The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - Review

Hello Book Lovers!!!

I've just finished my fifth book of the AprilAThon and that was The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. What I didn't know going into this is that this isn't just the original written version of the story we all know of The Jungle Book, this is actually a collection of short stories including the story with Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera etc. So it was nice to read some works I wasn't familiar with.

So the first story was The Jungle Book that we all know of. However this is quite a lot different from the film but I knew that would be the case. I really enjoyed this as a short story and I liked that Bagheera's personality was kept similar in the film adaptation to what it was in the book. However I much preffered Mowgli and Baloo in the film than I did in the book. Although Mowgli wasn't that different, he seemed to grow up way too quickly in the book and didn't have as much of an innocence about him. And Baloo seemed a lot more angry and aggressive in the book whereas in the film he was this big lovable bear who sings about the bare necessities of life and dances around the jungle (definitely more my cup of tea!). Overall the story was quite a bit different and I don't feel like we got to know as many of the characters however it was a great experience reading this story and seeing the similarities and differences and where the inspiration for the film adaptations came about.

The second story was called The White Seal and this definitely wasn't one of my favourite stories. I know that these stories were set many many years ago but I felt quite uncomfortable reading about the hunting side of seals and how the humans would kill them. I'm a huge animal lover so obviously I probably wasn't going to enjoy reading this story however it was good to learn a bit more about this subject and I always think learning about things that happened in history and comparing them to now is interesting to see.

The third story was called Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and was about a mongoose who lived with a family of humans (mum, dad and child). The mongoose ends up saving the humans on many occasions and we read about how he saves the family from two snakes that were planning on killing the family and the mongoose because they wanted their garden back. I actually really enjoyed this story and found I got quite attached to the mongoose. I think this is quite a random animal to write about however its definitely not like anything I've read before and this story has stuck in my head throughout. I would definitely say alongside the first story this is my favourite of the collection.

The fourth story was called Toomai of the Elephants and I couldn't keep focused while reading this story. It just didn't hold my attention and was probably one of the least memorable stories of the collection. I didn't find this story to be entertaining and I didn't find any of the characters that interesting. I was also hoping that the elephants would remind me of the elephants in The Jungle Book which they did in some ways but weren't anywhere near as entertaining and humorous as the elephants we have seen onscreen. Overall this was probably my least favourite of the collection.

And the final story was called Her Majesty's Servants and was about a collection of different animals. Once again we had some elephants but we also had horses and a dog to name a few. It was interesting to see all of these animals interact and it reminded me a little bit of the interactions of the animals in the children's classic Charlotte's Web by E. B. White.These animals did have a funny quality about them and I found myself a lot more interested in this story than the previous story. It was also funny to see that one of the elephants was the 'leader' however we soon find out he is quite a scaredy cat and is even scared of the little dog! (So really I think its the dog that is the leader!). I got a little bit lost by the end however it was still enjoyable and I'd say this was middle of the rating scale out of the collection.

Overall I think this collection is interesting and I felt like I learnt quite a bit but it didn't hold my attention the whole way through. It was nice to read some of Rudyard Kipling's less known work however and I'm glad I did. I wouldn't recommend this to younger readers as it deals with quite gruesome topics (definitely stick to the Disney adaptation until you're a bit older!).

Collection Rating /5

3

Happy Reading!!!

xHannahx