Rudyard Kipling

School Library Journal

Gr 2-3-A glimpse at a complex man. Kipling's unhappy childhood is certainly communicated, as are the basic facts of his adult life and career. Unexplained are the reasons for his unhappiness. The result is likely to leave youngsters more confused then enlightened. For example, the text reads, ``Aunty Rosa liked Trix. But she didn't like Rudyard.'' Readers are not told why. The large print and pages with wide margins often lead to awkward breaks in the sentence flow. In addition, the necessity of simplifying the language and limiting the amount of text in order to accommodate the easy-to-read format means that depth of information must be sacrificed. The black-and-white archival photographs are well chosen and simply captioned; they add a great deal of texture to this brief overview. The book has an adequate index and a chronology of important dates, but there is no bibliography. An adequate addition for readers not yet ready to tackle Gloria Kamen's Kipling (Atheneum, 1985).-Linda Greengrass, Bank Street College Library, New York City