Sister, Sister....

Author : Roopa Pai
Illustrated By : Greystroke

Published By : Pratham Books
Age Group : 4-8 years

A set of 4 books, subtitled as "Fun Conversations about Everyday Science", which I came across by chance while browsing the shelves in Pratham Books office cum sales center.

When we go out on our after-dinner walks (sometimes), my daughter likes pointing out - "Mama, see the moon is walking with us" , and then my son asks,"Why is the moon not staying at one place, how can it be moving with every person who is walking?" These questions amuse me. I think all children have these basic questions in their minds and try to find the logical answers which their innocent minds best understand.

In these books, an inquisitive little boy asks his elder sister many questions and the sister encourages him to think first what could be the reason of these things happening a certain way? He tries to think of all possible reasons from his understanding of the world, which is mainly based on the stories he must have heard from here and there.

Sister, Sister Why Is The Sky So Blue? The little brother thinks that one old lady lives on the sky and washes her big blue saree everyday and then spreads it over the sky and puts the cloud stones on top so that the wind does not carry it away(I specifically liked the explanation of clouds on the sky as stones). Or is it a sea - upside down, but how is the water held up in an upside down position? You will have to read it to find the amazing explanation!

Sister, Sister Where Does Thunder Come From? He thinks that the old lady living on the sky does not allow the children of her children to play, so they grumble. But later they start the game of chaupad, which they spread across the whole sky. The clapping of happy children and the rolling of giant dice make all the sounds of thundering. If not this, then angry roaring of Kumbhakarana, whose sleep got disturbed, must be the reason behind the thundering sound or may be the fancy bikers' are responsible for the thunder. But what are these fancy biker's doing high up there?

Sister, Sister Where Does The Sun Go At Night? His imagination makes him see the similarity between his father and the sun. Probably the big sun gets tired by the end of the day as all fathers do and goes to bed where his wife covers him with a heavy stars studded blanket so that his snoring doesn't disturb anybody. (My children think a blanket with these specifications might do the trick to keep their father's snoring a little less audible too.) But if this is not the correct reason then maybe the sun slides down in the ocean, but what will the sun do under the sea?

Sister, Sister Why Don't Things Fall Up? May be the things used to go up earlier but then the old lady in the sky got tired of cleaning the mess up every single day and because of her curse on earth, now everything lands right back on earth. Or could it be that there is a greedy monster in the earth who keeps sucking everything up? May be the delicious laddoos that their mother makes also vanish mysteriously to satisfy the greed of this monster under the earth!

After he has explored all possible flights of his imagination, his sister does tell him whatever she has read in the books, trying to explain the physical phenomena - scattering of light, rotation of earth, gravity and thundering, in a simple way.

While reading these books to my children, I found it a good time to ask them what do they think. A great opportunity to peep into their minds, and to accompany them in their pursuit of finding answers to such queries. While teaching them the routine stuff, we tend to overlook the significance of free flow of thoughts, not bothering about the correctness of the same that much.

On the last page there are simple experiments explained to show the phenomena.

Illustrations are beautiful with bright colours and even the manner in which the text is printed on the pictures is interesting and blends with the pictures very well. Some pages are simply medley of vibrant colours put together by bold strokes of brush - a delight to the eyes.

{Images Courtesy : Pratham Books}

Listen to the Wind

Listen to the Wind
The story of Dr. Greg & Three Cups of Tea

by Greg Mortenson & Susan L. Roth
Collages by Susan L. Roth

Ages : 5-8

As ordinary people, leading ordinary lives, we may not ever venture to climb the K-2, lose our way and accidentally discover a village that will change our lives forever, but through this book, we certainly can, and hold our children's hands while we do it.

This book is a story about Three Cups of Tea, of how an ordinary man like Greg Mortensen, had a vision to climb K2, the second highest, and even more dangerous peak of the world, to leave a necklace of his deceased sister there. And how he loses his way, and walks off the trail and instead meets his destiny. But it is at a level that children in the ages of 5-8 can read and experience for themselves. I have never come across a children's book before, which is written after an adult version of the same book, and that in itself, makes it exciting. For here is a way to share what moved me, with my own son.

But let's plunge right in...! As soon as you open the book, you meet the children of Korphe, one of the last villages of the Karakoram mountain range, before the landscape is totally taken over by the rugged peaks. The people here are some of the poorest in the world, and the school the children go to, is the outdoors, writing with sticks on the dust of the ground. And this is how things would have continued, had not Dr. Greg, as he is fondly called by the villagers, stumbled into their village one day, noticed the extreme conditions, and vowed to build a proper school for them. He is a man of meager means, and the way he sets about gathering funds, buying materials, and getting into the actual logistics of building a school in that high altitude zone, is what forms the crux of the book.

