Despite being one of those infuriating things that get the difficult stuff right and the easy stuff wrong, this was a very entertaining and satisying addition to Kipling's Jungle Book mythos. But let me explain that sentence.

To start with the positives, the effort Jekel does in mimicking Kipling's narrative style and prose is flawed, but very admirable. One can easily tell it isn't the real deal, but the intended child audience likely wouldn't, and after a page or two, I, at least, grew accustomed to the almost-but-not-quite-right voice. It is also very bold to write a story for modern children in such archaic sounding language, and I'm impressed at how well it is executed.

The new stories are also all quite different from one another, and always display Mowgli solving his problems in relatively unexpected manners, rather than the head-on Tarzan-esque fights one might ungenerously expect from a pastiche. Jekel also impresses by incorporating elements such as the honourable role of the moongoose, the greed of the mugger crocodiles, and the mythical elephant dance from Kipling's non-Mowgli Jungle Book stories into the Mowgli ones found here. As a child I always wished those stories somehow tied together with the ones about the feral manchild, and with this, my wish is somewhat granted.

Another boon is getting to see Mowgli's adventures with the Mad Elephant and the Tyrant of the Marshes, both referenced by Kipling as untold stories, and here invented for the reader's pleasure. Jekel also introduces Mowgli to every conceivable major jungle animal a child would get excited about which one could encounter in Colonial India, creating memorable moments and characters with distinct individual voices.

This brings me to one of the negatives, though, as the stories quickly feel like a parade of "Mowgli meets Another Animal", something the originals steered beautifully clear of. This is less awkward than one might think as Jekel spreads the chapters neatly out throughout Mowgli's life, but it is still a bit on the nose for the adult reader (who, admittedly, is not the primary audience).

A much bigger issue is the many precursors to stories in Kipling's originals. Mowgli's destruction of the man village, for instance, is here echoed in a smaller destruction of a hunting camp that Mowgli similarly arranges (albeit as a defensive move rather than an offensive one). This is clearly intended to show Mowgli's growth and gradual mastery of the jungle, but instead horribly cheapens the impact of the decisions he makes in the original stories, if all he does there are merely grander versions of things he has done and seen before. This could and should have been caught by an editor, as the issues could easily have been mediated by some light re-writes.

The biggest issue to me, however, is the odd confusion of continuity. Mowgli's first meeting with Hathi segues directly into an extended trip in Hathi's care, wherein the two bond for life. This doesn't openly contradict established continuity, but (akin to the issue mentioned above) cheapens scenes such as Mowgli's irreverent questioning of Hathi in "How Fear Came to the Jungle". If Mowlgli's already bosom buddies with the elephant at this point, of course he feels free to ask him questions ... An issue that could handily have been corrected by introducing a line about how some time passes between the meeting and the later journey, but alas, nothing of the sort is attempted.

But implied contradictions aren't the only ones. Mowgli's four wolf brothers are at one point mysteriously just three, and in another chapter are referred to as "the Grey Brothers", when the originals make it clear there is one individual named Grey Brother, and three more unnamed ones. Mowgli is also stated to carry a knife for years before he first goes to the Man Village, which he to the best of my recollection did not do in the original. Again, these are issues that could easily have been corrected in the editorial process, and considering the impressive effort that has been put into making the style congruent, it is odd to me that similar thought did not go into the impact on the overarching narrative itself.

But these are quibbles -- should I read this out loud to a child, for instance, I can with relative ease smooth over the continuity issues on the fly -- for the stories are entertaining and mostly solid. I find it somewhat irreverent that the final story (while a decent and touching one) is set after the final chapter of Kipling's original, since it ends stating it is the last of the Mowgli stories, but I can respect the desire to, in a "Third" installment, further the narrative's chronological reach. All in all, "The Third Jungle Book" is exactly what it says in the title, and bring more tales to add to the beloved old stories. They are in my opinion far from on par with Kipling's, particularly his strongest offerings (such as "Red Dog" or "The King's Ankus"), but I still had good fun reading them, and I suspect that had I been exposed to these as a child, I would have loved them almost as much as the originals. ( )

Competent, but shares the vices of its inspiration. ( )