Author: Rudyard Kipling
Artist: Jerry Pinkney
Genre: Gardening / Family / Animals / Snakes / Adventure
Year Published: 1997
Year Read: 2014
Publisher: Morrow Junior Books
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 7+ (Some Scary Scenes)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
Now, I have actually gotten into the story of “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” when I was little
through Chuck Jones’ classic cartoon
and I must say that I still enjoyed that cartoon to this very day. So, when I finally picked up this book of “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” which this version
has illustrations by none other than Jerry
Pinkney, I was absolutely blown away by how faithful this story was to the
original tale and to the Chuck Jones cartoon!
The story starts off with a small mongoose named
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi being found by an English family living in India after he was
washed away from his home when a summer flood hits. It was then that Rikki-Tikki-Tavi found a new
home with this English family and became a close companion with the family’s
son, Teddy. But, when Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
discovers that there were two snakes named Nag and Nagaina in the garden and
that they were planning on killing the entire English family in order to take
over the garden for themselves, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi will do anything to protect
the English family from the clutches of Nag and Nagaina!
I have always enjoyed the story of “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” ever since I was a child and reading this
classic tale that has illustrations by Jerry
Pinkney definitely added more depth to this story than what I was usually
used to. Rudyard Kipling has done a brilliant job at writing this story as
this story is full of adventure, intense moments and heartwarming moments,
especially the moments shared between Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the English family
as it shows that Rikki-Tikki-Tavi truly does care about the family and is
willing to do anything to protect them from harm. I also loved how villainous both Nag and
Nagaina are as their plan to kill off the entire family to take over the garden
was truly vicious and it showed how far they were willing to go to take the
garden for themselves. Jerry Pinkney’s artwork is as usual
gorgeous to look at as all of the characters look truly realistic, especially
of the images of the English family and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi as they really bring
out so much realism to this story.
Parents should know that there are some scary moments in
this book, especially concerning Nag and Nagaina and their plan in killing off
the entire family to take over the garden.
Children who are scared of snakes in general might feel a bit
uncomfortable in reading this book, especially since the images of the snakes
look pretty realistic and the fact that they keep threatening the family would
scare small children.
Overall, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”
is a truly remarkable tale for anyone who is a huge fan of Rudyard Kipling’s works and who loves reading books about India and
mongooses! I would recommend this book
to children ages seven and up since the scenes with the snakes might be too
frightening for some children and the length of the book might be too tiresome
for some small children.
No comments:
Post a Comment