Penguin Readers Factsheets
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
The Jungle Book
by Rudyard Kipling
S U M M A R Y
n the first chapter, The Man-Cub, we meet most of
I the main characters of The Jungle Book. Mowgli, the
man-cub, arrives at the mountain top home of the wolf pack
lead by Akela. He is taken in by Mother and Father Wolf. But
Shere Khan, the tiger, wants to catch and eat the man-cub
and the wolf pack is not sure about allowing Mowgli to stay.
He is finally accepted into the pack after Bagheera, the
panther, gives the pack food in return. Mowgli grows up
happily with the wolves but as Akela becomes weaker and
weaker, Shere Khan gets closer and closer to the young
wolves in his continuing quest to get Mowgli excluded from
the pack. Finally, Mowgli realises that it is time to move on.
But before he goes, he gets the Red Flower from outside
the house of a man. The Red Flower is the animals’ way of
talking about fire. Animals are too afraid of it to use it as a
weapon, but Mowgli is not an animal. He is a man-cub. He
hits Shere Khan with a fiery stick and leaves the mountain
top, promising to return one day with the tiger’s skin.
In Chapter 3 we meet the final main character of the
stories. Baloo, the old brown bear, was Mowgli’s teacher
during his happy years with the pack. He taught Mowgli the
language of the jungle. This chapter tells of one of his
adventures during his childhood when that knowledge
came in extremely useful. Mowgli has been warned to stay
away from the monkeys, the Bandarlog, but they capture
him and take him to the ruined city which is their home.
Bagheera and Baloo plan to attack the monkeys and rescue
Mowgli. Chil, the big bird, tells them where the monkeys
have taken Mowgli and Bagheera arrives with his ‘friend’
Kaa, the snake. Between them, in Chapter 4, Bagheera,
Baloo and Kaa defeat the monkeys but Kaa then starts to
use hypnotism on the monkeys and Mowgli has to pull
Baloo and Bagheera away before they too fall under his
spell.
In Chapters 5 and 6 we are taken back to the time when
Mowgli left the wolf cave. He starts a new life in a man
village, learns the language and is given a job looking after
the buffalo. But Shere Khan still wants to kill and eat him
and Mowgli still wants to take the tiger’s skin back to the
mountain top. He plans an ambush and traps the tiger in a
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ELEMENTARY
dry river bed between two herds of stampeding buffalo. The
tiger is kicked to death and Mowgli sets about skinning him.
But one of the hunters from the village arrives and tries to
steal Mowgli’s prize. When Mowgli sets the wolves on him,
he runs back to the village and tells them that Mowgli is a
wolf. Now he is not welcome anywhere. He is too much a
man for the wolves and too much a wolf for the men.
However, when he fulfils his promise and drags the tiger
skin up to the mountain cave, he is welcomed back by his
friends Bagheera and Akela and a small group of cubs, who
will hunt with him in the future.
ABOUT RUDYARD KIPLING
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865. He
travelled widely during his life, living in England, India, the
United States and South Africa.
During his second visit to India, from 1882 to 1889, he
worked as a journalist, keeping exhaustive notes about life
in that country. These notes became the basis of many
books, including the children’s story The Jungle Book.
In 1892, Kipling and his new wife emigrated to the United
States, where they remained for ten years. On their return
to England, they bought a house in Sussex, where he lived
until his death at the age of 81.
Kipling was an immensely popular author during his
lifetime, producing a vast amount of novels, poems, a semi-
autobiography and several collections of short stories. His
poem If is now included in innumerably anthologies around
the world, and the Disney version of The Jungle Book
became one of the most popular children’s films of all time.
He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
BACKGROUND AND THEMES
At first sight, The Jungle Book appears to be a ‘rites of
passage’ story, about a rather unusual boy growing up with
wolves in the jungle. The myth of the wolf boy is an abiding
one, dating back at least to the legend of the founding of

