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At the end, the book provides an opportunity for children to engage in an activity, reflecting an effort to inspire them to write stories themselves. You read the story, and then you write one too. Thus, the wave’s voyage concludes with a journey of reading and writing combined. The narrative has a strong foundation, but it could have been made more engaging by tightening the storyline and streamlining some of the details. A more concise narrative would have helped maintain momentum and make the key moments and themes stand out more effectively. Nevertheless, this adventurous book is available in both Hindi and English.

The author has written this story with great sensitivity, and the illustrations in the story bring out Bunty’s mood and emotions just as strongly. The illustrations have shades of blue, red, and gold, which show what Bunty is thinking and feeling. You can also see clocks here and there, indicating that time moves at its own pace.
How does a child experience the passing of time? This unfolds page by page in the story. The fun part is that Bunty also makes plans to spend this time. While reading this story,

she takes flight into the boundless sky of her imagination. With a ball on her nose, she transforms into a clown; wearing a cardboard box, she becomes a robot; and with unique antennae on her head, she turns into an alien. Amidst the music and its melody, she shifts fluidly from clown to robot to alien. All this unfolds through the rhythm and movement of the illustrations.

The story is a kissa, as we say in Hindi: a small incident, sweet enough to be worth telling. It reminded me of a friend’s little cousin who loved bhindi. Every time they went to the market, he would point at a vegetable and announce, ‘Bhindi!’ ‘No, beta, that’s mirchi.’ Another one: ‘Bhindi!’ ‘No, beta, that’s kundru.’ This went on until he finally held up a real bhindi. My friend was about to say no, thinking he was still showing the wrong vegetable, and that is what made it so funny. Children learn this way: they form a schema,

This, then, is the special something this book has managed to achieve in the simplest of ways. We would all like to encourage kindness and compassion in children but the author has managed to do so in a charming manner without preaching or moralizing so as to get the message across. Of course, she has been greatly assisted by the bright and colourful illustrations by Sonal Gupta Vaswani–and together, they make this an absolutely ideal book to be read to young children—4 years and above—even before they can read it themselves.

The story has Paati giving step-by-step instructions to Noni on how to make the perfect, buttery-crisp, yummy dosa. The whole process is beautifully described, using a lot of rhyme and onomatopoeia, making it very lyrical. One wonders if Noni, or any child listening to or reading this story, will be able to fall asleep without getting hungry and needing to eat a real dosa!
Incidentally, this story reminds me of my childhood days,