Small book by Kipling to read superficially (4)
I believe the answer is:
skim
'to read superficially' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'small book by' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'book' becomes 'kim' (I've seen this before).
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
's'+'kim'='SKIM'
'kipling' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for skim that I've seen before include "Glide smoothly over" , "Move quickly (over a surface)" , "Glide lightly over" , "head" , "Remove surface layer" .)