Penguin Readers Factsheets
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
Rome, with the twins Romulus and Remus supposedly
suckled by a wolf. Perhaps Kipling picked up such a story
in India, or perhaps he had heard of the ‘wild boy of
Aveyron’, an 11 year old child who had been found running
naked and wild in a forest in France.
As the story unfolds, we realise that Kipling is conveying
a deeper message. Mowgli, the man-cub, is driven out of
the pack of wolves that brought him up because he is too
much like a man, and then driven out of the man village,
because he is too much like a wolf. Ironically, Kipling has
sometimes been accused of racism. Latterly, perhaps
because his stories are viewed from a modern perspective.
But in fact The Jungle Book can be seen as anti-racist and
a powerful plea for social acceptance of differences.
Communicative activities
The following teacher-led activities cover the same sections
of text as the exercises at the back of the Reader and
supplement those exercises. For supplementary exercises
covering shorter sections of the book, see the
photocopiable Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet.
These are primarily for use with class readers but, with the
exception of the discussion and pair/groupwork activities,
can also be used by students working alone in a self-access
centre.
ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK
1 Ask students if any of them have seen the film of The
Jungle Book. If the answer is yes, can they remember
any of the scenes?
2 If none of the students have seen the film, ask them to
work in groups and look through the pictures, including
the cover picture. They have to guess which animal or
animals are good and which are bad, and explain their
answers.
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION
Chapters 1–2
1 Put students into small groups and ask each group to
make up at least one new law of the jungle. Ask the
groups for their laws and decide, as a whole class,
which ones are good and useful for the animals.
2 Ask students to work in pairs to role play a conversation
between Shere Khan, the tiger, and Akela, the leader of
the Pack. Shere Khan tries to persuade Akela to give
him the man-cub and Akela refuses.
Chapters 3–4
1 Ask students to work in groups and discuss these
questions:
(a) Which animals behaved well in this section?
(b) Which animals behaved badly?
2 Ask students to work in pairs and discuss this question.
What advantages does each animal have during a fight?
What disadvantages do they have?
© Pearson Education 2001
level
2
Elicit all the different answers from the pairs and build
up a table on the board as follows:
animal advantages disadvantages
man-cub
panther
monkey
etc
Chapters 5–6
1 Ask students to work in pairs to role play a scene
between Buldeo and the one of the villagers. Buldeo is
describing what happened with the tiger, but he is
exaggerating and making Mowgli’s part in the events
sound bad.
2 Ask students to work in groups to draw a plan of the
ambush of Shere Khan. Ask students to put their various
drawings on the board and check which one(s) is/are
correct
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK
1 If any of the students have seen the film of The Jungle
Book, ask them which scenes in the film are similar to
ones in this book. What, if any, are the differences in
those scenes?
2 If none of the students have seen the film, ask them to
work in pairs and choose a story which they think would
make a good section of a cartoon film.
3 Ask students for their ideas on the moral of the story.
Glossary
It will be useful for your students to know the following new words. They
are practised in the ‘Before You Read’sections of exercises at the back
of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman Active
Study Dictionary.)
Chapters 1–2
become (v) if something becomes warmer, colder, etc, it was not so
warm, cold in the past as now
brave (adj) dealing with danger, or difficult situations with courage
cave (n) a large natural hole in the side of a hill or under the ground
grow (v) to develop and become bigger or longer over a period of time
hunt (n) to chase animals in order to catch and kill them
jungle (n) a large tropical forest with trees and large plants growing
very close together
law (n) the system of rules that people in a country or place must obey
leader (n) a person who is in charge of or controls a country,
organization, etc.
moon (n) the round object that moves around the Earth and shines in
the sky at night
pack (n) a group of animals especially wolves
roar (v) to make a very deep loud noise
scream (v) to make a loud high noise with your voice
skin (n) the outside part of a human’s or animal’s body
touch (v) to put your hand or finger on something
Chapters 5–6
alone (adj) not with other people
bank (n) the side of a river
ghost (n) the spirit of a dead person that some people believe they can
see or feel
herd (n) a group of animals of the same kind that lives and feeds
together
land (n) a country
Publis hed and di stribut ed b y Pearson Edu cation
F acts heet wr it te n by T er ry Phi lips
Factsheet series developed by Louise James
Penguin Readers Factsheets level

Student’s activities 1

2
The Jungle Book 3

Photocopiable 4
Students can do these exercises alone or with one or more
other students. Pair/group-only activities are marked. 5

Activities before reading the book 6

Work in pairs. (v) two other wolves have to speak for it.
ELEMENTARY
1 Test each other on the animals on the page facing the 3 Who says these things in Chapter 2? Who do they say
start of Chapter 1. them to?
2 Look at the pictures in the book, including the cover (a) Be careful of Shere Khan.
picture. Name the animals in each picture. (b) I am not afraid.
3 Choose one of the pictures and describe it to your (c) They want to kill you.
partner. Can he/she find the correct picture? (d) You are strong! Kill him!
(e) Who will finish Akela?
(f) Give him to me.
Activities while reading the book (g) Look at it and be afraid.
(h) Are you brave now?
Chapters 1–2
(i) Am I dying?
1 Match each of these characters (a–g) from Chapter 1
with one of the descriptions (i–vii). 4 Work in pairs. Try to remember when the person or
animal says each sentence in Exercise 3. Then find the
(a) Shere Khan sentence in Chapter 2 and check.
(b) Tabaqui
(c) Mowgli Chapters 3–4
(d) Raksha 1 Put these events from Chapter 3 in order.

