Jella, a Jellopus, is the rightful ruler of Zypher but the evil Chiro has taken over Zypher. Jella goes on an interesting journey to win her kingdom back. Jella and a scientist called Marina somehow join bodies to become Merjella. Jella with her friends Qwerty and Bingo go to the surface and interact with humans. They meet a person called Ryan Catchmore who catches fish and finds other ways of catching fish.
It takes just spilt second for things to go from good to awful or from awful to good’ The line captures it all. The book by Rupa Gulab is about deeper realities, fraught with memories and emotions. But a beautiful lesson it tries to give ‘amidst all the chaos lay a placid calm’. Anu’s life is all chaotic, as the book says her life sucks! A teenager’s mid life crisis when one is worried about body image, boyfriend issues and yes, academics! Anu’s story starts from the school where she is in detention (as always!) and ends with a sweet note where she finally embraces reality. Anu is a cry baby. She wants attention! The story revolves around her frustrations towards her teachers, crushes and most importantly her sister: Diya. Diya is better, smarter and attractive. She is always the one to get appreciated and loved.
Just as earthly time stops when the characters unfurl their journey across the magical land of Catriona, so does the reader’s sense of time as one rapidly navigates one’s way through the silvery forest of ivory trees, mysterious caves with mythical gods, through lakes containing lotus embedded with emeralds and through a landscape lighting up with a multitude of characters. It’s a place ‘where one grows faster and lives longer’. It’s a place where earthy metaphors are conjured but the limits of their earthy meanings are challenges. The story centers around two young women Sara and Cristina, two young women.
The other book being reviewed is very different in its genre and appeal: no endearing canine warms the pages of this dark thriller. Indeed, the very cover of Lucy Whitehouse’s Keep You Close has a burning matchstick that might as well be a metaphor for the reading experience on offer: incandescent, thrilling, terrifying. Those readers who liked Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl will definitely enjoy this well-crafted whodunit. Marianne Glass, an artist, falls to her death from the upstairs window of the family home in Oxford, in what is assumed to be a tragic accident. Her estranged friend, Rowan Winter, is not convinced, though, knowing very well that Marianne has always had acute vertigo, and would never have gone so close to the roof’s edge.
If you know a dog-person, or a human owned entirely by dogs, this is a book you want to share with them straight away. While I was reading Jonathan Unleashed by the luminously witty Meg Rosoff, that peerless writer about children, young folk and dogs, I was casting sidelong glances at my sons, hoping that by some magic, they’d transform into dogs, just for a week or so. Just for a bit, I should love to be in the company of canines like the super-intelligent ‘city’ collie Dante and the sweet-natured spaniel Sissy who light up this book with the ‘Byzantine quality of their inner lives’.
We meet our hero Subroto Bandhopadhyay, Stoob to you and I, on a holiday in Thailand with his friend Ishani and their families. While we expect the sun, sand and surf to keep the twelve-year-old occupied, it isn’t turning out to be as relaxing as Stoob would like—he has an embarrassing story to narrate, an incident, which involves a girl, Mala Kapoor. Stoob is turning out to be a fun and engaging series. Stoob, Ishani and Rehan are such well chalked out characters, with lots in common, yet plenty to set apart one from another. Rehan is your typical nerd who googles everything and seems to know way lot more than what everyone else around does.
The stories in Gumrah come from a TV show of the same name hosted by Channel V, owned by Star India. The foreword by Chetan Bhagat seeks to provide a context for the narratives. It also outlines the purpose of the book, which is to warn of the dangers of the teenage years, and therefore the importance of being aware and responsible. The first story, ‘Soulmate’, is the narrative of sibling rivalry turned tragic. A case of unrequited teenage love, insecurity at home and in school, and subconscious resentment of a younger sibling, lead a girl to murder her younger sister in a fit of rage.
Have you ever had a dream that’s left you amazed, baffled, terrified, elated, confused, sweating, or feeling any other adjective in abundance?! The dream world is a truly happening place. Funny dreams, weird dreams, scary dreams, lucid dreams, sad dreams, lonely dreams, sometimes even lifechanging dreams. If you’ve ever had the experience of waking up from an incredibly vivid dream, or one that is only hazily etched in memory, you know partly what this book is about! Shobha—the epicenter of Sandhya Rao’s Dream Writer—is a dreamy girl. She sees many dreams, but…
There are few things as mysterious as the idea of Fate. In his collection of short stories, The Line Reader, Agni Tripathi appears to pay tribute to this idea. The stories are steeped in irony and present characters from different walks of life and their unique relationship with fate— we have those who try to predict it, those who could have prevented it, and those who couldn’t. They bring us a series of ‘what if ’s and ‘if only’s. The stories bring forth the idea of unpredictability by introducing unexpected endings.
