Mama Panya's Pancakes

Mama Panya's Pancakes

A Village Tale from Kenya

written by Mary and Rich Chamberlin

illustrated by Julia Cairns

Mama Panya douses the breakfast fire and prepares to head to the market to get the meager supplies she can afford at the moment for making Pancakes for dinner.

Her son Adika, dressed in his finest shirt and cleanest shorts is all set to go with her. On the way, they meet old man Mzee Odolo quietly fishing by the river. Adika couldn't stop himself, he invites Mzee Odolo to come over and have Mama's pancakes that evening. Then, they meet Sawandi and Naiman, Adika's friends, herding cattle. Again, Adika simply couldn't stop himself from inviting them both for Mama's pancakes. Mama Panya is slightly exasperated wondering how she is going to stretch the flour to feed them all...

They finally reach the market where Adika spots Gamila at her plantain stand and rushes to greet her. And, you guessed right, he invites her for Mama's pancake fest too! Thus he ends up inviting Bibi and Bwana Zawenna at the flour stand and even Rafiki Kaya at the chili pepper stand. By now, Mama Panya is quite at a loss, fingering the two small coins she has, about how to get enough ingredients to make pancakes for all their friends.

They head home together with the flour and chili pepper that Mama Panya's two coins could buy, with Adika skipping happily ahead, looking forward to seeing all their friends that evening and sharing Mama Panya's pancakes with them.

As Mama Panya prepares the batter and lights the fire to make pancakes, their friends start filing in one by one. Sawandi and Naiman arrive first handing over two drinking gourds full of milk and a pail of butter explaining, "Mama Panya, we have extra from our cattle". Then, Mzee Odolo arrives dangling three fish declaring, "Old-man river has given us three fish today". Gamila arrives with a bunch of ripe plantain bunch perched on her head suggesting, "They go very well with pancakes". Bibi and Bwanna Zawenna quietly hand a bag of extra flour to Adika asking him to save it for later. And finally Rafiki Kaya arrives with handfuls of salt and cardamom, plus her thumb piano.

Although this tale is from Kenya, it could just as well be from India. The story about a little boy and his mother trying to stretch their food to feed all their friends has a certain universal and heart-warming quality to it, leaving it ageless and priceless. Clearly, the friends know Mama Panya's situation, and when they chip in generously without any hint of charity, it becomes such an affirmative and cheerful tale.

The illustrations are bright and colorful, conveying the essence of Kenyan village life and culture, almost transporting us as we walk along with them to the market. Adika's excitement about pancakes, which clearly seems like a special treat, crosses over to us readers/listeners easily; plus his generous invitations and easy charm instantly make him adorable.

Added bonus: Facts about Kenyan village life, local flora/fauna, recipe for pancakes, even a map at the end of the book make it quite an interesting lesson in geography, culture and wildlife. Kiswahili greetings was our favorite page where Ana and I tried sounding out the words as best as we could. It is an extremely rewarding read-aloud book, where we pause long on each page to absorb the scenery and emotion as we learn new things about Kenya.

The Violin Man

“You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'” - G. B. Shaw.


But, are dreams that important? We dream of having a bigger car than the neighbour, a more luxurious house than a five star hotel; dream of a permanent vacation at a sunny beach. Are these dreams important that we let go of our day to day existence and miss the beauty in our life?


The Violin Man, a picture book by Colin Thompson deals with this profound subject. Oscar, the violinist has been playing his violin outside the theatre for ever. People waiting for the theatre to open will brave the weather and listen to his melodious tunes. He gave wings to their dreams. The Beethoven's' and the Mozart's' music from his violin would mesmerise the crowd and lead them to their own private dreams.


Oscar has his own dream - a dream that he had once shared with his daughter Marietta. A dream that he is the world's greatest violinist and his daughter the world's greatest ballerina. His daughter had her sickness and along with that their dreams remained just a wisp in the air.


