Firstly, I didn’t know that The Jungle Book was a collection of stories, I just thought it was the story of Mowgli along with Bagheera and Baloo. This is likely because of my familiarity with the Disney movie. Perhaps my love for it is why I wasn’t a huge fan of this book.

I lacked interest in the stories that weren’t about Mowgli as honestly this is why I read it in the first place. Also, my love for the film characters meant I wasn’t keen on the completely different book characters. Mowgli is ten and yet he talks like Shakespeare-I know this was written in the 1890s but surely children didn’t speak with “thy” and “thou art”? For me, he was just an unlike able character. Additionally, Baloo is the opposite to in the film-he is serious and Mowgli does not like him!

I did enjoy the story and can understand why it is so famous but I was a little disappointed; I feel I must give it the benefit of the doubt as I will always compare this to the film.