What better way to impart an environmental mes sage to children but not sound too preachy than by recounting an imaginative tale of an alien visiting Earth in search of a magical substance to save his own planet! Jamuna Rangachari creatively weaves a story around a dark cloud endangering Planet Zylake to awaken the conscience of readers to the environmental dangers faced by Earth. She is an author of children’s books and a software professional who espouses positive values, spirituality and holistic living and is associated with the Life Positive magazine, a part of the Life Positive Foundation that focuses on promoting and disseminating holistic information, techniques and wisdom to the general public.
The Stranger And Other Curious Stories is a collection of short stories by AWIC for young children. The 14 stories all deal with very unusual unexplainable happenings which children will find very interesting, captivating and will certainly tickle their imagination. The stories deal with a wide range of episodes—meeting interesting strangers on a hillside during a holiday, acquiring a secret friend while in hospital, befriending a ferocious dog who otherwise hated strangers—all dealing with differing nature of experiences and happenings, but all very gripping. The stories, besides being interesting, are descriptive and informative.
Rumer and Jon Godden were prolific writers, especially the former. The sisters spent their childhood and then a few years of their adult lives in India, even remaining in the country after Independence. Indian Dust Stories, a collection of short stories, a Ruskin Bond collection, features two poems and thirteen short stories. The two poems are by Rumer Godden, while three of the short stories are by Jon Godden and the rest by Rumer Godden. The poems talk about the harsh reality of life even if it is in the midst of what may seem as great beauty to the eye—the river in Bengal and the winter in Kashmir.
Asking somebody who picked up the first Harry Potter book when he was 11—the age Harry himself was when his world was turned upside down with the revelation that he was a wizard—to review the final instalment of JK Rowling’s hugely successful series is quite a gamble. As I type this, it is only my consideration for you, dear reader, that is holding me back from GOING ALL CAPS and screaming my praise for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child to the high heavens. But that would be me as a fan. Let me try it as just a reader. Cursed Child is different from all the previous Harry Potter books for several reasons. The most obvious, of course, is the format. This is not a book. It is the script for a play. The fact is obvious from the get go, with the book starting with italicized stage directions.
Sulajhti Kadiyaan is a collection of four novellas in Hindi. All the novels are for young teenagers and deal with the protagonists solving a mystery in each story. It reminds me of the Hardy Boys series in English, though these are not about the same boys, as the authors are different and the locales in which the stories are set are also different. What is worth mentioning about these four books is that, in each story history has been woven in deftly, so that the reader gets a flavour of the local history, without it reading like a boring history lesson. There is just the right mix of information and imagination in each novel to hold the readers’ interest.
A breath of fresh air in the stale world of Indian detective fiction, this book is the third of the Reema Ray Mystery series, the first two being The Masala Murder and Dead in a Mumbai Minute. Titanium is a top security agency of India, founded by young Shayak Gupta. Reema Ray is one of its employees. She is tall, young, attractive, and also in love with Shayak who has earlier turned her down. The love angle is an essential part of the narrative, making Reema take all sorts of risks in tracking down a conspirator defaming Titanium and its founder. Reema shaves off her head and, with colleague Terrence, goes undercover to the ashram of guru George Santos.
The fascination with Sherlock Holmes has endured across time and generations. Fans cannot have enough of this great fictional detective and his associate, John Watson. More recently, their adventures have been adapted and recreated for television and cinema, sometimes with a very modern upgrade. Every spin-off has worked remarkably well, a testimony to the genius of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original creation. So it is that Holmes has been dragged into even more adventures, four of which have been penned by the authors of The Sherlock Holmes Connection, created specially for the reading pleasure of teens. The adventures in this book are set in two countries, India and Sweden, and span a period of over a century. Martin Widmark’s story is set in Stockholm towards the end of the First World War.
The book traces the history of education in Pakistan with par-ticular reference to policy documents from the time of the creation of the country in 1947, to the most recent educational policy in 2009. Although the focus is on educational policies, these have been understood within the specific historical and political context of the country. Using his experience and expertise in the area of educational administration in Pakistan, the author has discussed extensively educational policies and critically analysed them with his vision of universal access to education across Pakistan. In tracing the recommendations of various committees and commissions, Siddiqui has presented a historical backdrop of education in Pakistan since the time of Independence to contemporary times.
As documented by Lewis Carroll, the journey of Alice down the rabbit hole became ‘curiouser and curiouser’, with Cheshire Cat, Jabberwock, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts and the other characters gradually entering the narrative. Carroll’s fascinating account led to a rich genre of fictions, which document one’s magical journey in the realm of fantasy. The science fiction stories in the recent past have matured into a similar genre of documenting journey to the future. Futuristic science fiction can give the reader an unexpected and enjoyable jolt, if at the last moment it is revealed to be a frame story (i.e., a story within a story), as classically seen in the ‘Planet of the Apes’.
The charmingly titled Dhanak follows a time honoured tradition of a journey story. What is different about it is that it is also travelling through different media like a hot knife shot through butter. I haven’t seen the film, but after Anushka Ravishankar’s seamless novelization (a fine new coinage), I feel like I have. Anushka introduces the two lovable heroes, Pari and Chotu with swift ease. The piece of jaggery that a sightless Chotu catches unerringly, their walk to school that is the very first journey, reveals the family situation and their bond with an efficient economy of words. Shahrukh Khan also makes an entry in this early and we know that he is going to drive the action in some unexpected way.
