My Friend, the Sea

Dec 26, 2004 is one of the worst days in history of mankind. The earthquake triggered a series of devastating tsunamis that spread throughout the Indian Ocean, killing large numbers of people and inundating coastal communities across South and Southeast Asia, including parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. This is considered one of the worst natural disasters in known history.

Fishermen live near the sea and for them, on this day, it appears that their dear friend had suddenly turned extremely violent. The book My Friend, the Sea is a story of a fisher-boy who escapes the tsunami and it follows the feelings of this child as he tries to understand how his best friend, the sea, could turn so violent.

The book is presented from the point of view of this boy. It starts in an optimistic note as the boy talks about his friend - the Kadalamma, the Ocean Mother. The culture and life of the fisherfolk is tightly integrated with ocean and the initial pages explains their boat - Kattumaran (their boat that has not changed its design for almost 3000 years) , their food - kanji, that his father and grandfather prefer to eat in the middle of the sea and his life with family and friends.

Grandfather is the boy's hero as he claims in the beginning of the book - "his grandfather knows everything" (like every kid of his age would think of their grandfathers and grandmothers). So, he surprised and completely taken aback that even his grandfather was not able to hear the tsunami coming that day. He loses his father and many of his friends on the fateful day, but remains hopeful that they could probably still find their way back.

The book ends in an optimistic note too - he says that his school is going to reopen again and talks about his plans to go wave riding with his friends again. Inspite of the great devastation and personal lose, the boy does not lose hope and looks forward for his own kattumaram that his brother has promised him.

On a personal note(not related to the book), I realised how much of an effect the tsunami's tragedy had on Sooraj based on the following episode. Many months after the devastation, when we visited the beach, the moment he saw the waves from far, his first question was -- 'Amma, Appa, Is that tsunami?'. He had somehow intrinsically associated the waves with tsunami. Being born and brought in a city, books like these would probably help city children and parents understand nature and how it is intrinsic to the life of many non-city children (something that we as city dwellers have forgotten long back).

The book is written by Sandhya Rao and the photographs are by Karuna Sesh and Pervez Bhagat. The book is published by Tulika Books in association with Consulate General of Germany, Chennai. As the book excerpts claim - it tries to avoid the pictures of the devastation and tries to concentrate on optimism and longing of the fisherfolks for their dearest friend - the Sea. The publishers mention that the book is for 6+ years old, but, I feel it is a good book that we, as parents, could share with our 4 year olds too. This book is a followup of another book by Tulika Publishers called Suresh and the Sea.

If I were a lion

If I were a Lion
by Sarah Weeks
Illustrated by Heather M. Solomon

Ages : 3-6

Most of us have heard of time outs. Many of us have even tried them on our kids, perhaps even successfully. In my personal experience, time-outs never worked for me and my 3 and 1/2 year old boy, because he never sat still in the same place for the stipulated time. But he sure knows what a time-out means. Which is perhaps one of the biggest reasons he enjoyed this book!

The title of this book was what caught my attention when I spotted it on the library shelf. 'If I were a lion'.......really sparked my curiosity to find out more about why a little girl would want to be like a lion and what would she do if she were one.

The little girl in the picture is the one with the time-out. Her Mom just cannot take it anymore, and tells her she's on a time-out because she is just too w-i-l-d!

But our little protagonist here is highly indignant about being described such. She goes on to justify what wild really means by comparing herself to the animals that are r-e-a-l-l-y wild and their behavior and habits. In fact she is so convincing in her arguement that you have to give her full credit for the unjustness of her punishment.

Each page is filled with illustrations of the animal or wild being she compares to, to show what a true opposite she really is. The illustrations are done with a flourish and seem to flow riotuously throughout the page in a vibrant bundle of colours......the expressions on this little girl's face are so alive with spirit and fire that you identify with her each step of the way.

The cutest part for me were these little scribbles of wall art in crayons. There's a spattering of them in almost every page in a corner of the wall and you know just how naughty our little friend actually is. And yet.....yet you just want her and her Mamma to make up and be lovey again. Do we get the happy ending we hope for? There's only one way to find out.......so go a little wild on this one! :)

P.S - I just found out that the author, Sarah Weeks has written soooo many books and has a pretty cool blog and website. Check it out if you're interested!

