Kari the Elephant & Hari the Jungle Lad

Book excerpt: Kari, the loyal elephant, Kopee, the monkey known for making bad decisions, and their nine-year-old master head right into the middle of the jungle on an adventurous journey. Vivid episodes of encounters with a venomous snake, a herd of untamed elephants and forest fires, make Kari the Elephant an unusual tale of three friends growing up together. The endearing elephant reappears in Hari the Jungle Lad, which traces a young boy’s life after a flood washes away his home, leaving him to survive in the jungle. His thrill-a-minute life in the forest, complete with face-offs with deadly carnivores and friendly monkeys, and finally his search for the marked elephant who proves to be a saviour, unfold in a gripping story. This special edition brings together two classic stories – Kari the Elephant and Hari the Jungle Lad – by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, the only Indian to have won the John Newbery Medal. Describing animal life with nail-biting realism, Dhan Gopal Mukerji’s stories take you to a place where the feral meets the tame, man meets nature, and all that matters is the law of the jungle!