The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons.
These tales of the man-cub, Mowgli, and fables of the clever creatures of the wild, like the mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, still brim with the adventure, camaraderie, and beloved characters that have endeared them to readers for more than 125 years.