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.