Colour Colour Kamini

Hey! I made it to the prestigious Saffron Tree blog. Thanks Praba for giving me an opportunity.

This review is also cross posted at my blog here.

We've become members of a wonderful children's book library and one of our favorite activities is to head there and pick books that we can enjoy. I am so grateful that Poppin shares my passion for books and has to be dragged back home after our visits.

One such book we are reading now and we both love is Colour Colour Kamini by Radhika Chadda, illustrated by Priya Kurian (Tulika Publishers)

This book is set in the jungle and is the story of Kamini, the chameleon. The story begins with Kamini practicing colour matching (with her surroundings) along with her friends (whose names all start with K!) under the tutelage of Kapila Aunty, an older chameleon.

Unfortunately for Kamini, unlike her peers, she can never get the colours right. Instead she gets very excited and starts to flash colours. She changes from Red to Green to Indigo to Silver..hence the name Colour Colour Kamini.

She is mighty frustrated by this, because she knows she can match colours very well when she's alone, but she always fails when she's with Kapila aunty, simply because she gets too excited. And so, she confides her problems to her best friend Bahadur the elephant.

How Bahadur uses this quality in Kamini to solve the problem of the teenage elephants in the jungle forms the rest of the story.

Since my almost four year old daughter, Poppin tends to clam up in public, I'm always looking out for stories that work that angle. Yet, I'm loathe to read books that tackle the problem directly (such as books on shy children etc), because I don't want her to become overly conscious of it and clam up further. Neither do I want her to feel that there is something wrong with her.

This book is great because it sends two messages to her (1) There are people who can do things well in private but fail in public simply because they are too excited/nervous. (2) Even an apparent defect can be used in a way that makes it seem like a talent!

What I love about the book apart from the message is the artwork. Everyone who reads children's books knows that Tulika books are great with the illustrations. The drawings and the colours are so vibrant and therefore automatically interest the child.

I also loved the colloquial language, 'colour-colour', 'colour matching', 'Akka/Anna', 'Aunty'. Very close to home. They also have this book in Kannada, so now that will be our next read!

Recommended reading aloud: 3 years +

Read alone: 6 years +

Posted by Poppy of Babies Anonymous

Three Pigs

Imagine if the reader can jump into the book and change the contents of the book or imagine if the characters in the book decide that they had enough of their daily routine pages and decide to jump out of the book and join us in our life or leave us out their lives. They probably would; all that is needed is a wee bit of imagination.

David Weisner, the super star of picture book illustrations, decides to take us in one such journey - a journey where the characters in the book decide that they do not like the way the story is going along and decide to make some changes. Well, is it hard to figure out what I am talking about? If so, rush to dwell into the book called The Three Pigs.

Let me warn you - this is not one of David Weisner's other books where it is understandable the first time one looks at it. If one expected that the book would be similar to his other great classics like Free Fall, Sector 7, Tuesday or Flotsam, one would be hugely disappointed. This is not on your face imagination unleashed on the pages. This book is a little more subtler and teases you to make some assumptions to comprehend the book fully. 

First time, we saw the book cover at the library, Sooraj shouted - "Is this is the continuation of the books where pigs started to fly?".  He remembered Tuesday, where at the last page of that book, the pigs start flying. I think there are quite a few references to some of his other books. The dragon in the book seems to be similar to one of his earlier books called Loathsome Dragon.

One could also notice some of the pages that look similar to his book - Free Fall.  

The most surprising part is the reaction from my kids after we read through the book. Shraddha wants me to read this book atleast twice a day and Sooraj surprisingly also showed a lot more of interest in this David Weisner book compared to Weisner's other ones. I do not plan to write about the story or the content as it would take away the wonder.  It might be a bit like reading the last page of a mystery book first. It would suffice to say - "Read it with an open mind and be ready to let your imagination fly".  

I have read it so many times with my kids that I have grown into loving it. My initial reaction "Huh!" has slowly changed to "Wow!".  Be patient and it is a rewarding book.