The Girl Who Stole an Elephant is an extremely imaginative and captivating read. It has healthy doses of adventure, bravery, friendship, wilderness all thrown in. What attracted me to the book first was that the protagonist was a girl about my age.
2019
A Saree for Ammi is a short, heartwarming story set in Kota, Rajasthan. It is a story of the humble existence of a weaver’s family and narrates how his two young daughters put their mother’s happiness over their own. It teaches the reader a little about making of a saree–from dyeing the threads to weaving.
Shaljam is an instance of a predictive tale as it constructs itself on a repetitive anticipated pattern. It is a Russian folk tale, often translated as ‘The Giant Turnip’, collected by Alexander Afanasyev. Such folk tales are also called cumulative tales or chain tales since they form a string of recurring verses.
Story and illustrations by Indu Harikumar. Translated into Hindi by Dipali Shukla. Design by Kanak Shashi. Edited by Bharat Tripathi
Cut Piece Kumar, a bilingual e-book in English and Hindi by Indu Harikumar, is meant for pre-teenagers who generally love to try their hands at creative arts. The book is about a young boy Kumar who can turn junk into beautiful and useful things.
This is a story about the journey of a sprig from a neem tree. Separated from its tree and transported away by the wind, it recalls all that had been and fears what will become of it.
Pichki is happy to push her way out of the ground into the fresh air only to find that as she grows into a neem tree she is rejected again and again, as smelly, bitten by flies, mosquitoes, caterpillars and even birds. Hurt, she however finds redemption when her healing powers.
Only Fools Go To School by Chatura Rao is based on a beautiful story that deals with the adventures of a little boy named Sambha, who is initially very reluctant to go to school. He feels that the school is for fools and hence spends most of his time outside.
All the books reviewed below from Eklavya have easy concepts and plots, with simple sentences, easy for children in primary classes to read and understand. Illustrations are good and relate with the story. They capture the ambience of the different environs that the stories are set in.
A child’s universe, where the bird and animal kingdom is as much a part of existence as the reassuring presence of Mummy-Papa.
Author Saumyak Ghoshal has beautifully evoked Piku’s mental landscape populated by sparrows and squirrels, cats and lizards, moths and mosquitos. The shadow-play of daylight and darkness impacts Piku, like any other child, at a deeper level.
Chuchu Manthu’s Jar of Toffees, which first appeared on Pratham Books’ digital platform ‘Story Weaver’, is a cute story with an intriguing title which will at once attract children and motivate them to pick up the book and read it.
2020
Stories that connect a child to mother-nature are precious indeed.The Goolar Flower is one such story-book.
Renchu a little rag-picker girl is set off in search of a mythical ‘flower’–Goolar, by her elder sibling Pirku and her pal Saanish.
In the lockdown, I read the entire Keeper of the Lost Cities series, written by Shannon Messenger. There are eight books in total in the series. I was encouraged to read it by my dear friend
Shriya Kothari, and since we have similar tastes in books, I decided.
2020
Eklavya, as we all know, is a non-profit NGO engaged in the creation and dissemination of educational resources among children who need them most. In partnership with Parag, an initiative of Tata Trusts, they have been creating books suitable for use by children in India’s.
Rinchin. Illustrations by Kanak Shashi. Translated from the original English by Sushil Joshi, Varsha and Shashi Sublok. Edited by Seema
The book under review consists of seven stories, based on rural backgrounds. The people’s struggle to save their small landholdings from the sharks from the urban areas form the basis of the stories. ‘Chudail ka Nashta’, ‘Me Mor Jamin Bachawat Hun.
Kavita Tiwari, Kanak Shashi and Sajitha Nair. Illustrations by Kanak Shashi. Cover design by Bindu Joseph, Rahul and Bharat
Mera Khachchar Danda Hai is a collection of 40 poems and pictures by children, written over a period of thirty-four years and published in various issues of Chakmak, a children’s magazine. One page in every issue has been devoted to children’s writings and illustrations, the column titled ‘Mera Panna’.
‘Are all girls alike? Should all girls be alike? It would be boring if they were!’Satrangi Ladkiyaan/Satrangi Ladke, an illustrated flip (picture) book for young children, written by feminist activist, poet and author Kamla Bhasin and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan, through its simple narrative.
Samina Mishra’s Hina in Purani Dilli takes the reader on a fantastic journey through the by-lanes of the old city of Delhi. The book weaves together, with a documentary lens, history, geography and sociology as it goes from Hina’s school housed in a medieval haveli.
2019
Anya and her Baby Brother is a tiny book which narrates a story much heavier than it feels like. Anya is a young girl who is miffed with her mother because ever since her special younger brother came along, his needs have taken priority over her. But how do the readers know this? Because Anya is sharing.