(e) Akela (a Bagheera and Baloo went to see Kaa because he

(f) Baloo could climb to the top of the trees.

(g) Bagheera (b) Bagheera climbed but could not follow the
monkeys to the top of the trees.
(i) the black panther
(c) Baloo taught Mowgli the language of the jungle.
(ii) the brown bear
(d) Chil told Bagheera, Baloo and Kaa where Mowgli
(iii) the jungle dog was.
(iv) the leader of the pack (e) Mowgli called to Chil.
(v) the man cub (f) The monkeys took Mowgli up into the trees.
(vi) the mother wolf 2 Complete these sentences from the beginning of
(vii) the tiger Chapter 4. Use one word from the box in each
sentence.
2 Match the beginnings and endings of these parts of the
Law of the Jungle. boy building city food friends houses
(a) An animal can’t change moonlight roads sky trees walls
(b) No animal can kill
(a) In the old city, the monkeys forgot about
(c) When cubs can stand on their feet, Mowgli’s ....
(d) When a wolf doesn’t want a new cub in the pack, (b) They had the ... and they were happy.
(e) When the pack does not want a cub, (c) It was Mowgli’s first visit to the ...
(i) and eat Man. (d) The tops of the houses were open to the ....
(ii) another animal can buy that cub. (e) Trees pushed through the old ...
(iii) its hunting grounds. (f) The monkeys began to play in the old ....
(iv) the father wolf has to bring them in front of the (g) They ran up and down the old ...
pack. (h) ‘I want ... .’ Mowgli shouted.

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Penguin Readers Factsheets 2
Student’s activities

(i) Twenty or thirty monkeys ran for food from the (I) The cows went to one end of the river and the
jungle ... but then forgot about it. bulls went to another.
(j) The monkeys took Mowgli to a ... with no doors or 2 Match the questions (a–i) and answers (i–ix) about the
windows. information in Chapter 6.
(k) It looked beautiful in the ... (a) Why didn’t Shere Khan climb out of the river?
3 In Chapter 4, who... (b) How did Shere Khan die?
(a) went to the city together? (c) Who tried to stop Mowgli taking the tiger’s skin?
(b) went round to the back of the city? (d) Why did Buldeo want the tiger’s skin?
(c) ran up the mountain fast and started hitting the (e) What happened when Mowgli got back to the
monkeys? village?
(d) threw Mowgli into a room? (f) Why didn’t the wolves want Mowgli?
(e) made a snake call? (g) Why didn’t the men want Mowgli?
(f) fought his way slowly to the water? (h) Why did Messua cry?
(g) began to hit the monkeys with his great arms? (i) What will Mowgli do now?
(h) stood and shouted angrily at Bagheera?
(i) Because he was a man.
(i) came down the mountain fast?
(ii) Because he was a wolf.
(j) ran to the top of the walls?
(iii) Because Mowgli went away.
(k) told the monkeys to stop?
(iv) Buldeo.
(I) said ‘Take him away. He will hurt our babies.’?
(v) He could get a hundred pounds for it.
(m) broke down the wall of the room with Mowgli in?
(vi) He will hunt in the jungle with the cubs.
(n) thanked Kaa for his life?
(vii) The villagers started to throw stones at him.
(o) began to do a strange dance?
(viii) The walls were too high.
(p) went nearer to Kaa?
(ix) Under the feet of the buffaloes
(q) stopped Bagheera and Baloo going nearer to
Kaa?
(r) will not ask for Kaa’s help again? Activities after reading the book
(s) hit Mowgli because he talked to the monkeys?
(t) took Mowgli home on his back? 1 Work in pairs. Look back at the pictures of the animals
in this book on the page facing the start of Chapter 1.
Chapters 5–6 How many animals can you name?
Example: the bear = Baloo
1 Are these sentences about the information in Chapter 5
true or false? 2 Work in groups. Which story did you like best? Give
reasons.
(a) Mowgli ran to the first village.
(b) When some small boys saw Mowgli, they said
‘Hello’.
(c) Messua had a little boy called Nathoo.
(d) Mowgli is really Nathoo.
(e) Mowgli talked to Messua.
(f) Grey Brother came to Mowgli one day.
(g) Mowgli didn’t remember Grey Brother.
(h) Grey Brother told Mowgli about Shere Khan.
(i) Mowgli had a job looking after the village
buffaloes.
(j) Mowgli killed Tabaqui
(k) The wolves helped Mowgli make two herds.

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Fa ctsh eet wri tt en by Te rr y Ph il ips
© Pearson Education 2001
F act sheet s eri es deve l oped b y L ouise J am es