Train journeys are always fascinating, especially in India. The Indian railways are the arteries of the country—they traverse the length and breadth of the nation carrying passengers and goods, all the connecting distant places past myriad drastically different landscapes—no two stations are the same, no two routes look similar. A journey in a train teaches you not just about the people, it also teaches you about geography, culture and heritage when you look out of its windows.
In this day and age of computers, the ability to write and under-stand programming is an invaluable skill. Computers now surround us—everything from our high-tech smartphones and laptops, to our microwaves and cars use programmes written in lines and lines of code (specialized languages that computers can understand). Marc Scott and Mick Marston do a wonderful job introducing this world—while aimed at young children, the book serves as an equally good guide for an older novice.
Dad, did you know, Kalpana Chawla was the first woman of Indian origin to go to space?’ my eight year old daughter, who is in class 3, mentioned with excitement. I was helping her with her school project on the solar system. During the course of the project, we discovered together, the truly inspiring personal journey of Kalpana Chawla from Karnal, a small town in Haryana to her joining the NASA programme in the US as an astronaut. Kalpana’s fascination for space and flying was sparked off at a very early age. On a recent trip to the US, I had the opportunity to take my daughter to the world famous Morehead Planetarium and Science Centre in North Carolina.
When I saw the title of the book I had been asked to review Death on Earth: Adventures in Evolution and Mortality I was apprehensive. I assumed that the book would be another treatise on the much flogged concept of Darwinian adaptive evolution: the superior importance of population and species survival over the death of any individual of a species. But what really got my interest was the introduction and the first chapter that discussed the concept of death as envisioned as a cessation of Life; and the rational of defining life and the misunderstanding that till now exist in our definition of ‘What is Life??’
Dear Aburva, I appreciate your reasons for writing this book. As a young person who reflects on a lot of things, you want to connect with others like yourself and like your parents so that they may understand each other. In this instance, you have focused on your passion for dance, bharatanatyam in particular, how you were briefly distracted from it owing mainly to peer pressure, and how you returned to it and performed the arangetram, your first solo public performance of bharatanatyam. Along the way you have shared your impressions of Oman, where you live; you have provided information about Chidambaram, the town your father hails from and also important for the temple dedicated to Nataraja and Govindaraja, and in Hindu thinking believed to be the venue of Shiva’s cosmic dance.
We all know of the legendary Khwaja Ahmad Abbas who was the scriptwriter of Raj Kapoor’s classic films like Awara, Shri 420, Mera Naam Joker and Bobby. He also directed award winning films like Saat Hindustani and Do Boond Paani and introduced an actor called Amitabh Bachchan. As Abbas’s niece Syeda Hameed writes ruefully in her introduction, he wrote hits for Raj Kapoor but his own films would flop at the box office. Few of us remember that Abbas was also an acclaimed writer, author of 74 books and wrote a column in the Blitz magazine for 45 years. One should thank Hameed for reviving this gem of a book where Abbas profiles five women who exemplify the Bharat Mata of his dreams. These are real women and that makes them resonate in the reader’s mind.
Imagine a time when people could ask the question, ‘What is a film?’ In 1913 a man stood yelling about a new show outside a Bombay theatre, ‘Fifty seven thousand photographs… two miles long… only three annas!’ Dadasaheb Phalke was selling a visual magic that no one had ever seen before. His film would instantly mesmerize people and within a generation lay the foundation of the film industry in Bombay. And today, within a century, we carry films in our pockets and watch them on the tiny screens of smart phones. This is the unforgettable legerdemain of moving and talking pictures. I still remember sitting in the dark at a puja pandal in Daryagunj in the 1970s, the audience around me whizzing with excitement.
For several years now, I have found it far more delightful to go through literature for children and young adults that is being published in our country, that is, in comparison with books targeted at adult audiences, especially those that are written in English. The prime reason is the far superior quality of writing, illustration and production. If books published for children and teenagers can enthral an adult so much, how much more pleasing must they be for the kids. Amid this encouraging and vibrant scenario, there is one aspect that appears to have either gone missing, or has declined in significance or visibility. This is the segment on monthly magazines for children.
How did the lion become the King of the Forest? Why does the elephant have such a l-o-n-g nose? How did the camel get its big hump? Why do rabbits have such long ears? And why on earth do tortoises carry shells on their backs? Enquiring young minds are full of such never ending questions! In Secrets of the Animal Kingdom—an attractive and amusing read aloud book by Ratna Manucha, every curious question becomes a delightful tale! Young kids are always fascinated by animal stories and will enjoy reading about how the lion defeated the elephant in a wrestling bout to become the King of the Forest. A real fitness freak, the lion exercises hard while the elephant is convinced that the more banana trees he eats the stronger he will become! As one can imagine, the wrestling bout eventually turns into a rather one-sided affair! The meddlesome elephant is always poking his nose into other animals’ affairs, and lands up with a long nose or trunk.
