This gorgeous picture book edition of the classic story from Rudyard Kipling's  The Jungle Book was adapted and illustrated by beloved award-winning artist Jerry Pinkney. "A beautiful edition for reading aloud," proclaimed Booklist . "Excitement and danger ebb and flow throughout," added Kirkus . Soon after a flood washes Rikki into the garden of a family, he comes face-to-face with Nag and Nagaina, two giant cobras. The snakes are willing to attack Rikki, and even the human family who lives there, to claim the garden and house for themselves. But they do not count on the heart and pride of the brave little mongoose. Jerry Pinkney was "widely acclaimed for his picture books honoring his Black heritage as well as for his richly detailed works reimagining well-loved fairy and folktales," noted Publishers Weekly . His version of The Lion & the Mouse  by Aesop was awarded the Caldecott Medal, and his books also received five Caldecott Honor citations. He was recognized with two lifetime achievement awards: the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award) and the Coretta Scott King Virginia Hamilton Award. Kindergarten-Grade 4. In this glorious picture book, Pinkney's accessible retelling and dramatic watercolors plunge readers into the lush garden Rikki rules and the life of the family he comes to guard. The large pictures (often spreading across much of a facing page) can barely contain the mongoose's energy as his lithe body twists and turns, evading and attacking the cobras and the brown snake, curling in young Teddy's arms, and basking in the family's adulation. Pinkney's humans are not idealized, and Rikki, while eminently pettable, is not anthropomorphized. The subdued natural colors of the animals contrast with the garden's riot. The splash of a yellow squash blossom; Teddy's crimson shirt; a scarlet hibiscus; or the burnished head of Darzee, the tailor bird, add grace notes to the shimmering pages. This great story has been given the loving treatment it deserves.?Patricia Lothrop-Green, St. George's School, Newport, Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. Pinkney dwells on this story of Rikki-tikki-tavi, the sensible, brave mongoose adopted by an English family living in India. The animals speak to each other, so readers know how the little mongoose is aided by the tailorbird, Darzee, and and his wife in escaping death from the menacing cobras who hope to kill the human family and raise their 25 hatchlings in an empty house. Excitement and danger ebb and flow throughout the illustrations for this classic story. The people are drawn with less vitality than the creatures, yet the stances and concerns of the human parents echo those of the animals for their children. Exotic flora borders garden baths; a few details--an antique inkwell- -exemplify the period; yet the true strength of the large watercolors is in the framing of deadly fighting and impending attacks. Pinkney puts his heart into a story he loves, and makes it live again. (Picture book. 5-10) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. “Excitement and danger ebb and flow throughout the illustrations . . . Pinkney puts his heart into a story he loves, and makes it live again.” - Kirkus Reviews “Pinkney applies his considerable talents to the smooth retelling and lush illustration of one of Kipling’s best-loved animal tales.” - Publishers Weekly Here is the thrilling story of Rikki, a fearless young mongoose who finds himself locked in a life-and-death struggle to protect a boy and his parents from Nag and Nagaina, the two enormous cobras who stalk the gardens outside the familys home in India. Nobel Prize winner Rudyard Kiplings timeless masterpiece has been lovingly passed from one generation of readers to the next. Triumphantly brought to life in stunning watercolors from Caldecott Honor artist Jerry Pinkney, this is a tale that will win the hearts of young and old alike Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), India, but returned with his parents to England at the age of five. Among Kipling’s best-known works are The Jungle Book , Just So Stories , and the poems “Mandalay” and “Gunga Din.” Kipling was the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature (1907) and was among the youngest to have received the award.  Jerry Pinkney was one of America’s most admired children’s book illustrators. He won the Caldecott Medal and five Caldecott Honors, five Coretta Scott King Awards, the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, the Society of Illustrators’ Original Art Show Lifetime Achievement Award, and many other prizes and honors. Jerry Pinkney's work can be viewed at www.jerrypinkneystudio.com. In His Own Words... "I grew up in a small house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was a middle child of six. I started drawing as far back as I can remember, at the age of four or