Which Rudyard Kipling?

Kim is the best, literary-wise.  Puck is fun.  The dialect in Captains is very, very difficult.  We never ever miss Kim.  Puck is an optional choice here.  I’m the only one who’s ever finished Captains.

I’ve never read Puck aloud; my two oldest read it on their own. I will probably let my youngest do that as well.  I also had the two oldest read Kim on their own (We were still at Ambleside then) but I read it aloud to my youngest and the whole family loved the experience!  Then we saw the movie.  Not as good of course, but we all enjoyed the experience.

This is my review of Captains Courageous from Goodreads:  “I liked the idea of this book, but not the execution. The plot and characters were lovely. The dialect and sailor talk and such made me want to throw the book against the wall. I understand the importance of making it seem authentic but sometimes I’d get to the end of a paragraph and think, “I have no idea what they just said.” I’m no stranger to “ship speak” so that didn’t bug as much as all the “aouwrs” and “taowns” and “fwhat’s the good o’ bodderin’ fwhat…”. The story got lost in the language.

I won’t be keeping this book. I figure if I can’t slog my way through it after 30-some-odd years of serious reading then there’s no way my young boys can. And there is no way this could be a read-aloud with all the accents and such going on.

I so wish it were more intelligible because the story line, setting and all is very good. But it’s not.”

Maybe a professional audio book would work, if well done.  I’ve heard some that were awful and/or bored us to tears.

I honestly don’t remember which one we saw, or if it was in black and white, or anything except it was great. It was about 12 years ago. IMDB has 3 listed…. the pictures in the 1937 one look like it was maybe that one… the others had no pictures to look at.