Greg L. (gregl) - , reviewed on 3/22/2013

When I was very young, my parents took me to see the Disney animated movie "The Jungle Book" for my birthday. When I got home I found a stuffed Baloo bear for a birthday gift. That impression stuck with me so long that I made that movie the first video I bought for my kids.

Just a few years ago, another "Jungle Book" movie was produced. This time the movie was "live-action", not animated. I avoided seeing it for a long time fearing that the remake would spoil my vision of the original. When I finally did see it, I was surprised. The few similarities are that the story takes place in the jungles of India, the boy is named Mowgli, and he is friends with a panther and a bear. But the story was vastly different.

This made me wonder which was the correct story. I decided I would read the book next time I had the chance. During some free time one day I began searching the web and found many facts about Rudyard Kipling and the "real" story. Then one day I found the authentic book.

I read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a bit disappointed to discover all the deviations both movies took from the story. Both movies portrayed the snake (Kaa) as an enemy of Mowgli, but in the book the boa constrictor is the boy's ally, saving him from the monkeys.

Kipling's book also has four other short stories. "The White Seal" about a seal searching for a home free of human hunters, "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" about a mongoose saving a human family from deadly snakes, "Toomai of the Elephants" where a young boy witnesses the fabled dancing of the elephants, and "Her Majesty's Servants" where a man eves-drops on a conversation between several animals in the military.

I would highly recommend reading this book, even if you've seen all the movies. It is quite different and you almost want to believe Kipling knows what it's like to be an animal.

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