A review by whippycleric
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

adventurous dark mysterious reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

 

Having picked this up in a charity shop I thought it might be nice to read it to my son, and I’d quite like to read it myself having only ever seen the film. I know that some of the stories in the jungle book will not be age appropriate for younger children, but my son is young enough to not understand yet so it will be nice for me to know when this book will be good for him, and whether it needs minor editing…

To start with “The Jungle Book” is a collection of short stories with some repeating characters, and some of these were taken and adapted into a full narrative for the film, so it is quite different. The first 3 stories are those which make up the film, and are overall entertaining. Definitely has more killing than would be classed as appropriate for younger children, but has some good themes and fun plots for children maybe around 9 or so. These first 3 stories were exactly what I expected, reminiscent of the film but darker, the songs are particularly good at the end of each of these, and I’ll give this half a 3.5.

The second set of 4 stories are independent, and seemingly told by an unknown narrator. The White Seal, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi are particularly good and I really enjoyed reading them to my child. I expect these are also more age appropriate for younger children with only very minor tweaks when reading them. They are lovely short stories, each taking under an hour to read, The White Seal follows a seal's search for a new safer home for everyone, and Rikki-TIkki-Tavi follows the more classic hero vs villains narrative. I’d give both of these a 4 or 4.5 star rating.

The last 2 I found disappointing, much more focused around the behavior of people, especially the British in India which are romanticized heavily, unsurprisingly given Kiplings background. Toomai of the Elephants did make it a little into the film with dancing Elephants which are fun and probably the highlight of this story which feels very dated in it’s themes and morals. Finally Her Majesty’s Servants is very dated with some attitudes a bit out of place today. The setting of interactions between animals in the army could be a good setting to explore some themes however in this case it comes very colonialist and a touch racist, so best to avoid.

Overall it’s a good read for older children, and since it’s a collection of short stories you can just choose the best ones and avoid some of the more dated content.