Kipling gets a bit of a bad rep these days but I enjoyed this collection of children’s stories. The stories all come from Kipling’s other work, including both Jungle Books and The Just-So Stories and often have a moral at the end. I’ve not read much Kipling so I hadn’t encountered that many of these before (only the ones from the first Jungle Book). There is also some poetry in the book, including His Apologies, a lovely, sad poem about a dog.
I think Kipling needs to be seen in the context of his time and I get the impression from the stories set in India that he really loved that country, and had learned about the people and its history. I can’t see the arrogance and condescension that is often attributed to him.