The Tyrannosaur Chronicles is a comprehensive account of the largest and most famous dinosaurs to walk the earth, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. David Hone takes you on a journey dating back several million years to an era when these mystical creatures presumably lived. The book is accompanied by evidences and calculated assumptions. It doesn’t totally dispel all the images you might have after watching Jurassic Park, but provides thorough explanations as to what the real deal was. The book presents published scientific studies to present an exhaustive and highly informative overview beginning from where dinosaurs came from, evolutionary characteristics, metabolism, morphology, anatomy, ecology and physiology.
The White Tiger And Other Stories is a completely different book. It is a collection of spooky, scary tales compiled by Ruskin Bond. If you are a coward, it’s best to read them in daylight or else… ‘The Men Tigers’, by Lt. Col. W.H. Sleeman is a curious tale on a belief in India that men are turned into tigers by eating a root and then how does one distinguish a real one from a mantiger? ‘The only difference between the two…is that the metamorphosed tiger has no tail, while the bora, or ordinary tiger, has a very long one.’ However, there is an antidote, another root, which can turn the tiger back into a man! And all this is said to have happened in Central India.
The World Outside My Window comprises three sections: The Wonderful World of Insects; Birdsong in the Mountains; and The Loveliness of Forms. The running thread in all these essays is the chain of life and that each creature or plant, no matter how small and insignificant or destructive they might be, remove them and the chain that binds us collapses. Bond through his direct, simple way is sensitizing us to appreciate and give space to everything around us.
My Favourite Nature Stories is a charming volume of twenty-one stories, some have already been published, some are new pieces and some have never been published. Ruskin Bond dedicates the book to all who ‘cherish the green world of India, its forests, fields, streams and sacred rivers.’ The stories cover a range of subjects and locales, but it is the Himalayan landscapes that are perhaps dearest to him. It is a pleasure to read Bond as his language is direct and uncluttered and yet evokes the world around him. The essays are of the moment, like a Zen poem and in those few pages, a sunlit world is vividly brought to life.
The depiction in the story A Little Lie by Nilima Sinha veers towards the latter stance as the protagonist Sunny takes the decision to not-to-lie too literally. It accounts for the leaps in the narrative and fractures the coherence of the text.
the story, The Stranger We Love by Girija Rani Asthana, has a refreshing representation. It tries to overcome the hackneyed depictions of old people and presents a bunch of young children who befriend the old couple who have recently shifted to their neighbourhood. The highlight of the story is how the ‘stranger’ transforms into Dadu for the children and they immensely enjoy spending time in the house of their new friends.
The story Ma, Can I Help by Girija Rani Asthana demonstrates through an incident the act of taking responsibility.
To the Rescue by Nita Berry showcases a proactive stance on the part of the protagonists, Vir and Mahi, as they manage to save the life of a child who is stuck in a deep pit.
the book titled What a Mess by Nita Berry, centered on the theme of reckless attitudes in garbage disposal and the necessity of having a clean environment, has extrapolatory questions that include designing a cleanliness campaign and asks readers to think about the harmful effects that plastic wastes might have on our surroundings.
Tringaling Ling! is a fun story about the search for a lost mobile phone
The Nimba Tree by Nita Berry is set in a village. It attracts the readers by its title (nimba is the Sanskrit word for neem). The nimba tree is the axis around which the village life revolves. Hacking of the tree by avaricious woodcutters renders little birds and animals homeless and the villagers without a gathering place.
Another work of Nilima Sinha which deserves mention here is The Lonely Princess. The cover page and the title of the book made me think that it was yet another stereotypical tale of a pampered princess, however it wasn’t so. While the book depicts the contrast between upper-lower class lifestyles, Sinha’s writing helps break gender stereotypes and lets the central character transcend class boundaries. Manika is a pampered princess with servants at her beck and call to fulfil all here wishes.
In Sinha’s A Time Together! the father not only cooks but also helps clean the table after the meal
Bowing to his wishes, his parents permit him to venture out into the world where Bullu saves himself from animal attacks. The potential danger posed by strangers to young children is explored through the story of an innocent goat kid Bela who falls into the trap of a wicked wolf, in Sinha’s Stranger at the Farm.
Books play an important role in children’s socialization and can play a vital role in reinforcing or breaking stereotypes. Surely there are some stereotypes both at the level of text and at the level of illustrations such as in Nilima Sinha’s The Great Show, reptiles are not only designated as ‘creepy crawlies’ but are also not accurate in most of the illustrations. On the other hand, the tortoise wears spectacles signifying wisdom and sagacity.
Another story of Sinha’s, The Grumpy Owl mediates the adult-child conflict through a perpetually grumbling baby owl Bullu. Bowing to his wishes, his parents permit him to venture out into the world where Bullu saves himself from animal attacks.
