It’s a book that has always been marketed at teenagers and older children as much as at adults. It’s possible to think of Kim as one of the first YA novels.

Here, it is the sibilance that helps us hear the gentle hissing breaths of that slide into sleep – and feel how things have smoothed out for Kim after that flickering and juddering rhythm.

Kneaded to irresponsible pulp, half hypnotized by the perpetual flick and readjustment of the uneasy chudders that veiled their eyes, Kim slid ten thousand miles into slumber – thirty six hours of it – sleep that soaked like rain after drought.” Here’s another initially unobtrusive moment from much later on in the book: There’s more to see the more you look at it: notice how Zam-Zammah is placed to make a drum sound, how the sentence slows and broadens out as Kim’s head turns, how the “rude remark” arrives in a flurry of plosives – how that gives way to gentle assonance as we gaze over the rows of shoes. Nevertheless, the craftsmanship is there. One of Kipling’s achievements in Kim is to make everything subordinate to the story – nothing gets in the way of the view of the world he is creating. That’s a sentence chosen almost at random, also from near the start of the book. A film version of Kim, made in 1950, is available on DVD.As he drummed his heels against Zam-Zammah he turned now and again from his king-of-the-castle game with little Chota Lal and Abdullah the sweetmeat seller’s on to make a rude remark to a native policeman on guard over rows of shoes at the museum door.” Readers of any age should select an edition that includes a glossary, as many unfamiliar words are used. Irish and British characters also call dark-skinned Indians the 'N' word a few times.

Given that, the amount of violence in the book (a battle scene, a few shootings, stabbings, punches) should not be disturbing, and readers should be able to see that drug (opium) and tobacco use is part of the intrigue and culture of the book. The philosophical, religious, and historical concepts presented in the novel are complex, and will be best understood by teens and adults. Note that, though the main character is a young boy age 11 or 12, it's a stretch to call Kim a children's book. The novel depicts the world of a half-Irish white boy finding his way amid the many religious, cultural, and political factions vying for power in India at the turn of the 20th century. Parents need to know that Kim is widely considered to be Nobel Prize-winning author Rudyard Kipling's greatest work. One person uses opium to stave off hunger.ĭid you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide. Opium is used as a way to control people involved in the Great Game spies will plot to drug somone to stop him from from delivering a message, for example. Many Indian characters, including the young boy Kim, smoke tobacco from a hookah pipe.

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