The Jungle Book

I just finished reading the wonderful JUNGLE BOOKS by RUDYARD KIPLING to my sons. They are a perennial favorite of mine (as is KIM). However, I couldn't recommend them for reading to children without pointing out that the language can be quite difficult. This is mostly because of all the setting specific diction. Kipling's familiarity with India led him to heavily spice his tales with local terminology, place names, and concepts. Add to this the sometimes antiquated diction of the late 1800's… (more)

I just finished reading the wonderful JUNGLE BOOKS by RUDYARD KIPLING to my sons. They are a perennial favorite of mine (as is KIM). However, I couldn't recommend them for reading to children without pointing out that the language can be quite difficult. This is mostly because of all the setting specific diction. Kipling's familiarity with India led him to heavily spice his tales with local terminology, place names, and concepts. Add to this the sometimes antiquated diction of the late 1800's and you might be in for a lot of explaining. "Daddy, what's a mahout?"

In case you didn't know already, The Jungle Books are a collection of stories set in and around the jungles of India, during the mid 1800's, when the British empire ruled over the country. All of the stories feature anthropomorphic animals; most of them also feature one or more humans. Much has been made of the morals in the stories, and I discovered in reading about the books that they inspired some of the structure and symbolism of the Cub Scouts. However, I wouldn't say that imparting morality is the primary purpose of the tales. Unlike, say, AESOP'S FABLES, the central purpose of The Jungle Books is first and foremost to entertain, not to teach.

Before I sign off on this one, I feel it is my duty to separate the general public from some of their misconceptions about this work. For starters, I'm not sure why the title on the cover of the image above is singular. There are two Jungle Books, inventively titled The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book. They are almost never published separately now, but they were originally. In addition to this lesser known fact, there are a number of other surprises in store for first time readers.

Disney's Jungle Book is certainly inspired by The Jungle Books, but not much like the original tales at all. Calling the cartoon an adaptation is like comparing the flavor of watermelon Jolly Ranchers to the actual flavor of a watermelon.

Not all of the tales are about Mowgli. Riki Tiki Tavi is a good example, which tells of a mongoose defending his adopted human family against encroaching cobras. Another is The White Seal, in which a young white-coated seal leads his people to a Utopian island, devoid of seal hunters. Readers may be familiar with both of these stories due to the CHUCK JONES animated adaptations.

The stories in The Jungle Books are told out of chronological sequence. The second chapter of the first book is essentially the culminating story of both volumes. It's the literary equivalent of reading the first chapter and last chapter of a book, and then reading all the in-between chapters ... with chapters from other, similar novels interspersed. It sounds confusing, but it's really quite wonderful. I think it is a better structure than if Kipling had simply lined up the Mowgli stories chronologically and then put the other stories in the second volume.