Stories have long served as vehicles of moral instruction by adults and some of the stories in the series also focus on teaching children good habits such as requesting to pass food at the table and avoiding talk while eating. At times the learning is shown to be instantaneously imbibed by the child such as Aman in Nilima Sinha’s, Okay Mom! who learns to keep his things in their proper places once he trips and falls over his shoes, resulting in injuring himself and missing playing with his friend.
The clever use of white and black colours for the kid and the wolf symbolically counterpose the good and innocent against the bad and evil. Animal characters are also used to mediate other issues such as friendship between people (here animals) who look different in Girija Rani Asthana’s We are Friends—any school going child can relate to issues of self image and peer acceptance.
This is again a children’s story book with animal characters. The book caters to the age group of 5–7 years. This is a story about a little puppy named Silky who lives with Mini the cat. The puppy likes to walk on the streets with Mini the cat. But the story doesn’t delve deeper into the relationship between the little puppy and cat, but the friendship is unique and unconventional. The illustrations depict the caring nature of the cat towards the puppy. The narrative presents an interesting account of various animal characters who teach the little puppy the basic traffic rules and how to cross the road following the zebra crossing using the theme ‘Wait and watch’.
Raghu and the Fish by Neera Jain contains a small blurb and draws the attention of the readers to a new vocabulary, beaching of fish! Based on a true event the story revolves around the life of a young boy Raghu whose presence of mind helped the shark to regain its breath and to be rescued by the beach police. They were able to send the shark back to the ocean. The reader is invited to the life and the thoughts of people who live close to the sea. There is a symbiotic relationship between the lives inside and outside the world of sea.
Three Idols by Manorama Jafa is about the discretion and wisdom of a young prince who solves the puzzle and helps his father in choosing the right idol presented to him by the neighbouring king. The story however, deals with the larger theme of choosing right, trustworthy companions based on their ability to be a good listener and a good keeper of secrets. The book is well illustrated and carries apt cultural references.
Nita Berry’s excellent book Two Clouds depicts an interesting story of a little cloud named Chumki and her day’s adventure with her friend Badal. The story would definitely add wings to a reader who is just like me, a cloud dreamer! The characters Chumki and Badal are personified as two young jovial friends who love to roam around and play over fields. The story presents the carefree Chumki, a little white cloud who lives high up in the sky. As Chumki and Badal float across the sky over the brown and yellow fields they grow thirsty. The thirst leads them to gulp down the water from a nearby lake.
Folktales, since time immemorial have been a source of knowledge, cultural beliefs and practices and most importantly, entertainment. Leaving an indelible mark on people’s memories and consciousness, folktales have played the role of a teacher before books, television, internet and other modern technological inventions took the human race by storm. Brief, secular in nature and a repository of knowledge and culture, folktales have had a strong appeal for the masses. The cover page consists of a montage of illustrations from different stories in the anthology with the title written on the silhouette of the leaf of a Peepal tree, symbolizing antiquity and eternity, very much like these folktales.
The play Children of the Magic Pen is an AWIC (Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children) production collectively written by the authors was completed under the guidance of Feisal Alkazi, the eminent theatre personality. This play was conceptualized and performed as part of a three day Conference on Children’s Libraries: Building a Book Culture. The play depicts the meaningful quest and the journey in itself as its major narrative for both the readers and the characters. When we read the play, we are not just introduced to myriad characters across time and space, but we also see them come alive and relive once again in our memories.
In the collection titled Rangbhari Kahaniyan the themes and content of the stories are organized to generate interest and motivate the readers to explore the books. Characters are depicted in enabling and varied roles. As illustrations, there are characters such as Ambrish and Pooja, siblings who take a lot of interest in playing and working together. In ‘Kouli Aur Ouli’, two friends Kouli and Ouli think of an imaginative way of doing something and helping each other.
Kaua Aur Hans, which revolves around the question ‘Who is more beautiful’, has a simple plot, meant for early readers and all bird lovers.
Another beautiful story, based on the theme of inclusion is Pahiyon Ka Jadoo. Values have been woven in the story in a subtle manner through the characters of Sahil, Priya and her friends. It gives an opportunity to and encourages positive thinking towards our friends.
Stories like Chutaku Aur Mutuku, Kaua Aur Hans and Golu And Deepu revolve around a small event, a happening or an object which small children would find very interesting. Events have been explored from children’s perspective. With familiar contexts and character names the stories are situated in contexts that children can relate and identify with.
Golamgol Golmatol which is a relatively long story revolves around a monkey, bear, cat and other animals. There are four to six sentences on each page of the book and the number of words increases in comparison to the other stories. The pictures in the books are vivid and detailed. synchrony between the pictures and the text is established well so that when a reader may attempt to guess/predict what is written the pictures can prove to be a facilitative medium. It is also helpful as it adds to language exploration and enhancement of vocabulary. All the sentences in the books are built out of words that are a part of everyday language use. Spaces between pictures and other language material seem to be allotted liberally. The font of letters and spaces between letters, words and lines are suitable, the quality of the paper used is very good.