After all the hurdles are crossed, the school indeed gets built, and every person in that village has lent a hand in its rising. While the men lay the stones for the classroom walls, the women carry the water to mix the cement, and the children wedge tiny slivers of stones into the cement to make it stronger. The way that school comes up, gives the term 'community' a whole new dimension.

Listen to the Wind is a curious title for this story. When Dr. Greg was about to leave Korphe that first time, he asked the headman Haji Ali, to help him think of a something special he could do for Korphe. And Haji Ali tells him to ....listen to the wind. Dr. Greg closes his eyes, and from the distance hears the voices of the children reading their lessons, the sounds carried by the wind. And he realises what he must now do. The story ends with the same phrase, but not before the children of Korphe tell you that they can now read, and add and subtract, and explore maps....they now have a better way of life, thanks to one man.

I love the enterprise of sharing the work of a noble crusader through the means of a children's book. In addition to the pretty picture books and the rich fantasy escapes, our children also benefit from something that is so rooted in reality. The book ends with a lot of real life pictures of the school, Dr. Greg, the children of Korphe, and a wonderful note from the artist, whose work simply has to be mentioned. All the illustrations are done through the use of the collage medium. Susan Roth was very inspired by the way the people of Balti (the region to which Korphe belonged) never let a thing go to waste and found a way to use even the most discarded of things into everything else. So her collage makes use of all kinds of paper lying around her studio, in an effort to honour this deliberate, aesthetic use of things.

On a personal note, Winkie really enjoyed this book. He was fascinated by K2, and that sparked off a whole different discussion of geography and general knowledge, and by the idea that these kids studied in a school which they had helped to build. He now knows the name of at least one little village in the far flung mountains of North Pakistan, and that if you stay quiet long enough, you too will hear the voices of the children trailing down, as you...listen to the wind.

_________________________

[This book is also available for young readers as Three Cups of Tea.]

Sarah’s Story

Pic courtesy flipkart

Author- Bill Harley
Illustration- Eve Aldridge
Age- 4-8 yrs

Awards- Winner of the National Parenting center of Approval and Best Read Aloud from Storytelling World.

Sarah’s Story is a wonderfully amusing book, with Sarah, a young imaginative child spinning a colorful story, filled with unexpected happenings and unlikely characters.

Sarah’s teacher assigns the class homework- to come up with a story the very next day. Sarah wants to impress and does not want to go with her mother’s boring suggestion of Goldilocks and the Three bears.

Instead she narrates what happens to her on her way to school that morning. She attributes her delayed entry to class, to these adventures where she almost like a modern day Alice meets a talking queen ant who is pregnant and her retinue of ants, a bee that carries her and of course gives her honey, and other magical and interesting things that usually happen in a child’s imagination.

While the class teacher is incredulous about the reality of Sarah’s experiences, she admits it sure makes for a most interesting story.

The detailed illustrations by Eve Aldridge( her first(!!) picture book) are delightful and you will find yourself answering a lot of questions based on them as well. An added touch is the way the words squeeze themselves or drop down or tilt to bring alive the action in the font itself.

Back home, my daughter Anushka often quips “Just like Sarah? That is the rule?” In one scene Sarah asks the queen ant to sample the food before rejecting it and the queen ends up loving the new food. As a result, we have a useful tool to coax kids to try new eatables and even new experiences of the non gastronomic kind.

Santa's Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa - an Introduction
Kwanzaa is a festival that is celebrated each year from December 26th to January 1st, in honor of American heritage. The week long festival was introduced in 1966 as an amalgamation of harvest traditions followed by different African cultures. The name Kwanzaa is Swahili for "fruits of the harvest." There are seven principles of Kwanzaa:

• Umoja - Striving for unity in the family, community, nation.
  
• Kujichagulia - Seeking self determination and knowing to stand up and speak for oneself.
  
• Ujima - Working together in harmony toward a common goal.
  
• Ujamaa - Promoting and sustaining community and cooperative economic ventures.
  
• Nia - Defining a common goal of fostering the community to honor tradition and heritage.
  
• Kuumba - Utilizing creativity for the benefit of the community.
  
• Imani - Believing and having deep faith in people.

Each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one principle each, and the celebrations every day include discussing the principle of the day, lighting one candle of the Kinara (a seven candle holder), a music or dance performance and a feast.

