Lion Goes for a Haircut is another lovely children’s story, this one on why lions don’t get haircuts. Anyone who has ever had cats or been around them, may have noticed that they either studiously avoid looking at mirrors, or if they accidentally do, will hiss and puff themselves up to scare the image away. Well, the hero of this book is a lion who casually strolls into a hair cutting saloon, happily handles a computer as he takes a photo of himself and photoshops various options to see which hairstyle suits him most, then turns towards the mirrors in the saloon, and turns into a pussy!! He is so befuddled by the images that he runs back into the forest.
This is the story of a knife sharpener who takes a daily round of a few vil-lages near his home, sharpening garden shears, coconut scrapers, meat cleavers and anything else which may need his services. Lack of work makes him decide one day to cross the forest, especially since Eid is around the corner and he wants to be able to afford new clothes and sweets for his family for the occasion. The twist to the story is how he ends up helping animals keep their teeth and claws sharp, and how they then repay Salim with meat and fruit enough for his and his family’s needs.
2016
Not-so-lucky Sumi’s friends think she is so-oo lucky to have a lovely sea-facing room stuffed with beautiful toys, books and games, but Sumi only smiles politely. She doesn’t think so at all because she cares more about yummy food and is always hungry. This is quite a shame considering that her mother is a health food freak and writes cookbooks and hosts TV cookery shows all the time. When she works on a book on South American food, their home is filled with quinoa and llama stews for a month. Or rice dishes for every meal if the book or show is on rice dishes—much to the entire family’s dismay of course.
Nina is an unlikely supergirl, undersized, serious and shy. But she is gifted with an amazing secret superpower—‘She could look into people’s hearts and see if they were nice or nasty.’ Kind and cheerful people give out yellow and silver rays, while angry or evil people are surrounded with red or purple clouds.
2016
When Maya is made a class cup-board monitor, she has to fiercely guard the shiny little key to the class cupboard. For it contains ‘stacks of craft paper in pink and green… baskets of broken crayons… coloured pencils and blue notebooks… and a giant bottle of gum. It was the tallest, biggest, bluest bottle of gum Maya had ever seen.
This book is about a soldier who comes from Yarkhand across the Himalaya mountains, near Cheena Desha. He goes to a house in another village near Mathura. He meets some people called Ambika, Somadevi, Govinda and Nagadeva. He starts making strange sounds. Ambika recognizes some words of Prakrit. Ambika’s father Nagadeva, a blacksmith, understands what he is saying. He was saying that his horse had tumbled and lost a shoe.
The main character in this story is a monk called Xuan Zang. He is from Cheena Desha. The other characters are Valli, her brother Mahindra and their parents. They live in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. One day Valli was helping her mother with the housework when her brother Mahendra came. He said Appa asked him to take their coconuts to the market place. He said someone he knows will sell them for him. ‘Do you want to come?’ asked her brother. She agreed.
The Unkown Indians is not about individual people or events, but about specific groups of people in Indian history. The chapters are: A Charioteer’s Song: Minstrels and Storytellers; The Eternal Weave of Life: Weavers, Potters, Ironsmiths and Carvers; A Delicious Platter of Joy: Farmers and Cooks; and Saying it with Verse and Song: Rebel Poets. Here the narrative explores the contributions of groups, their traditions, cultures and beliefs. For instance, the first chapter introduces us not just to the class of storytellers, but also to relevant associated topics such as literature like the Mahabharata and the myth of Ganesha as its author.
Battles and Warriors looks at five pivotal battles and wars through Indian history. It would appeal to any child interested in the more violent aspects of history (almost all boys!), and is a fascinating introduction to the world of warfare, weaponry and associated crafts. The five chapters are: The Battle by the Jhelum: Alexander vs Porus; The Battle at Kalinga: Ashoka vs the Kingdom of Kalinga; A Battle on the High Seas: Rajendra Chola vs the Kingdom of Srivijaya; The First Battle at Panipat: Babur vs Ibrahim Lodi; A Mango Grove in Palashi: Siraj-ud-Daula vs the East India Company
The back cover of each of the three books says: ‘Concise, yet filled with relevant details and accompanied by attractive colour illustrations, the Exploring India series will make history fascinating and unforgettable for every reader.’ This is an excellent description for the Exploring India book series.
A good read that takes you through the life of Benjamin Franklin, whom today’s youngsters probably relate to only as the face on the $100 bill. The book is a definite must read that can inspire young minds to broaden their horizons and realize their full potential. While the larger achievements of Franklin are inspiring, there are several instances in the book that might strike the right chord in readers and stay with them forever. One example is a sentence that goes, ‘My mind having been more improved by reading than Keimer’s, I suppose it was for that reason my conversation seemed to be more valued.’ I, for one, have resolved to improve my mind by reading as much as I can! And then there are candid observations such as ‘that while a party is carrying on a general design, each man has his particular private interest in view.’
