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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.