging and running errands in order to survive. One day he meets an old Tibetan lama, and he decides to accompany him on his travels across the Indian subcontinent. After falling into the hands of his father's old regiment, however, Kim is separated from the lama and sent away to school. There, his natural flair for espionage is spotted, and he is soon catapulted among the majestic peaks of the Himalayas to play his part in the secret service's confrontation with Russia, the so-called "Great Game". With its peerless evocation of the teeming cities, breathtaking landscapes and diverse cultures of late-nineteenth-century India, Kim is widely considered to be Kipling's masterpiece and one of the greatest novels written in the English language.