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The Jungle Book

Book Review: The Jungle Book (CollinsClassics Edition) by Rudyard Kipling

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The Jungle Book is the story of man-cub Mowgli, who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle.

Shere Khan, the stripped tiger, was Mowgli’s reason for ending up in the jungle in the first place. And as Mowgli grows, Shere Khan makes himself Mowgli’s nemesis.

Mowgli is taught The Law of The Jungle by Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther. At one point Mowgli is taken by monkeys in the canopy above. Baloo and Bagheera rescue him with the help of Kaa the Python.

The Jungle Book has probably become a classic because it taps into our curiosity of wildlife and our desire to learn about foreign and exotic lands. Kipling brilliantly crosses the worlds of animal and human with main character Mowgli.

Kipling uses anthropomorphism, giving all animal characters human traits, emotions and intentions. The Jungle Book was written in 1894 and as such some of the language has dated and some of the description is unclear.

The Jungle Book would probably be called a novella today, in terms of word count. The CollinsClassics Edition I read contained four other Kipling short stories.

The Jungle Book is well worth a read, although the reader will probably only want to read it once. The Jungle Book is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

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the-graveyard-book-neil-gaiman-cover In The Graveyard Book, Nobody Owens (also known as Bod) is saved from murder by Ghosts. As a toddler, Bod, crawls out of his cot and walks up the hill to The Graveyard in the dead of night. Meanwhile his family are being murdered in their sleep by a man named Jack.

Jack tracks Bod up to The Graveyard. The ghosts save Bod’s life after Mrs Owens makes a promise to the Spector that is Bod’s mother. The ghosts agree to raise Bod and grant him the Freedom of The Graveyard.

Bod is to be raised by ghost surrogate parents Mr & Mrs Owens, with Silas who belongs to neither the world of the living or the world of the dead acting as Bod’s Guardian.

This is the start of a truly remarkable adventure story. Bod is taken through a gravestone that leads to a desert and city of the ghouls, he develops a friendship with a dead Witch and a living girl, he is taught how to fade, he goes to an ordinary school and uses

fear and dreamwalking to deal with bullies, he learns the ways of The Sleer and finally learns the truth of why his living family was murdered, why the man Jack is still after him and has to fight off The Jack’s order.

The Graveyard Book is the most wonderfully imaginative story that I’ve read in a long time. As the plot unravels the reader is captivated throughout and ponders on the mystery of why the man Jack murdered Bod’s family and why he continues to search for Bod to finish the job of wiping out his family.

The characters are superbly surrounded in mystery with hidden talents that make each character brilliant.

The Graveyard Book has made it on to my top shelf – where I keep my favourite books and there is no doubt in my mind that it is a book I will read again and again. It was a book that I honestly didn’t want to ever end.

At the end of the book, in an acknowledgments section Gaiman writes that this book was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, that Gaiman read as a child, and also inspired by his own children at a certain age. This inspiration shines through as I found myself thinking that The Graveyard Book reminded me of the story of The Jungle Book, way before getting to the end acknowledgements section.

I would highly recommend that anyone and everyone reads The Graveyard Book, which is available to buy on Amazon and at all good book shops.

Review soon,

Antony

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