Author: Garen Eileen Thomas
Illustrator: Guy Francis
Publishers: Hyperion Books for Children
Ages: All ages

Santa's Kwanzaa begins where Santa's role in Christmas ends. He delivers the last gift and heads back to the North Pole, exhausted and looking forward to the comfort of home, a cup of cocoa and warm slippers. The journey takes him all day long and finally as the 26th dawns he opens the door to his home, walks in to find his "wife-boss" and his crew of elves with a surprise for him - a banner that reads "Happy Kwanzaa, Santa Kwaz!"

That's where everything familiar to us in Christmas changes tracks. Instead of being the giver of gifts, Santa is now the receiver. The elves line up and give him gifts for each of the seven days. On the seventh day of festivities, they all sit around the table for a grand feast. Santa is touched and takes his crew on a reideer sleigh ride to bless everyone with peace and goodwill. On the last page, we're told each elf's name, Kuumba, Ujima, Ujama...and so on, they are named after the seven principles and what they do best is what their name represents. For instance, Imani's faith keeps dreams alive and Kuumba is known for his creativity.

The whole book is in soothing rhyme and celebrates the good cheer of the season. The cover illustration -gloves with African print, backgrounded against the signature red Santa suit - sets the theme of harmony and co-existence which is what the book is about.

Over the past several days, the resident Santa fan has bombarded us with several questions including, "Why doesn't Santa get any gifts?" He was thrilled to find an answer to that, as much he enjoyed poring over the illustrations of African artifacts and it led to many more questions about Kwanzaa and its significance.

Santa's Kwanzaa is a holly, jolly introduction to, and celebration of two separate festivals, with completely different origins, co-existing in harmony and spreading goodwill to everyone who respects or celebrates them.

Christmas Trolls

Christmas Trolls
Author and Illustrator: Jan Brett

Ages 4 -8

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Awards: Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Picture Book Award ,1994.

Like so many moms buying picture books, I have a weakness for good illustrations. And yet, I had never heard of this classic or its talented author until I picked it up at a used book store, entirely for its eye catching cover. First issued in 1993, this sweet and simple story with stunning artwork from author and illustrator Jan Brett was also released under the title Trouble with Trolls.

It's nearly Christmas, and Treva and her little brother Sami are busy decorating their house. Then things begin disappearing from the house - first decorations, then presents. Early one morning, Treva looks out the door and sees the Christmas pudding running away across the snow! Intrigued, she sets out in pursuit of it, only to find something even more unexpected waiting for her at the end of the chase. Two little trolls want Christmas so badly, they have decided to steal it for themselves! How Treva then deals with the trolls, in the true spirit of Christmas, makes for a heartwarming bedtime read.

You could be excused for never noticing the text of this story, good though it is. 'Christmas Trolls' too is filled with incredibly rich and detailed illustrations, and each page is a masterpiece. Infact, author Brett is known for her meticulous research of the architecture, geography and customs of the countries she sets her stories in. There is a wealth of detail on each page in this book, with additional side panels that reveal even more of the story. See, for instance, the trolls' little hedgehog helper, scurrying around with packages, even as Treva discovers the trolls' house. And see again, Treva's reindeer Arni rearing back in surprise at the sight of that little worker! The pictures bring to life the cold Scandinavian setting of the book, with its pine trees, snow fields and traditional architectural detail. Sitting in balmy Mumbai, I could almost feel the frosty chill as Treva rode through the forest on her reindeer. Without the use of words, this lovely book offers a peep into a culture, and lifestyle so different from one's own.

I enjoy a book with a feisty femal protagonist, and the wise and gentle Treva is a treat. We see her independently driving a reindeer- drawn buggy, helping with household chores, climbing trees and handling the trolls with maturity and grace.My daughter then about four, was immediately drawn to the sheer adventure of Treva's daily life , living so close to nature, and the total absence of adults from the illustrations. The side panels also inspired us to come up with different variations to the story, exploring it from the viewpoint of its other characters (like that tireless little hedgehog, and the patient Arni). This book got us talking about the different ways people might live, dress and move around in other parts of the world, as well as the diversity of wildlife our beautiful planet offers.

Image Courtesy: Jan Brett

The Night Before Christmas

The Night Before Christmas

Poem by Clement Clark Moore
Illustrations by Jan Brett
Tenth Anniversary Edition (2008)



'Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse.

Thus starts the famous Clement Clark Moore's poem full of cherished images of old-fashioned Christmas.

The illustrations and interpretation by Jan Brett are so full of detail, telling a story within the story, that it is hard to get through this book in any hurried pace.

The title page starts us off with lavish images of bustling activity where Santa's sleigh is being loaded and the reindeer are preened and readied, while a couple of stowaway elves hiding under the furs at the back of Santa's sleigh peek out daring us to give them away.

