Publisher Description
Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of an orphaned boy, a lama on a powerful quest, and two imperialist nations butting heads over one magical country
Set in the former Lahore, India, against the backdrop of an imperialist war between Russia and Great Britain, Kim is the coming-of-age story of Kimball O'Hara, a low-caste orphan boy roaming the streets with a "magic" talisman around his neck. The pendant contains three magic parchments sewn into a leather amulet case—papers that could whisk him away from the world he knows and trusts.
One afternoon, Kim takes pity on an elderly lama who declares he is searching for wisdom and enlightenment at the River of the Arrow, and becomes the old man's guide, savior, and friend. Together, the odd pair travels the Grand Trunk Road, dodging cutpurses and road agents until the "Little Friend of all the World" becomes a little disciple to the wise old lama. But when Kim's father's old regimental chaplain runs into the lama and his young chela on their travels, a big change threatens to disrupt the friends' plans to find enlightenment and happiness on their shared quest.
Widely considered to be Rudyard Kipling's masterpiece, Kim combines sweeping adventure with a brilliant coming-of-age story. Part children's tale, part spy thriller, part examination of the twilight of the Victorian empire, Kim is a classic page-turner.
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kipling's inspirational poem the one that begins, "If you can keep your head when all about you/ Are losing theirs" describes how to preserve one's honor by the principled avoidance of political and moral pitfalls. Italian artist Manna imagines the "you" of the poem as a boy journeying through a series of watercolor landscapes: fields under billowing clouds, misty nights, craggy mountaintops. To accompany the poem's first line, Manna paints the boy watching from a great green meadow as storm clouds approach; he stands and watches with a cool head, rather than running in fear. For "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew/ To serve your turn long after they are gone," Manna shows the boy climbing a rocky pitch, the peaks of other mountains poking through the clouds below. Flying kites represent temptation, and dull-eyed marionettes represent allies who can't be trusted ("If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken/ Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools"). Though young readers may not fathom the poem's complexities, the grandeur of Manna's scenes conveys the loftiness of Kipling's sentiments. Ages 6 8.