Golu Aur Deepu is a small story with simple language and short sentences. The organization of the text is also conducive to reading young ones as there is one sentence on the first two pages of the book and gradually the number of sentences and words increase from the next page. The illustrations in the story help readers, who are beginners, to comprehend the events in the text.
Gulab Pari conveys the value of care and sensitivity towards plants. It is a relatively long story with two sisters, Rina and Annu as its protagonists. This story showcases an important idea.
Twitt-er On A Saddle is a book of little tales with big messages. It is a collection of very short inspirational stories which are centred on the adventures of a globe-trotting sparrow called Twitt-er. Having escaped from his heavy burden of carrying messages on Social Media because computers round the world have crashed, Twitt-er is now ready for some vacations. This little sparrow has adventures which take him to various places across the world, and he sees everything from The Great Wall of China to Singapore. During his travels throughout the book, Twitt-er witnesses incidents through which he discovers the power of timeless values. The stories are well written—they have simple and easily understandable text, and buoyant and ebullient pictures with a dash of humour.
Just who Am I! And Other Stories is a sweet book with imaginative stories where the various characters, from little black cats to sprightly angels, navigate their way through one of the most important questions in life—who are they really? The book has four short stories with hidden messages on values and emotions such as love, compassion and forgiveness amidst the confusing backdrop of fear, doubt, and anger. The stories are suitable for young children, ages 5 to 9, to help them learn to identify their inner strengths and natures. The tales are of: Neel, a little cat trying to prove that there is more to him than being just a miniaturized feline, who has the adventure of a lifetime which makes him realize that, just like the chameleon and the worm he is ‘life and love’. Sparkles is an angel whose desire for her own halo brings her to Earth. Her story is on the joy of giving, as she realizes that the more light she gives out, the greater her own light becomes.
Arvind Gupta, an IITian has written many interactive science books for children. He has won many awards and prizes in this field; He tries to make science easy for children to understand. In this book he has traced the history of energy since the beginning of civilization. The first source of energy that humans used was wood. After wood they used coal and then oil. With the help of oil electricity began to be generated. Scientists have for long been looking for other sources of energy like wind and sun. These sources are best because they are going to last for a long time and are pollution free.
This collection of poems, translated from Japanese, touches your heart. The author was born and brought up and educated in the United States of America. All his life he was told that dropping of the Atom Bomb on Hiroshima was necessary and there was nothing wrong in it. He was used to words like Atomic Bomb and nuclear weapons. After finishing his studies in the US he went to Japan and studied the Japanese language. He visited the Peace Museum at Hiroshima. He met people there and talked to them. He learnt that the Japanese people gave the name PIKADON to Atom bomb. Arthur was influenced a lot by his visits to the Peace Museum.
This is a very interesting activity book, a puzzle to be solved with the illustrations and words. On the left side of the page is a line illustration, the right page is blank except for three or four words at the left top corner of the page. All the words start with the same alphabet. These words are quite uncommon. At the bottom right corner is one single word spelt backwards. Otherwise the whole page is blank. The child is required to find out as many words as possible from the line illustration on the left side, starting with the same alphabet as the words on the left top corner.
Based in a Ladakhi village Bumbu is a true story told to tourists by the Ladakhi guide who took them around. Padama loves Bambu like her little brother. She takes him grazing along with other animals of the farm. She sees to it that he is comfortable in the barn during the night where the other animals are kept. One day Padama notices that Bumbu is behaving strangely during the night. She finds that Bumbu stands at the same place the whole night. He refuses to take a single step once it is dark.
Karo-Koeli is a Santhali folktale. Folklore in India especially in the tribal areas full of stoies mostly about nature, telling how various rivers came into being or mountains were formed. This story tells us about the birth of two rivers flowing in Jharkhand province. In a village lived a brother and sister called Karo and Koeli, with their paternal uncle and aunt. On the festival day of Gomoha when their uncle left for the market to purchase a chicken for the evening feast the aunt, who didn’t like them at all, sends them to work in the fields.
When I was small my grandmother used to tell rhyming stories and we loved them. I still remember some of them. Though the book targets the readership of three to five it can interest the children of any age particularly from rural areas. These stories do not end, the child can go on adding new words and rhymes.
In today’s world of intolerance to anyone who is not like you this book is like a whiff of fresh air. The Village of Flowers is full of flowers of different shapes colours and hues. A camel comes to the village. Camel is a stranger as he is not a flower. Aak flower asks the question, ‘Whose flower are you?’ Camel is puzzled ‘I am not a flower I am a camel.’ ‘Then you are flower, flower of camel,’ Aak flower is convinced that the camel was a flower. The dialogue that takes place between Camel and Aak flower is funny humorous and simple. In the end Camel gets irritated and speaks loudly, ‘I am a camel’. ‘Ah! Now see you are flower, flower of camel.’ Aak is happy. Camel is also happy. He goes to other camels and tells them, ‘We are all flowers.’ The book is meant for children of 5 to 7 years of age.
