1. Kim, like a number of novels for young adults, is a story about a boy living by his wits. How has Kim managed to survive with a guardian who is poor and an opium addict?

2. Kipling clearly has great respect for Buddhism as an alternative to the two other major religions of the region, Hinduism and Islam. Why is Kim willing to travel with the Buddhist lama through India?

3. India is one of the important subjects of the novel. Kipling used India as the setting for much of his writing, and Kim was his last piece set in that country. What is it that Kim learns about India as he travels on the road with the lama?

4. Mahbub Ali is clearly one of Kim's mentors, but he is not a completely good force the way the lama is. How does Kipling show both the...