A place to grow and Dear Juno

A place to grow
by Soyung Pak

Ages : 4-8


Keeping in the mind the essence and spirit of Saffron Tree's multi-cultural objective, I am reminded of this beautiful book that I had the opportunity to read a few months ago. It was an accidental find in the library shelves, and I was so entranced by it that I had reviewed it, albeit briefly, on my personal space, but it deserves more than a few lines....and Saffron Tree is just the place to do it.

When you turn over the cover of the book, the first thing you will read is this line...A family is like a seed. It needs a good, safe place to grow. This is the central thread in the book and it is skillfully interwoven by comparing the care a seed needs to flower and blossom, to that of a human being living in a country who also needs equal nurture.

A little girl is helping her father in tilling the garden and preparing the soil for planting. It is that time of the year when the earth is soft and the seeds flying in the wind, find thier gardens to grow in and finally land. Her father too has flown a long way to grow into a family. All seeds travel, says her Dad.

She asks him why. He tells her that a seed needs land to grow. And not just any land, but the kind that is good and warm and like a cozy home. Some lands are not of this kind and filled with too many guns and not enough love. So the seed flies with the wind.

She asks him why. He tells her that a seed needs sun to grow. But the sun doesn't shine on everything, and it doesn't shine where the shadows fall, which is what happens when there are enough dreams but not enough hope. So the seeds flies with the wind.

She asks him why. He tells her that a seed needs rain to grow. The rain that fell on our seed came only now and then, and sometimes not at all., which is what it is like when there are too many workers and not enough work. So the seed flies with the wind.

Some seeds just make a short hop, while some seeds fly a long way till they find the garden that's just right for them. So the girl and her father sit thier garden, with the soft dirt underneath thier feet and the starry night above. And looking at them, you know that there grows a garden inside thier heart.

Whilst reading this to my 3 and 1/2 year old, I thought that perhaps it wasn't the most age appropriate book for him, to understand the subtle undercurrents that flows through thier conversation. But then again, children take home different things from thier reading experiences at different points of their growing hood. And as a parent, it might just be in our hands to add our own perceptions to thiers. After all, a lot of us too are familiar with being separated from our roots and from the people we love.....in some ways, this book may get us thinking about our own personal choices to be this far and why we continue to live with that choice.

So moved was I by this book that I was excited to discover the very first book written by Soyung Pak.

Dear Juno

by Soyung Pak

Ages : 4-8

Dear Juno is a very simple story about a little Korean boy who has just received a letter addressed to him from his grandmother in Korea. He is very excited to read the letter, but he cannot because it is written in their native language. And his parents are too busy just then to sit and read it to him. So what does he do? He decides to open it and see what's inside. To his surprise, he finds a few things besides the actual letter that helps him understand more about his grandmother and her life there, and also the possible contents of her letter to him. And thus he reads the letter on his own bridging the gap of distance that separates him and his grandmother.

And he composes a reply on his own too, but not with words. The letter is posted, and a few weeks later, he receives a package from his grandmother, who has understood his language and replies to him again. This time too....he understands perfectly without the medium of words and thus it goes on. A bond is forged and the ways and means to that are simple and sweet.

So are you curious on how the boy and his grandmother talk to each other? Pick up the book and delve right in!

A soother

OWL BABIES By Martin Waddell , illustrated by Patrick Benson







OWL BABIES is a picture book that deals with a very sensitive issue that every infant or toddler experiences early on. It is a book about the mental anguish that young ones undergo due to maternal separation and the constant reassurance they need - the belief and trust that every mother would unfailingly return to her young one.

The book zooms into a simple yet critical incident in the lives of three owlets. The setting is a sober conversation among three siblings upon discovering their mommy's disappearance one night. Waiting is painful. They hope and pray that their mother is out, only to find food, that she is safe and that she would definitely come back to them. The mommy hooter returns. Her unexpected yet expected return makes the owlets ecstatic!

I bought this book around the time my daughter started preschool (after staying at home for a good chunk of her early life) . I would always reassure her that I would pick her up later the same day. She never cried a tear but she would always reiterate my verbal assurance. I think we were able to relate to this book a lot and my daughter felt good about the restored confidence. Even after months, we still read it and enjoy the warmth when the mother owl takes in her babies under her wings.

The incident is uncomplicated and the story is simply written. The visual backdrop of a black tree hole and frightened owls may not be a common sight among the brightly hued, cheerfully written children's books. However, the vivid pictures will only draw you closer to the actual night. This is probably one of the many books based on this concept, but it is surely a very good book to be read to your little one who needs the reassurance.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Seeing the last two reviews that my friends, Meera and Tharini have written celebrating two great authors - Margaret Wise Brown and Eric Carle, I am certainly motivated to write about another great author from the 20th century children's literature - Shel Silverstein.

