What a fabulous way of telling a child a story! Rather than im-merse them in colourful electronic images, you can instead read the simply narrated tale to them (or better still, with them) and invite them to colour the striking illustrations. Taposhi Ghoshal understands that children (like adults) enjoy feeling they are in control, and so often leaves the illustrations incomplete. The little Hanuman artist can thus join the dotted lines, fill in the missing piece of the action, and then let the crayons run riot.
The book introduces the cast of characters through crayon drawings. It offers 38 double-side printed illustrations for the child to complete and colour. The illustrations include battlefield action as well as pastoral scenes such as the Ashoka Vana. While the presentation uses a copy colour format, there is no compulsion on the child to do so. What impressed me about the crayon drawings is that Ravana and Vibhishana are not depicted as dark-skinned but green in colour while Sita, Lakshmana and a host of other characters are brown skinned. It’s wonderful to see that children’s books, even the ones meant for very young children, are careful not to perpetuate stereotypes.
Padma Baliga is a library consultant and an independent researcher whose interests include children’s and young adult books, gender studies and Indian literatures.
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