Around The World With A Chilli is meant for independent readers. One imagines that the child who reads it may be above eight years old. A boy goes to pluck green chillies from his garden and is startled to find a chilli plant speaking to him. The spirit of chillies, Ajar Uchu, gets into a conversation with the boy and begins to tell him how chillies reached India from Mexico. When the child shows interest, Ajar Uchu tell him many more interesting things, such as how Christopher Columbus found America in his search for India, the development of sturdy ships to cross the seas and reach India, the voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, and so on.
The Boink Mystery is for level 3 readers, that is, children who have begun reading independently. The theme is about cleanliness in public places and in general. One feels happy that Pratham has taken up this theme and tried to create awareness about it. The mantra of ‘catch ‘em young’ is very apt in this situation. Aman is on a school trip to the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur when a strange flying object called Yontrik befriends him. The creature or the object starts beeping in distress every time someone does something dirty! He says that his ears or nose or eyes get a headache when he sees someone picking their nose or spitting or defecating in the open.
Brushing Is No Fun! is a level 2 book which means that it is for children who can read simple words and can read new words with help. The book is a square picture book with a paragraph or two of text on each page. This length of the text seems a little too much for such young children. Wouldn’t the book serve level 3 better? As the title suggests, the book is about the tediousness of brushing one’s teeth everyday. There’s a child who doesn’t want to brush his teeth, nor bathe, nor do all those boring personal hygiene things that all children ought to do.
The story revolves around Franklin, a little boy—the main character in the book who spends his days gazing at the clouds in the sky. He thinks he doesn’t need friends. His clouds are his friends—unfailing, omnipresent and always welcoming. And in his imagination, he finds not only shapes but stories and adventures. However, Franklin’s loneliness is dismissed when Scruffy Dog shows up one fine day. This creature seems to follow him everywhere and simply won’t leave him to the loneliness he’s used to. Franklin wants nothing to do with her.
Annie Besant, one of the most pro lific writers for children in India, is the author of this beautiful gift set for little readers. The world of Beebop, the most friendly and special buzzing bee, is peopled by Sarah, the leader of the group, Jay, a true explorer, Chalk the beloved doggie companion, Zubin and Zoya, the twin enfant terribles. Aimed at the Level 1 reader, the four story books are paired with four activity books. As each story unfolds, it takes the reader through the most exciting and magical expeditions.
The Will, meant for level 3 readers, is again a singularly inappropriate choice in storyline and comes across as morbid.To have a child read about how a father makes a will against the event of his death, how the three sons ignore the naseehat in their hurry to find his vasiyat, and the mother has to intervene to prevent them from fighting with one another—makes one squirm.
Pratham Books, an NGO, has been engaged in publishing books in multiple Indian languages to promote reading among children. Their mission is to see a book in every child’s hand, one that they have been successfully carrying out over the last 12 years. The Children’s special issue every November has always carried reviews of Pratham titles (available online on the goodbooks and the book review sites). However, the two titles being reviewed here are a bit problematic in more ways than one.
This bilingual text for age 3 , written by Meenu Thomas (author of Fakhruddin’s Fridge, Tulika) in English and Hindi, is about two little boys, as different as chalk and cheese in their likes and what they like to do. But all the same, they are the best of friends. With minimum text but brought alive by exuberant illustrations, a story of universal friendship will be understood by the toddler without any need for explanations.
The moment one thinks of an alphabet book, boring boxes with letters printed in one corner and a garish image of fruit or an animal in the rest, come to the mind. So when gems like The Book of Beasts show up on bookshelves, it is time to rejoice and grab your copy. Children need to be connected with Nature and it is books like these that accomplish the task. Even if you’re old for children’s books, you will surely enjoy it because it is so insightful. The book starts off with the foreword from the author’s granddaughter, who had been given these animal verses as a birthday present by her grandfather.
Who doesn’t love a superhero? Even if he’s one with seven and a half limbs? Rot8 is the resident octopus at Goa Sea World. An accident at birth leaves this cephalopod with half a limb missing. This is soon put to rights by vet Reena Renaldo and the scientist ZubbuZwami.
One for Sorrow sets out to explain the many proverbs and sayings that are a ‘key facet of our conversations.’ The say ings are all, of course, taken from the English language. The book covers everything from the most common sayings like ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss’, to the less commonplace such as ‘It is ill prizing of green barley’. Chloe Rhodes is a journalist and this is evidenced in her clear and precise reporting of the etymology, history and reasons behind the usage of the various sayings she has outlined. She references everything from literature to religion and myth conscientiously. However, it is probably this very straightforward way of reporting that consigns this book to being a reference book and not really a book that one would read with avid interest over and over again.
The Lal Badam Tree is a translation of an Urdu story written by Rumana Husain. This level 3 book (for reading independently) from Pratham effortlessly merges the charm of an old world story with the contemporary colours and textures in Ruchi Mhasane’s art. At the heart of the picture book is the Lal Badam Tree that is both a source of endless joy and irritation. It brings joy to Rashida and Anwar—and the parrots that frequent their house—who constantly gorge on the kernels hidden within the seeds.
