Sudha Murty’s book presents the story of a young princess who pleads with her father to let her live a different life, believing that her friends are happier than she is. Her father honours her wish and helps her to explore alternative lives for one year each, until she ultimately realizes that her life is as good as any of her friends’.
To engage early readers, Murty has adopted a fantasy theme. The protagonist, the Princess of the Sea, is joined by other characters representing princesses of a river, a mountain and a tree. This will appeal to children and they will be tempted to follow the princess’s journey through to the story’s end. The hardbound book features beautiful illustrations printed on glossy paper, with a unique palette of soft pastels, that lend warmth to the reading experience.
Stories such as this one serve the important purpose of helping children learn life lessons that will not automatically emerge either from academic education or everyday family conversations. The story effectively delivers its key idea: life will have its ups and downs, but we can still be happy by embracing what we have. In addition, there is a multitude of small and big lessons that can be learnt from the book. However, not all of these will be suitable for children as young as five years old, for whom the book is marked. Older children, who have developed the cognitive abilities for perspective taking, can learn the importance of looking at life from many dimensions and understand the trade-offs of various possibilities. Parents can themselves learn the lesson to allow and even help children to explore alternatives before they make a choice. This need not be restricted to making major life choices but is equally applicable to everyday life decisions.
For self-reading or read aloud sessions, follow up discussions can be organized on various themes emerging from the story. At the beginning of the story, Princess of the Sea is mocked by her friends for having endless salty water. Readers or listeners can be encouraged to question if friends should mock each other. What could be possible ways of handling such a situation? The author misses an opportunity to break the stereotype of gender-exclusive friend circles. This could also be another discussion point. Throughout the story, the princesses face many challenges. As a mountain, one faces excavation; as a river, the second faces floods and droughts; as a tree, the third faces the various seasons and eventually, the threat of being victim to deforestation. Each of these situations provides opportunity to explore emotions that the princesses undergo— fear, anger, sadness, and disappointment. Further, the situations open up conversations about necessary and unnecessary human intervention, and their impact on the environment.
The book holds tremendous potential for parents who are interested in introducing reading to children at an early age. It will also serve as a valuable addition to school and private libraries, and reading corners of foundational stage classrooms.