Reading the recently launched Hindi translation of the book A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: A Life by his close associate and friend Arun Kumar, the tone and intention of the author becomes very clear early in the text. The book is worked out as a hagiography of a person who had achieved a status comparable to a saint, maybe even more than that, in his lifetime. The work is not meant for critical understanding. You need to read it in a particular way in order to appreciate the contents of the book.
2016
Dear Kalam Sir, a compendium of tributes to the ‘people’s president’, ‘the missile man of India’ amazes us by the sheer novelty of the idea. An initiative of Letter Farms, this book is a testimony to the fact that Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, with his ideas, words and actions reached out and touched a great number of lives. A man who rose from a humble background to become President, India ever had, Kalam’s life is a lesson that ‘dreams with a vision and hard work ensure success.’ ‘Postcard is your canvas and sky is your limit’ is the single line instruction with which Letter Farms began the community art project Dear Kalam Sir, which is a confluence of ‘art, articulation and passion’.
2016
It comes almost as a relief to see a picture book titled Kasturba. There must be, or should be, few who don’t know that she was Mahatma Gandhi’s wife. He is among the most written about individuals in the world. And there are many who believe she hasn’t been given her due in history. However, I wonder if the title is somewhat misleading because the story is actually about a little girl called Nina who discovers her Kasturba voice and the reference to this context is what drives the action in the story. It is October 2 once more and Nina’s class teacher is preparing her class to do a play to commemorate the occasion.
Sakhi-Time with Nani Ji is inspired by the life and teachings of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion. Guru Nanak, born in 1469, witnessed lot of turmoil and atrocities committed by the rulers of that era in the name of religion and caste fundamentalism. He organized his followers to challenge the protagonists of extremism and founded a new church to build an egalitarian society. His message of universal brotherhood, peace, love, emancipation and empowerment of women, and faith based on oneness of God and boycott of superstitions and idol worship, appealed to all ordinary people who suffered persecution and social injustice.
Approaches to Childhood: Issues and Concerns in Creative Representations, an anthology of essays, is yet another contribution to the academic studies on heterogeneous aspects of childhood based on the recent developments in various disciplines like psychology, sociology and anthropology. Nibir K. Ghosh rightly comments in the foreword to the book that the narratives ‘emanating from the fertile soil of human compassion, sing profuse strains of deeply meditated creative renderings not only of distress but also of a child’s capacity to survive with courage and dignity in a hostile world’ (pp. 7–8).
The book starts off with an explanation of what child rights are, who needs them, who protects them and how they can be violated. Tracing the timeline of the child rights movement internationally, and then in India, and including a description of the forerunners of the child rights movement in India helps the reader to understand the genesis and current status of child rights. ‘Education’ gets a dedicated section in which Bajaj focusses briefly on the ‘Right to Education Act’ and its practical repercussions.
2016
There is not a single Bengali child who grows up without reading a lot of Rabindranath Tagore. From the toddler stage whether in poems, stories, songs or plays, Tagore is an integral part of Bengali consciousness. And even outside the confines of Bengal on both sides of the border, Tagore, as the only Indian Nobel Laureate in literature occupies a position that is peerless. Feisal Alkazi’s book Tagore for Today is a teaching resource that aims to bring the bard into the classroom, and make him more accessible to the current generation of children, by using not just academic tools but an interesting mix of literature and art appreciation.
Most of us are already familiar with Vikram and Betal and in this book Natasha Sharma brings some of these stories to life. The book Vikram And The Vampire is a somewhat simplified take of some of the stories from the Baital Pachisi. A merchant comes to King Vikramaditya’s court and presents him with an apple and tells him to keep it with him carefully. The merchant returns every single day that week and gives the king a different fruit. The king soon finds that all the fruits contain a precious jewel…
We have all read stories about Vikram and Vetal, in various forms and versions, and more specially, in the Amar Chitra Katha. Dipavali’s book, based on the same stories, might have given the feeling that it is the same old stuff once again. But the refreshing way in which she has handled the subject makes the book a real pleasure to read. She has treated the familiar mythology by ‘both abridging and expanding’ the original, and writing it in a modern style while staying close to its Sanskrit text. The Sanskrit names are always followed by words that explain the meaning of the names. For example the meaning of the names Gunashekhara, Indulekha, Dharmadhavaja, Abhayachandra are given as ‘virtuous’, ‘crescent moon’, ‘super-righteous, and ‘unafraid’, respectively. The explanations add a colourful touch and provide a better understanding of the character’s personality.