Due to certain circumstances, a chance comes along for him to play inside the theatre; in front of thousands of folks; and along with a great orchestra. Does Oscar enjoy his dream coming true? That forms the rest of the story. I would leave you without giving too much of the ending. But, be prepared for a tiny little philosophical lesson at the end. The end could put to shame any tear-jerker of a movie!


I loved the fact that Colin Thompson deals with an important subject of necessity of dreams in a kids book. I am glad that he did not consider it as an adult subject. Every picture in the book is a great collage of various items - a combination of real life photography with some surrealist imagery thrown in. Every page has a tiny little rat looking out from a lighted window; a rather cute pink creatures tagging along with Oscar as he goes along with his life; a tiny cafe called 'Cafe Max in Paris'; a dog and a red sail boat called Max 14. I can't imagine the amount of effort that must have gone into every page of his work.


The story and illustration in a nutshell - Beautiful, bright and thought provoking. Sooraj enjoyed the story and looked lost in his own thoughts as I tried to explain the story. Wonder what he was thinking and how he interpreted the story?


This book made me think about the importance of music and its relationship to our dreams. It is odd that I never thought of this before. Music seems to provide a new pair of wings our dreams. As we immerse ourselves into any music, we feel uplifted and that one tiny wafer-thin moment of absolute bliss through music, makes one think of our future and our dreams.


Sadly many adults might have one look at the book, consider it book for kids and move away. I wish the bookshops do not put these titles under the children section and instead put them away into a section called "FOR ALL".


“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” - Epicurus. Dreams, are they really special?

The Lost Thing

All books have to be categorized and put into appropriate and designated slots. Then, a book comes along that cannot be categorized - it has illustrations and the illustrations are cartoonish; and lot of other things that seem to say something, but we do not have time to find out. Quick, we need to find out where this book has to go. Hmmm!. Aren't the illustrations bit odd and look like comics/cartoons? It has to be a book for children and it is tucked away into a corner shelf under children's books category. Case solved. Our collective conscious is happy that it fits somewhere and we happily go back to our regular monotony.

Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing is one such book that should not be categorized, but our un-written rules do not allow it - we have it written down as a book for kids. The book is also about various things and people that do not fall into any category and we are in a hurry to avoid them and get back into our own cocoon.

The story is set in a place and location that looks a lot like our suburbs - endless, monotonous looking buildings and a regimented life style. Everything is orderly and everything is controlled and delivered by a massive governmental setup. Our friend in the book, Shaun, goes around collecting bottle-tops, where he notices a rather odd thing - something that was lost and did not belong to that area. The lost thing did not seem to do anything useful; it just sat around and looked very different from things around. The lost thing was a great fun though and Shaun continues to play with it for the rest of the day and realises at the end of the day that the lost thing is really, really lost. No one seem to be worried about it. He makes a few enquires, but every one is busy with their daily work and activities. He takes the lost thing to his friend's place - Pete. He is just as un-helpful as rest of them. He takes it home; but, his parents do not even seem to have realised that there is something new in their house. He lodges it in his back shed and tries hard to find it a home. His efforts to find the lost thing a home forms the rest of the story.

While the story mentioned above is the main story; there is an underlying theme about extreme government regulations, censorship and how our lives have become monotonous. This underlying theme is depicted in a funny manner with various circulars/advertisements scattered around the book. The governmental circulars and advertisements are shown with a symbol of pig (probably a salute to George Orwell's Animal Farm). The various government departments depicted include -

The Federal Department of Odds and Ends whose motto is 'Sweepus underum carpatae'.

The Federal Department of Economics whose motto is 'consumere ergo sum'.

The Federal Department of Management whose motto is 'bureaucritae opacus'.

The most sarcastic and funny federal Government advertisement, in my opinion, is - The Federal Government of Information whose motto is 'Ignorare regulatum' and who run a state sponsored thought of the day that says : LET THE MARKET DECIDE.

This book has been categorized in Amazon for children between Ages 4-8. What? This book will appeal to all; the kids might love the Lost Thing and adults can try to figure out what the underlying theme is.