The author and his creations are definitely out-of-the-box. Shel Silverstein is known for his books on funny poetry or giggle poetry as my daughter would call(we love making rhymes that sound funny - thanks to hours of listening to Raffi in the car!) The Giving Tree is a different kind of story. It is a moving story about the love a tree has for a little boy. The tree gives all it has to a little boy who simply manages to extract every little thing he can from the tree. You might end up tearing up at the end of the story.

The Giving Tree provides morals and lessons for readers of all ages at different levels. This book offers a deep environmental message -"You can be friends with a tree - but please give unselfish/unconditional love to nature "unlike" the little boy in the story!"

In our family, whenever we read "The Giving Tree" during bedtime, we make sure we sing this Tree song, which my older daughter loves!The tree song is a hit in our family and more or less of a family song now - My husband loves joining in, and we have sung it together so many times with our older daughter - one of the first songs she learned to sing by herself - I think she was two then - even before she learned her nursery rhymes!

It's by Mr.Rogers from Rogers' Neighborhood - a show on PBSKids PBS(public broadcasting service)!

Tree,Tree,Tree
Tree,Tree,Tree
Tree,Tree,Tree
Tree,Tree,Tree

We love you!
Yes,We do!
Yes,We do!
We love you!

Tree,Tree,Tree
Tree,Tree,Tree
Tree,Tree,Tree
Tree,Tree,Tree

(I have never "typed" so many trees in a row...that felt good - ( "planting" lots and lots of trees must feel even better, right?) This reminds me of a true environmentalist - the Kenyan Tree Woman - Mrs.Maathai who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her environmental work..Bravo!)

Find more about Mr.Roger's Neighborhood - one of the first shows I let my daughter watch on TV when she was close to two, aside from Sesame Street. I too enjoyed watching the show with her.

Here's the link Tree,Tree,Tree..Do listen to the Tree song with your kids, wherever you are in the world -
Tree,Tree,Tree

Thanks, and that's all for this week!! I am traveling the next couple of weeks, but I am sure will be tuning in from my travel destinations...

Meanwhile, a very happy new year to you all!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

My first review being that of an Eric Carle work is no accident. I have been reading his books to my 2.5 year old since she was 10 months. The one that has impressed me the most is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar' (although my daughter might debate and settle for "Head to Toe"!).

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a picture board book. It can be read to a child as young as an year old. The author is also the illustrator. His art, although not the very common type, is interesting and colorful. The book is a simple story about the three weeks in the life of a mortal caterpillar, the three weeks between his conception from an egg to his culmination into a beautiful butterfly.

The book begins with the caterpillar's entry into this world from a tiny egg on a Sunday morning. An apple does not seem to satisfy his hunger. He continues to eat many other fruits in increasing numbers on the following days of the week. Still hungry, the caterpillar chooses to climax his routine with a gluttonous meal, a horde of eatables. As expected, the immodest eater ends up with a stomach ache! All the food seems to have an effect, the caterpillar actually grows in size. He houses himself in a cocoon for a couple of weeks and reenters the world as an attractive butterfly.

The above story is narrated in close to just a dozen lines. The pages are loaded with brightly colored pictures of the caterpillar and his food pals. The fruits, that he eats on the weekdays, are in counting sequence on layered pages. This adds interest while the little one learns to count 1-5. The names of a multitude of yummy foods can be easily "ingested" (pun intended!) by the small brain. The days of the week are also subtly interwoven into the story. The grand finale is when your child actually picks up the life cycle of a butterfly without a science book or a garden tour, but a simple story about a hungry creature and lots of fun food!

And here is the bonus - whenever my overeaten toddler asks for more or simply junk, I cannot resist the slogan that actually makes sense to her- "you don't want to end up with a tummy ache just like our ever hungry friend"!

The author has successfully packed in a lot things without giving the feeling of going overboard to the reader. He teaches many basic concepts while keeping the simplicity of the story in tact. Read it to your child to see the jolt when the egg pops, the smile that all the yum-yums bring, the worried look when the worm falls sick and the twinkle in the eyes on seeing the glorious butterfly!

This and That...

Children's Book Fair - Bay area

Links/events related to children's books:
1)The India Community Center of the bay area is organizing a children's book fair.