A colourful kaleidoscope of originals from well known writers, traditional favourites from OLUGUTI TOLUGUTI collection—sounds and resonances from a world familiar to children.’ This smartly written blurb had me in a tizzy of excitement, eager to read the rhymes and to become a child myself. I’m happy to say the book did not disappoint. Tulika’s Dum Dum Dho is a fun collection of Indian rhymes both new and old; the new ones written by favourite authors like Sandhya Rao, Manjula Padmanabhan, Zai Whitaker and Jeeva Raghunath, and the oldies sourced from Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Mizo and many other languages.
Poverty is often a concept many of us find ourselves uncomfortable discussing. We get discomfited by them and react with varying combinations of indifference, irritation or pity, and seek to forget them as soon as possible. We distance ourselves by imagining the poor as some sort of separate being—either idealizing them or villainizing them, but inevitably making caricatures who do not resemble ‘people’ we can identify with. Rinchin and Manjari Chakravarti’s The Trickster Bird is a beautiful and very important story which narrows the chasm between ‘us’ an ‘them’ and presents a small cross-section of the life of a little rag picker girl who lives in the city and ekes out a living with her family.
Just as Dennis feels isolated because he is not understood by others, Clumsy! is a book about a little girl with two left feet and all thumbs—food spills on her clothes, milk tumbles from her glass, and things just seem to ‘wobble, tumble and shatter’ around her. She faces constant reprimands and recriminations, teasing and scolding, until she begins to withdraw into herself and all the thoughts she finds herself unable to voice fill her head, and which express themselves became pictures and drawings of the world around her.
As that old song goes ‘Everybody needs somebody’—someone who understands and accepts you as you are, and can enter into your schemes and plans. The ‘someone’ in question need not be a romantic partner—often our closest relationships can be with a friend, who stands with you through thick or thin, and just gets you. But the corollary to this is that because our friendships are with people we can relate to, those to whom we can’t often get treated as outsiders and can feel isolated and alone.
Everyone loves Gajapati Kulapati, a cheerful young el-ephant who is friendly with everyone. And because of this, people love giving ‘little’ snacks to him! But what happens when a rather young elephant eats ten bunches of bananas, a big bundle of sugarcane, coconuts, jaggery, and rice…all at once? The stomachache which results is as painful as it is inevitable, and it worries the young elephant’s friends, who rush about to try to help him. The book is a happy and cheerful little story with simple words and evocative sounds, but which can be a springboard into discussions about moderation about eating ourselves, or moderation and being careful about feeding animals—be they pets or just our friendly strays on the street.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
In line with Devdutt Pattanaik’s philosophy which portrays myth as a subjective truth, he essentially tries to tell a story that has been told innumerable times in history as a more flexible and consequencedriven recount of events. He takes on the Ramayana by delving into Sita’s psyche while breaking the epic into five seamlessly knit together chapters, each one unfolding as one of her choices. It is his perception on the reasons behind a character’s actions which makes it an original account. For a young mind, these justify the behaviour and choices of the various characters and highlighting their contrasting characteristics clearly.
I have heard and read a hundred times stories about Ganesha, and thought I knew them all: how he refused Shiva entry following Ma Parvati’s instructions, which enraged Shiva so much he cut off the child’s head, and then repented and got him an elephant’s head Anju Virmani THE STORY OF HANUMAN Text by Mala Dayal. Illustrated by Taposhi Ghoshal Red Turtle/Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 2016, pp. 74, R395.00 GANESH By Subhadra Sen Gupta. Illustrated by Tapas Guha Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 2016, pp. 42, R295.00 instead; how he broke off a tusk so that the writing of the Mahabharata was seamless; how he encircled his parents three times to win the race against his brother Kartikeya. So it came as a bit of a shock that there are other versions of the familiar, conventional tales.
The stories of Hanuman, son of Vasu and Anjana, his adven- tures as a child, his role in the Ramayana, and then in the Mahabharata, are a cornerstone of Hindu mythology. Hanuman’s life is like an adventure movie—filled with acts of great strength and courage, in- terspersed with evidence of his learn- ing and wisdom—so that it can be as exciting for the youngest child as it can be profound for an adult. In ear- lier generations, children had the fa- cility of grandmothers and grandfathers to tell them stories from our rich and varied mythology. With ever shrinking families, the child must have access to other sources. In her book The Story of Hanuman, Maya Dayal introduces very young children to some of these tales. Told simply, the book touches upon many events he is famous for: swallowing Surya, then persuading him to be his teacher; becoming Sugriva’s minister as guru-dakshina, and then helping him and Rama get together.
The Rama story has been around for a long time. It has been a part of people’s life and thought for generations in this country. An inspiration for both saints and savants over the ages, its longstanding and continued appeal for common folk too has been no less clear to many observers of this land. Its spread has also been documented by eminent scholars in modern times. About three decades ago, this was done in fascinating detail, with India as the background, by A.K. Ramanujan in his acclaimed dissertation Three Hundred Ramayanas.