Sal�n

Growing up in the 1970s, Disney's animated film version of this late 19th century children's classic was a seminal film. I had never read the book before now though. It's a collection of stories, not a novel, and Mowgli's growing up and adventures in the jungle with Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther, the wolves led by Akela, and fighting off Shere Khan the tiger occupy only the first third of so of the book, with notably Shakespearean sounding dialogue from all characters and lots of illustrations. The rest of consists of unrelated tales about the White Seal, the mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and his battles with cobras, and elephants and some other lesser stories and songs. I thought the Mowgli sections were the best, or perhaps that's just because they are the ones I am most familiar with. I also liked the White Seal leading his fellow seals to an island where they could be free from being culled by humans, the Rikki-Tikki-Tavi story which was quite memorable and bloody, and the elephants' "dance" sequence, but some of the rest made rather less of an impression on me. As a consequence, very good in parts, but felt a little disjointed. ( )

It's is a very entertaining read, at any age! I thoroughly enjoyed it. ( )

Spring 2019, audiobook:

Guuuhhh. This was multicast and it made the experience SO Magical. I loved every bit of it, and it was glorious to watch myself transition from moments of "Ah ha! I remember that section from reading it in my early twenties" to just wistful sighing, and falling in love with the character as himself, and all those around him. I love the poetry pieces that begin to appear in the later third of the book, and the music put throughout it, and the ending quote from our beloved panther still gets me right in the heart of myself. ( )

This particular book included more tales than just the Jungle Book tales. My favorite by far was Rikki-Tikki-Tavi which I have not read since I was a child. ( )