Here's some details about the time and location of the fair:
Dec 2
9:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Dec 3
9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Admission free
Location: ICC Milpitas
555 Los Coches Street
Milpitas, CA 95035
408-934-1130

Check out the link for more info:
http://indiacc.org/category.aspx?catid=28

2) There is another link my friend forwarded me about a bay area company named Meera Masi that produces story books, alphabet and rhyme CDs in Hindi. There was an article that appeared in the Hindu newspaper about the founders and their work.
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/08/27/stories/2006082700450200.htm

http://www.meeramasi.com/
That's it from me for this weekend! Will get back next week with more...

The Color Kittens

The Color Kittens
by Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen

Ages : 3-6

Margaret Wise Brown is one of my all time favorite authors. Her 'Goodnight Moon' needs no introduction! Its the rite of passage for any book loving child and parent.

So a week ago, when I found myself, quite by accident, in the B shelves, her name caught my immediate attention, and I started extracting all the books I could find.

The Color Kittens is one of them! I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, judging by the cover alone, but my faith in the author carried me through and what a delightful surprise it was!

In essence, when you open to the first page of the book, you immediately enter the world of colors, through the two color loving kittens Brush and Hush. They have buckets and buckets of colors to splash around with, and with these they want to make all the colours of the world.

Getting into the drift of the book now?

Yes, it is a good introduction to the concept that our basic colors can be mixed to get a variety of new colors. So don't be surprised if your child, after reading this book with you, wants to go find her brushes and paints and do a little experimenting of her own. It makes YOU want to do the same!

Now every good book, to be a good book, has to have a tangible problem that needs to be solved. Well, what's the problem here? Brush and Hush looooove the color green, because nearly every place they liked to go to was green. But they don't know how to make some green paint.

So they try. And end up with a totally unexpected color. But they don't give up. They try again. But no luck....its a new color yet again, but still no green. Then, almost by accident..........well I shall go no further, otherwise it would kill the suspense and mystery of the book for you. :)

So I'll just say this on a parting note........the words are delightful and in places flow in prose form, which is fanciful to a child's ears. The illustrations are simple and yet catchy. The colors themselves are pretty, as only colors can be.....and the rest I leave to you to find out, through the eyes of your child.

Enjoy yourself with The Color Kittens!

Cybils Award - The 2006 Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards

Cyblis award - A new children's book award open to blogger nominations.

I have sent in my nomination already - Uma Krishnaswamy's The Closet Ghosts

In case you are interested in nominating your favorite children's and young adult books online - here's some information that I received from a friend about the award:

"The Cybils is a new award - It's probably the first blogger/online book award out there - all you need to do is go to the website, list the book, and write 1 sentence on why you're nominating it.

Here's the site:
http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2006/10/picture_books.html"

The deadline to nominate is Monday at midnight (ET). If you take a sneak peek at the nominations, you might be able to get an idea about some of the best books in various categories for this year - picture book, fantasy and science fiction, middle grade fiction, poetry, young adult fiction etc.

An article about the award on The Edge of the Forest - a children's literature monthly magazine

Thank you all! See you next week!

The Okay Book by Todd Parr

The OKay Book is a cute book for toddlers and preschoolers that conveys the important messages of self-esteem, and tolerance in a kid-friendly package.
Author: Todd Parr.

When and why did I buy this book? Got it when my preschooler was 2 yrs old. A book with simple text that can make little ones feel good about who they are, and not be biased against others for the way they are- to develop self-respect, and also to be respectful of others. An important lesson in today's world!

Not at all paternalistic or preachy! A great book that is fun for little ones and grown-ups!
Here's some sample text from the book, which can be put into four "message" buckets -
Simple self-esteem based ones: It's ok to wear glasses, It's ok to be short, ok to be tall..
Tolerance based - ok to live in a small house, it's ok to come from a different place etc..
For the emotions: ok to share, ok to be scared...
Funny ones - ok to wear two different socks...
The final one "It's Okay to dream big" - a neat way to end!

More of Todd Parr: You can check his website http://www.toddparr.com/books/ for his other books

Text: Simple one-liners that even preschoolers can read. In fact, this has been one of the books that my daughter loves taking with her for her "show and tell" sessions at her preschool. She loves reading it aloud to her friends - a confidence booster for her reading skills!

