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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.