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All children are born imaginative, some perhaps more than others. And imagination fosters creativity. Unfortunately, their curiosity to discover the world around often gets jaded over the years. What experience ignites a child’s imagination? What helps the child pursue the ideas formed during the growing years? As a child, Einstein was fascinated by a magnetic compass gifted by his father to play with, wondering why its needle always pointed to the north! Later, in his teens, he would marvel how it would be like if he travelled so fast as to catch up with a beam of light!..

This is the story of a determined, stubborn and spirited girl who has become famous as Teejan Bai. She has been heaped with honours, but her journey from the humble Bhil village of Ganiyari (Chattisgarh) to the world stage was a struggle. Teejan’s birth was not welcome in her impoverished family, and her enthusiasm for playing kabaddi and climbing trees met the disapproval of her disciplinarian mother. She was mesmerized by her grandfather Brijlal’s performance of Pandvani—narration of tales from Mahabharata and wanted to sing also…

Ribhu’s Adventure on Earth is a fun story where a fun-loving air-spirit Ribhu, a child of the Gandharvas of Indian mythology and student of Gandharva Vasusen gets cursed by sage Durvasa for disturbing his meditation. With his dholak as the only companion he is cursed to go down to the earth as a demon rakshasa in Dandaka.The story revolves around Ribhu’s adventures in his new life with his dholak as a friendly reminder of the past, where he meets demons like Tadaka rakshasi, Mareecha (Tadaka’s son) and observes how Rama frees them from their curses. Ribhu then moves away to Mithila where he meets Ahalya (the wife of Rishi Gautama) turned into a rock and waiting for the young Prince Rama to come there and touch her with his foot to free her from the curse…

The book is mainly based on the story of Ramayana. But it differs from most of the books narrating the story of Ramayana in the sense that other books have Rama, Lakshmana and others as the main characters, but this book gives you a new perspective on the journey of Rama. It depicts the contribution of the monkeys in Rama’s Ayana i.e., Rama’s journey. Whether it was the search for Sita or the construction of a bridge over the sea to reach Lanka, or defeating the greats of Ravana’s army, or bringing the Sanjeevani herb to save Lakshmana, all this would not have been possible without the cooperation of the monkeys…

The enchantment of the epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, is soul stirring and timeless, capable of reviving the thrill of the tale with every fresh presentation of the drama down to the current times and newer audiences. So many creative attempts have been made, using a variety of formats, styles and texts to analyse the story and the characters through the years in novel interpretations but the main source still remains a fountain of joy for authors to re-create the original tale. Salutations to Vyasa for painting such a rich canvas of the Mahabharata from where writers can never tire of highlighting every single square inch of the grand picture, time and again…

Hindu Mythology is often seen as a complicated, contradictory and inaccessible compendium of stories that we all have heard bits and pieces of, but never really knew sequentially or entirely. Despite the unique stories and characters involved in Hinduism, the fact that there are multiple sources and versions of the same myth makes it difficult to involve children in learning these extraordinary tales. Mythquest Omnibus is a beautiful series of four books, which resolves this dilemma in a simple way…