Illustrations: Bright and goofy

Age group - 2 to 99 :-)

Padma T.V. - Profile of an author

Padma T.V. who is a Chennai-based author with an amazing array of children's books to her credit. Padma creates fascinating stories for children that can be appealing not only to children but also to adults who have missed out on reading fun books similar to Padma's growing up. She has 18 animal stories to her credit that fall under the series "The amazing animal kingdom", and they are sure to appeal to young children. I am amazed at this author's multifarious talents. She has a scientific background, and writes on every topic under the sun - from oceanography to history to architecture, painting, geology, paleontology, politics, science, philosophy etc. Beware! She is one author that can make you actually make you feel jealous while reading her books to your children, and that voice inside you, if you know what I mean, will make you wonder "how could she do it all? Wow!!"

Padma also writes for older audiences, which I am yet to explore, given she has so much to offer in the children's book genre. My 4 yr old daughter, who is an avid animal lover (who wants to be an animal caretaker when she grows up :-) ) loves all kinds of animal stories, and Padma's books are a treasure trove of knowledge and fun for my little one. Her books can easily transport children to ancient lands, under the sea, into the jungle etc.

Children can discover amazing facts from her works of fiction- whether it is historical fiction or animal kingdom - her stories are sheer fun and a delight for children to read, and for parents to read with their children. She even has an upcoming series of Mathematical folktales. Padma's work reminds me of an American children's book author Mary Pope Osbourne,who is popular for her Magic Tree House Series - her chapter books for little ones feature Jack and Annie embarking on amazing adventures! (more about Jack and Annie in my future reviews)

Some of Padma's recent works include The Forbidden Temple Historical Fiction; Mathematical Folktales, and her latest nonfiction picture book - The Albertosaurus Mystery: Philip Currie's Hunt in the Badlands - about a dinosaur and a fossil hunter is a nonfiction picture book for children in the age group 9 - 12.

The Closet Ghosts by Uma Krishnaswami. Illustrated by Shiraaz Bhabha

Here's a spooky pick for halloween! Have a "boo"tiful one!

The book, The Closet Ghosts, is a brand new addition to my preschooler's library for this year's halloween.

Here's why I ended up picking this title for my daughter:

1) During the 3-4 yrs of my daughter's preschool stages, we read a lot of animal stories, simple folk and fairy tales from India and the US. Of late, I have been trying to slowly transition her into picture books with stories depicting little children in it. I got her a few titles from India, which worked well. However, I was keen finding a picture book with a simple story with characters that she can relate to - mainly a cross-cultural picture book depicting a simple day-to-day story or an event in an Indian American family! My search led me to Uma Krishnaswami's The Closet Ghosts.

2) Secondly, the title seemed to fit perfectly with my daughter's recent obsessions with all things spooky and scary - bats, owls, ghosts, and snake. And with October being the halloween month, this was a perfect little gift for her to get into the spirit of the season.

Here are a few snippets of the story:

The Closet Ghosts tells a delightful story of a little girl named Anu who is anxious about having to adjust to a new home and a new school. She misses her old friend, Mira, and her new classmates do not seem friendly at all. All these anxieties lead her to imagine that there are ghosts in the closets of her new home waiting to scare her. Not just ghosts, but she also imagines Hanuman, the monkey god, has appeared in her room so she can talk about her fears, friends, and get help in chasing the ghosts out of her closet.

Anu, with Hanuman by her side, experiments a couple of different ideas to chase the imaginary ghosts out of the closet - one of which one fails, but boy, the other one does indeed work. The story ends with a fun little twist. The author has done a wonderful job keeping the text simple, and the text flows beautifully - not to miss the ghostly songs in Hindi, which add to the playfulness of the story. Shiraaz Bhabha's illustrations are vivid and colorful, and her attention to details is awe-inspiring - particularly Anu missing a few teeth - a pointer to her age, her ear rings, and the cover page with a picture of winking Anu - all playful and fun! It clearly shows how synchronized a team the author and the illustrator must have been working together!

The book helped me talk to my daughter about Anu's emotional issues such as sleeping alone, moving to a new house, etc. I am really thankful to the author for creating Anu because personally, I felt like I had gotten a new voice through Anu that I could use to talk to my daughter! I also extended the discussion further, and asked her, if she were Anu, what would she have done differently in order to chase the ghosts away from the closet, and it was fun to hear her answers - although similar to the ones in the story - not much you can expect from a 4 yr old - she told me she would have asked riddles, played tambourine, played hide and seek etc... It was really interesting to me that this was actually the first time I felt comfortable using a story's character to discuss further....wonder why I couldn't do it so long - may be because I thought my daughter was too young for questions like these?? Even with all the animal books that we have read so far, I have never asked her - if you were the tortoise in the story, what would you have done? Or does it underscore the need for more and more cross cultural books for mothers like me??

