The Jungle Book Coloring Book Review

The Jungle Book is based on the Rudyard Kipling fairy tale which was later translated by Disney into a movie. Out of all of the coloring books that Fabiana Attansio this is the one that I was least excited about. As most of you can probably tell I like my fairy tales to have a more feminine feel (even though I’m a tom boy myself lol!). I had to have The Jungle Book though ….because otherwise my collection of Fabiana’s coloring books would be incomplete 🙂

Surprisingly, when it arrived I was glad that I ordered it. Even though I’m not madly in love with The Jungle Book story, I do love the illustrations in this cute coloring book. The opportunity to color a boy for a change may be challenging, in a good way, for me and the abundance of cute jungle animals will take me out of my comfort zone, and transport me to a simpler fairy tale world than what I am used to.

Cover & Layout

White Star publishers are now printing Fabiana’s coloring books rather than Sterling who previously published Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Wizard of Oz. If you have collected Fabiana’s works you can immediately tell when you look at the cover that there is something “different” about the latest books. It may take a minute to realize what it is. Although the books are the same size, and carry the same features as previous books, the new publishers have decided to use a cursive style font for the title of the book and a small, plain, black text for the information prior to the title. Sadly, the new font, for me, is a fail. It tends to cheapen the look of the cover. I do hope that with the release of Fabiana’s coloring books later in the year they return to the previous text styling. The other difference is that Fabiana’s coloring books always had a subtitle of being “An Enchanting Coloring Book” this has now been changed to “An Amazing Coloring Book”. Other than those changes, there is not a lot of difference between the new publishers product and the previous coloring books.

The Jungle Book features a partially colored image with gold foil highlights on the front and back cover. The spine is leaf green to complement the color of the cover art title. The partially colored design wraps around to both front and back fold out flaps.

On the inner semi gloss covers, line art of flowers and leaves, could be colored by you.

The Jungle Book measures 26cm x 21.7 cm approximately (10.5 in x 8.5 in)

Ancillary Pages

A plain text title page commences the book. Over page, an extended title page features an adorable monkey as well as other scenes of nature. Any of the preceding pages would be a great spot to test out your mediums and color palette and see how they react with the paper and your coloring style.

Layout

The Jungle Book layout is consistent with the previous coloring books illustrated by Fabiana Attansio.

At the start of the book there is a 5 page abridged version of The Jungle Book, making it an ideal book to have as a keepsake or share with a child.

Illustrations are printed on both sides of the white, medium quality paper. The paper feels slightly (very slightly) thinner than previous books. When weighed though, the books weigh approximately the same amount as the previous books published.

Unlike the previous books, the binding on The Jungle Book and Beauty and The Beast is a lot more rigid than previous books. These books are both glued and stitched. If they are too tight for you to work comfortably with, you could snip the large stitches to loosen the book further.

You can see my paper quality test of the coloring book here:-

The Jungle Book Coloring Book Images and Illustrations

Fabiana Attansio always manages to capture a sweetness in her illustrations and in The Jungle Book it is no different. The characters are lovable and adorable and, as always, beautifully drawn. You will find a lot of jungle and nature based imagery in this book as you would expect from the theme. Leaves of different sizes and varieties fill the pages. There is an abundance of animals as you would expect too including the main characters of The Jungle Book. Some animals are illustrated in a more natural state whereas others like snakes and elephants, are beautifully patterned.

There are 40 pages of double page scenes, excluding the ancillary pages. The line art does run to the spine of the book. The Jungle Book and Beauty and The Beast has a far stiffer binding than previous books by Fabiana Attansio and some colorists may have difficulty pushing the book flat to color comfortably. As advised above, I would consider snipping a few of the stitches in the book to ensure it folds down easily. I will ask Mr Muscles to push mine flat, but in the unlikely event he fails, that’s what I will do.

The line art is black and crisp throughout the book with a medium line. The bulk of the images have large open spaced elements on the pages making it ideal for colorists with a minor visual impairment.

Please click on an image to view more detail

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Bonus

The Jungle Book comes with a fold out poster for you to color and frame if you wished. The poster measures approximately 97cm x 66cm.

The Jungle Book Coloring poster - full size

Fold out poster – before you use the paper you will need to turn it over, iron with a warm iron over baking paper to remove the creases

Detail Level

LowHigh

Where to buy The Jungle Book

Buy at [easyazon_link identifier=”8854411655″ locale=”US” nw=”y” tag=”mygamingweb-20″ popups=”n”]Amazon[/easyazon_link]
Buy at Book Depository (free shipping)

Happy coloring x
Lea

About Fabiana Attanasio

Fabiana Attanasio was born in Rome in 1985. After graduating from the International School of Comics, she began her artistic career in the field of comics, before dedicating herself completely to illustration. She is currently working with publishers all over the world. Fabiana lives in Italy.