A review by kberry513
The Jungle Book (Illustrated with Interactive Elements) by Rudyard Kipling

4.0

What everyone thinks of as the Jungle Book is really only the first few chapters. The rest doesn't even take place in the jungle. Unsurprisingly, these are a lot more bloodthirsty and racist than the Disney version, being written by a white man in the 1890s. I've always liked the story of Rikki Tikki Tavi, but it is essentially the story of how a mongoose systematically murders all the snakes in the yard. The White Seal is about finding someplace to live where men don't come to herd thousands of seals to be slaughtered and skinned every year. The last chapter, about the animals working in the army, I found kind of boring in coming to the rest...also, why does the narrator understand animals?? That would be much more interesting to explore than the mundane arguments between mule and camel and elephant and horse.

As for the illustrations, they are beautifully done the way the other MinLima books are. I felt like the last half could maybe have used more, but that could also be because it didn't hold my attention as well as the first half.