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Kipling's Choice
On the verge of World War I, author Rudyard Kiplingstaying alive in his first battle.
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
June 4th 2007
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published 2002)
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Review: Gr. 7-12
It is 1915 and Rudyard Kipling has high hopes for his seventeen-year-old son, John. Since Kipling could never defend his country in uniform due to poor eyesight, his son certainly will. Unfortunately, John suffers from a similar condition, but Kipling nonetheless uses his influence to get him assigned to the Irish Guards. The story opens in the present tense at the Front in northern France and Lieutenant Kipling is seeing combat for the first time. He is an optimistic a...more
It is 1915 and Rudyard Kipling has high hopes for his seventeen-year-old son, John. Since Kipling could never defend his country in uniform due to poor eyesight, his son certainly will. Unfortunately, John suffers from a similar condition, but Kipling nonetheless uses his influence to get him assigned to the Irish Guards. The story opens in the present tense at the Front in northern France and Lieutenant Kipling is seeing combat for the first time. He is an optimistic a...more
Interest level: 8th +
Reading level: easy, short
Genre: historical fiction, World War I, WWI, soldiers, war, Rudyard Kipling, writers, Dutch
Read-alikes: Private Peaceful, War Horse
Like many young men at the time, the famous British author Rudyard Kipling and his son, John, got caught up in the patriotic frenzy of World War I . John's father was eager to get his son enlisted and fight for his country because he himself could not serve due to his poor eyesight. But when Jo...more
Reading level: easy, short
Genre: historical fiction, World War I, WWI, soldiers, war, Rudyard Kipling, writers, Dutch
Read-alikes: Private Peaceful, War Horse
Like many young men at the time, the famous British author Rudyard Kipling and his son, John, got caught up in the patriotic frenzy of World War I . John's father was eager to get his son enlisted and fight for his country because he himself could not serve due to his poor eyesight. But when Jo...more
Belgian author Spillebeen fictionalizes the story of the death of John Kipling, son of Rudyard Kipling, near Loos in France in 1915. Like every other account of World War I that I have read, Kipling's Choice tells of the futility of young men who were to die by the thousands per day as they pushed the front line 50 meters one day, only to lose 100 meters the next. Of course that is the only story to tell about the ill-titled Great War. Rudyard Kipling worked hard to get his slight, severely near...more
I haven't been this affected by an anti war book since reading Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo years ago.
John Kipling, son of the Nobel prize winning legend Rudyard Kipling, joined the Irish Guard and, when promoted to Lt., was positioned on the front lines of a bloody battle in Loos France where Germans quickly overtook his men.
The majority of the story is told from the voice of John as he lay dying on the battle field. Unable to move or speak, we enter his mind as h...more
John Kipling, son of the Nobel prize winning legend Rudyard Kipling, joined the Irish Guard and, when promoted to Lt., was positioned on the front lines of a bloody battle in Loos France where Germans quickly overtook his men.
The majority of the story is told from the voice of John as he lay dying on the battle field. Unable to move or speak, we enter his mind as h...more
One of the most difficult books I have read in a long time, it is the fictionalized account of the lingering death in no man's land.
Kipling had pulled strings to get John into the Irish Guard since he had been refused based on his eyesight. A somewhat frail young man he was not prepared for the trench warfare (can anyone ever be prepared for war?)
The books which deservedly won the Bulletin for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Award makes us realize that war is not glorious n...more
Kipling had pulled strings to get John into the Irish Guard since he had been refused based on his eyesight. A somewhat frail young man he was not prepared for the trench warfare (can anyone ever be prepared for war?)
The books which deservedly won the Bulletin for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Award makes us realize that war is not glorious n...more
A really powerful book that's told in flashbacks. We follow John Kipling, the only son of Rudyard Kipling into his first battle during World War I. Through the flashbacks we also find out how John became a soldier and then into the war.
Zeynep Ikiz
added it
This book is based off of a true story. It is about Rudyard Kipling's son and how he fought in the war to make his father proud despite the obstacles, eventually risking so much.
Geert Spillebeen’s Kipling’s choise is a detailed account of a 17 year old John Kipling, fighting for the Irish Guard during World War I. Throughout the book John has a series of flashbacks explaining how he got to this point in his life, most of which he is laying wounded on the battlefield. John’s father Rudyard had tried to join the army years before but had been turned down due to his terrible vision. Because of this Rudyard had always wanted his son to be a successful soldier in the army....more
For a 150-page book to illustrate the effects of fervent patriotism and dire loss upon a father to young readers, this book is unmatched.
This little book had me in tears.... very emotional, moving story..
Teen Reviewers
added it
lexile: 820L
I thought the back-story of this book was interesting (that's the part that's true). But the book didn't hook me...
I could not put this book down. Beautiful and tragic. I found myself fascinated by the background story of the Kipling's and sought out more information on the internet. I read this from my work library so that I could determine whether or not I should recommend it to some of my young readers. Every single reader has loved it so far. Based on actual events.
I never knew Kipling had a son. Great WWI novel that is based on historical fact.[return][return]In 1915, mortally wounded in Loos, France, eighteen-year-old John Kipling, son of writer Rudyard Kipling, remembers his boyhood and the events leading to what is to be his first and last World War I battle.
A really powerful book that's told in flashbacks. We follow John Kipling, the only son of Rudyard Kipling into his first battle during World War I. Through the flashbacks we also find out how John became a soldier and then into the war.
A deep-felt book about war...
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Geert Spillebeen lives in Izegem, Belgium, where he is a journalist and radio presenter.
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