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madamepincers's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
Yeeesh.
I've never read The Jungle Book in its original format and read it aloud to my (young) child at his request (and at his insistence, we kept going).
It began with me shifting "thee" and "thou" to you, to make it easier for him to understand. And then there were references to beating children and off-handed racist comments in the first few stories that I jumped over or adjusted for him. By the end of the book there was so much more of all of it that I regretted having picked it up in the first place. A nuanced discussion (or even a straightforward one) would have gone over child's head by a longshot, so by the last story we read I was basically reading about half the words on the actual page.
I understand and appreciate the fondness for this book (mostly fondness through its reinterpretation into movies and such, which cut a lot of content and focus on one or two of the stories in more depth) but I wouldn't recommend this book for children, without an abridged or highly rewritten/edited version and the caveat that the problematic nature of the original and the colonialist and racist undertones (who am I kidding? Overtones?) Of the book will be discussed in depth when appropriate, which is what I'll be doing.
I've never read The Jungle Book in its original format and read it aloud to my (young) child at his request (and at his insistence, we kept going).
It began with me shifting "thee" and "thou" to you, to make it easier for him to understand. And then there were references to beating children and off-handed racist comments in the first few stories that I jumped over or adjusted for him. By the end of the book there was so much more of all of it that I regretted having picked it up in the first place. A nuanced discussion (or even a straightforward one) would have gone over child's head by a longshot, so by the last story we read I was basically reading about half the words on the actual page.
I understand and appreciate the fondness for this book (mostly fondness through its reinterpretation into movies and such, which cut a lot of content and focus on one or two of the stories in more depth) but I wouldn't recommend this book for children, without an abridged or highly rewritten/edited version and the caveat that the problematic nature of the original and the colonialist and racist undertones (who am I kidding? Overtones?) Of the book will be discussed in depth when appropriate, which is what I'll be doing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Kidnapping, and Child abuse
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