Book 1 of 2014: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

For Christmas last year Mr Click gave me the Disney version of The Jungle Book so when I was looking for something to read to kick off the new year, the free ebook version seemed like the best choice.

The Kindle edition contains not only the story of The Jungle Book, which is the story of Mowgli who is raised by wolves (and other members of the jungle) and his life as he attempts to assimilate into a human village, but also several other famous stories by Rudyard Kipling, such as Riki Tiki Tavi and Toomai of the Elephants.

It did take me a little while to get through, perhaps because it was the start of the year and I was in the middle of OU coursework. This was a book aimed at children and I was studying a whole bunch of other books aimed at children and I guess I was kind of reluctant to read it, even though I was sure it was the right choice to kick off the year.

Plus you can't help but think back to the Disney version while you're reading, which was a little bit distracting. I think that for that reason I preferred the other short stories to the main Jungle Book story.

'Toomai of the Elephants' was my favourite, which was about a little boy who ends up getting carried away on the back of an elephant to a meeting of the elephants in the middle of the night. It was the sort of story that I think would appeal to young children, I mean who wouldn't want to be in charge of an elephant. As a young child I loved trips to Bristol Zoo to see Wendy the elephant, I would've loved to go on a wild trip through the night to see loads of elephants dancing together.

One thing that I think was a little beyond me was the poetry in between each of the chapters/stories in the book. I didn't really get the point of some of them and I don't really feel like they added much to the story. I suppose it's a product of its time and that would be more expected in a children's storybook at the time it was written.

I remember reading the Just So Stories when I was younger and reading The Jungle Book made me want to go back and revisit them. I think I would enjoy those more than The Jungle Book and although I don't have a book copy of them any more, I can pick them up for about 40p on Kindle so I'm tempted to treat myself next time I'm feeling nostalgic.