Rikki-Tikki-Tavi [Library Binding]

Rudyard Kipling (Author), Jerry Pinkney (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997 | Age Level: 4 and up

In order to save the life of his owner and his parents, Rikki, a courageous mongoose, must defend the family property by fighting off the two vicious cobras that linger in the little boy's backyard."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With this newly illustrated edition of the treasured classic--written in the 1890s as part of the Jungle Books --readers can once again be captivated by the tale of a mongoose who is taken in by a family of British colonials living in India. Although a few Victorianisms in the text will need to be explained to young readers, the story has held up remarkably well over a century's time. Rikki's fight to defend his family from the menacing cobras Nag and Nagaina remains as suspenseful and emotive as ever. The creatures of the Indian garden come truly alive in Kipling's expert prose--the birds sing out messages of joy and warning; the cobra rears and spreads his sinister hood; the brave mongoose leaps and springs, victorious at last. In Davis's ( The Jolly Mon ; Trouble Dolls ) acrylic paintings, dominated by the greens of the garden and the browns of the earth, readers can clearly see the nut-colored mongoose, his adoptive family in their period dress and the slithering snakes. However, the artist's style and chosen medium produce a somewhat flat, torpid appearance. Razor-sharp writing with rather dull artistic accompaniment. Ages 6-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 4. In this glorious picture book, Pinkney's accessible retelling and dramatic watercolors plunge readers into the lush garden Rikki rules and the life of the family he comes to guard. The large pictures (often spreading across much of a facing page) can barely contain the mongoose's energy as his lithe body twists and turns, evading and attacking the cobras and the brown snake, curling in young Teddy's arms, and basking in the family's adulation. Pinkney's humans are not idealized, and Rikki, while eminently pettable, is not anthropomorphized. The subdued natural colors of the animals contrast with the garden's riot. The splash of a yellow squash blossom; Teddy's crimson shirt; a scarlet hibiscus; or the burnished head of Darzee, the tailor bird, add grace notes to the shimmering pages. This great story has been given the loving treatment it deserves.?Patricia Lothrop-Green, St. George's School, Newport,
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Library Binding: 40 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688143210
• ISBN-13: 978-0688143213
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,564,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rikki the valiant the true, tikki with eyeballs of flame, October 23, 2005

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Hardcover)

As a child, I grew up with Kipling stories. My mother would read me "Just So Stories" and selections from the surprisingly long and complex, "Jungle Book" when I was just a wee lass. And had this lush and lovely version of "Rikki-tikki-tavi" been available to me when I was a kid, I've little doubt that I'd have devoured it just as readily as I did tales like, "How the Elephant Got His Trunk". Though I missed out on "Rikki-tikki-tavi" the written tale, I did take great pleasure in the 1975 Chuck Jones animated (with voices by Orson Wells and June Foray) faithful film of the same story. For those of you eager to instill in your children a sharp jolt of Kipling to the veins, I suggest you start them out on "Rikki", both the film and this lovely picture book, then move on slowly to "Just So Stories" and finally, "The Jungle Book" (but not THAT film). Then, years later, when you're trying to get them to read "Stalkey and Company", you'll have already hooked 'em young.

"This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought, all by himself, through the English family's house in India". After finding a half-drowned mongoose outside his home, a young boy named Teddy and his family take in the little creature and nurse him to health. A naturally curious creature, the mongoose (named, you must have guessed, Rikki-tikki-tavi for the sounds he makes) explores the home and decides to stay. Good thing that he does too. Lurking in the garden is the deadly cobra Nag and his wife Nagaina. The snakes determine that Rikki is a threat to their unhatched children and decide that if the family dies then Rikki will leave the area. Now Rikki, with the help of the tailor birds Darzee and his wife, must defeat the snakes and defend the family that was kind enough to take him in.

Like "The Secret Garden", this is one of those early children's books that taught me a heckuva lot about British colonialism. When I was a kid, I just could not figure out what the English were doing in India in books like this one. Now, there's little doubt that the danger the family faces mostly comes from the fact that Rikki was in their house in the first place. Nag and Nagaina only plan to kill the family because they believe that Rikki will leave if they do. One element to this tale that I enjoyed was the role that the female creatures take in it. Admittedly, Teddy's mother is so faint of heart that she, "wouldn't think of anything so awful", as the possibility of a snake in her boy's bedroom. But Nagaina is far more powerful than her husband and Darzee's wife (who, unfortunately, hasn't a name of her own) is the one who helps Rikki out in the end. Not her silly hubby.

By the way, someone should let the tailor birds know that when a mongoose is hungry and isn't eating snakes, its next favorite food is bird eggs. If you don't believe me, ask someone from Hawaii sometime. The release of mongoose in Hawaii (to combat the rats) not only decimated the reptiles but also severely reduced the native bird populations. Just FYI.

It is true that Pinkney has edited down and simplified the words of Kipling's original tale to make it more palatable to young ears. Far more criminal than the editing though is the fact that Pinkney makes NO mention of the fact that he has done so anywhere in the book. I've scoured the publication page, title page, and bookflaps for Pinkney's explanation of the change. Nuthin'. For those first time "Tikki" readers, this version will strike them as being the original Kipling text. Pinkney could have at least admitted the changes he made. That he didn't is irresponsible.

Otherwise, it's hard to object to this book. The illustrations are classic Pinkney with Rikki a very realistic (and not particularly cute) mongoose. Knowing Pinkney's fine attention to detail, I wouldn't put it past him to have carefully researched the kinds of plants, birds, and snakes found in India for these lush watercolors. The clothing of the human characters definitely doesn't belong to the days of Kipling, of course. They look far more contemporary, which is fine. The nice thing about "Rikki-tikki-tavi" is that it can really belong to any era.

This is a story that has always been, and will always remain, a classic in the hearts and minds of children everywhere. Pinkney is not the first children's illustrator to adapt this tale. That honor may fall to Lambert Davis. If you are looking for a version of this tale that has NOT been edited down, locate the Davis version (which Amazon.com has inexplicably linked to the Pinkney reviews). Otherwise, for superior pictures and a gripping tale, Pinkney's the man to turn to. A wonderful tale and an even better mongoose.

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not the original text!!!, April 19, 2005

By 

Corey L. Carter (Fremont, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Hardcover)

This has been rewritten to dumb it down. The beautiful language originally used by him has been replaced with dumber versions, and entire paragraphs have been removed. As someone who read and loved the original story as a child, I was very disappointed to see this when I began reading it to my 7 year old son.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A breathtaking adventure beautifully told!, October 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Hardcover)

I first had this book read to me when I was seven by my father who was a diplomat stationed in New Delhi, India. It continues to bring India alive to me and I have often re-read it as an adult. It invariably causes my heart to race during the most exciting adventure scenes, and leaves me teary-eyed with emotion at Rikki's ultimate triumph. I cannot recall any adult novel with a more gripping and exciting description of a battle than Rikki's nighttime fight to the death with Nag, the Cobra, in the bathroom of the bungalow! Rudyard Kipling is a genius and his stories for children are brilliant in that he never makes animals and their actions "silly" (check out "The Elephant's Child" and some of his others for very young audiences). Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is all about heroism and love, and every child and adult who reads this book will cherish it forever.