By Arvind Gupta

Arvind Gupta, an IITian has written many interactive science books for children. He has won many awards and prizes in this field; He tries to make science easy for children to understand. In this book he has traced the history of energy since the beginning of civilization. The first source of energy that humans used was wood. After wood they used coal and then oil. With the help of oil electricity began to be generated. Scientists have for long been looking for other sources of energy like wind and sun. These sources are best because they are going to last for a long time and are pollution free.


Reviewed by: Girija Asthana
By Arthur Bernard

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.


Reviewed by: Girija Asthana
By Kanak Shashi Eklavya

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.


Reviewed by: Girija Asthana
By Sujata Padamnabhan

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.


Reviewed by: Girija Asthana
By Gurucharan Murmu

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.


Reviewed by: Girija Asthana
By Sushil Shukla

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.


Reviewed by: Girija Asthana