The Jungle Book
by Rudyard Kipling
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · grades 3–7 · 820L · 2022
Why we'd hand it over
The original novella is denser and more philosophical than the Disney version — Kipling's Mowgli is resourceful and complicated, not innocent, and the animal mentors have real moral complexity.
What parents said
This is of course your classic traditional English language fare.