I is for India by Prodeepta Das

This picture book is yet another visual treat, and a fun way to introduce the English alphabets and India to little children. The content is organized alphabetically, and has a picture and text combination on each page that captures some aspect of Indian life - culture, religion, day to day activities etc.mostly from Orissa, which is where the author hails from.

It starts with A is for Alphabets that Indian children learn - it has pictures of children writing letters from the Oriya language. Followed by B is for Bullock Cart that people in villages ride, C is for cinema, D is for Diwali that people celebrate etc. My daughter loves this book, and her favorite one is "J is for Jilebi" :-)I love the S is for Sadhu! For C is for cinema - the author has a picture of a theatre with the poster "ham apke hain kaun" - I told my daughter movies are also called Cinemas, and sort of jumped quickly to D! :-) Z was a little unique,and a little tricky to explain to a four yr old -email me if you would like to know what it is!:-)

The pictures are real life photos from India focusing mainly on children. The author, Prodeepta Das, has picked a few of the pictures specific to his state, which I thought was quite interesting. It set me thinking, and thought it might be interesting to have a picture book for every state - O is for Orissa, P is for Punjab, T is for Tamilnadu ( in some cases, we could have two books - k for instance! :-)) We could do a whole series, and I am pretty sure we can find sights unique to each state that can fall in the alphabetical order. I loved the fact that the author has depicted pictures from both rural and urban settings.

There were some that I don't think my daughter understood, but hopefully when she is a little bit older she will be able to get them. And I couldn't explain Sadhu very well to her - this was my definition for Sadhu - a man wearing an orange/saffron outfit is called a Sadhu in India (lol). Overall, a very refreshing book that offers neat descriptions cum pictures that some of us have grown up with in India, and it is fun to introduce those to our children!(What a sad irony - all the talk about India in a language foriegn to the land!) Last but not the least, the alphabets have evolved into something so refreshing and definitely makes so much more sense to have our children see alphabets come to life through India's landscape. Also, I thought the author was clever to say A is for Alphabets, and not something else - like the overused "A is for apples" ( and in this case they would grow in Himachal! :-)

This is an attractive book for little ones. The two books - Going to School in India and I is for India, which were holiday gifts for my 4 yr old were part of our family's celebrations this festival season - the two "D holidays" - dussera and diwali, of course!

Welcome to Saffrontree

Hi all! Welcome to Saffron Tree. This blog is a
culmination of my passion for children's literature. I have two daughters - a four yr old and a four month old! I know there are lots of book blogs that focus on mainstream American children's books, but I haven't been able to find any that focus primarily on children's books by Indian, Indian American and South East Asian authors. The goal for this blog, to start with, is to provide book reviews and recommendations of titles with a South Asian, particularly Indian flavor.

The first book that I would like to review is a title that is really close to my heart. Having spent close to 22 years of my life in India, and having done most of my schooling there, I was thrilled to find this picture book titled, Going to School In India in the 4-8 yr old category.
Going to School In India
by Lisa Heydlauff, Nitin Upadyhe, Global Fund for Children (Organization)

Going to School In India is a delightful, non-fiction book designed with brightly colored illustrations and photographs that capture the real life stories of how children get to school in India. There are twelve inspiring stories about children attending schools in different settings - in city schools, under mango trees, mountain fields, desert tents, etc. that serve as classrooms, and depictions of how children make their journey to and fro climbing on to bamboo bridges, boats, cable cars, school buses, rickshaws to get to their schools. The book's center is a colorful foldout with pictures of lunchtime goodies.

At bedtime the last few weeks, we've been looking at this book and its pictures. I talk to my daughter about the experiences of children depicted in the book, and it's a sheer joy being able to share this book with her.The lunchtime pictures also helped me talk to her about the kind of foods children take to school with them - Dal (lentils), Roti(the indain bread - wheat tortillas) and other rice and vegtable dishes that are healthy and tasty. Hopefully, the pictures will serve as an inspiration to get my 4 yr old to enjoy a variety of Indian foods going forward!

The only negative aspect about this book is that it looks a little cluttered and busy in terms of how the information and pictures are organized, and the font colors on some pages a little difficult to read - but you get used to it after a few reads. The book is a celebration of children and the different kinds of schools they attend in India - colorful and eye-catching, and heart warming in many ways, just like all the other sounds and sights of India that one can relate to when it is about India.