Icy conifers and clumps of snow on bare tree branches surrounding the Victorian-style mansion with icicles hanging down the sides, Santa's sleigh far away up in the sky and fast approaching, a cat cuddled up on an ornate chair, a dog sleeping out in the icy dog house, and a window into a sleeping child's restful state all set the stage for a beautiful scene about to unfold in the next few pages.

The father watches as the miniature sleigh, pulled by eight tiny reindeer and a little old driver, lands with quite a clatter, then rises up to the top of the porch, and then on to the roof they go, and before he knows it, St. Nick comes bounding down the chimney, carrying a sack on his back looking almost like a peddler selling his wares.

The tree by the chimney is decked to the gills with precious little ornaments as St.Nick goes about stuffing the stockings and attending to his work and then springs to his sleigh and off he goes.

The poem is charming and simplistic, rich with descriptions, carving out a tiny slice of life portrayal of the events that transpires on a particular wintry night.

While I didn't grow up with Santa Claus and Christmas in the classic celebratory version I've come to learn about, I did know him as "Christmas Thaathaa" (Grandfather Christmas) and liked the concept of a jolly old grandfather-figure distributing presents to kids - simply for being a kid, a happy kid - just because he liked to.

Whether we believe in old Saint Nicholas in the North Pole, or his elfin toy-makers, or his Naughty-or-Nice list, or his fantastic sleigh pulled by flying reindeer, these images conjure up warmth and cheer and pure goodwill that it is no surprise that they are adored and embraced around the world and are here to stay for a long time.

As a simple tradition, we started reading The Night Before Christmas to my daughter (illustrated by Tasha Tudor) from her first year, even if she was too little to sit through it. I only bring it out in December each year, and we read it to our heart's content and then put it away till next year, to keep the magic fresh.

But now, at 4½, she has become quite aware of the imagery surrounding the season - call it the Holiday Season, or the Winter Solstice celebration or to keep it simple, Christmas - that it is quite a pleasure to pore over Jan Brett's rich and playful interpretation, with reindeer of regal bearing out in white cold winter mingling with the red and orange tones indoors conjuring up warmth and comfort...

Each double-page spread is quite a visual treat that, this year, when I brought it out a few days ago, after almost a year in hibernation, the book instantly exercised its charm, setting the mood for the season.

The tenth anniversary edition has a note from Jan Brett and a shiny red foil border jacket that makes it festive.

*Picture courtesy www.janbrett.com

The Westing Game

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin


Ages 9-12

One of J's current favorite books is The Westing Game which she read as part of a school reading group.I asked her what makes this book so special and her short answer was "'cause". It was not very helpful, so I pressed for details.

Some reasons why J would recommend this book to kids her age are 

•  If you like any kind of mystery stories, you might enjoy reading The Westing Game because it has suspense that stays until the surprising end.
• If you like solving puzzles with clues, this is a book for you !
• If you like figuring things out by yourself before they are told (and explained) to you, you will probably like this book.

Here is a short summary (no spoilers) of the book in J's words:

It is believed that Samuel Westing was murdered by one his sixteen heirs. "The Westing Game" is a game that Sam Westing created by giving each pair of heirs a set of words or "clues" that would help them find out the answer to the question "Who killed Sam Westing ?"

To say more would be to give away the story. So, do go ahead and read the book yourself.


Image Source

Goldfish Don't Take Bubble Baths (Abby and Tess Pet-Sitters)

Title : Goldfish Don't Take Bubble Baths (Abby and Tess Pet-Sitters)
Author: Trina Wiebe
Illustrator: Meredith Johnson
Ages : 4-8

Publisher : Lobster Press

Welcome to my first book review on Saffron Tree! Thanks to the ST folks for extending a warm invitation to me to be a part of this wonderful team.

To start with, I would love to narrate one interesting anecdote from my childhood. I remember when we were very small, my sister and I used to love eating the meat of the melon seeds. It was a big effort to get those seeds cleaned first, to remove the pulp in which they are encased. Mostly we used to clean the seeds using a couple of vessels and a sieve. But one day we had a brilliant idea - we thought we should use the rough floor of our verandah for spreading the seeds on, it was easier this way as we could just squeeze the seeds and set them free from their pulp. It worked really fine and we were happy that we could accomplish the task sooner than previous times. When we brought the bowl of all clean shining seeds inside to enjoy them, our elder sister pointed out that the place where we kept the seeds on the floor is not a clean one and we walk on that floor all the time, we should not eat these seeds. That made us a little uncomfortable (as we were about to put the seeds in our mouths to pop them open) but we didn't want to lose our seeds, so we decided to wash the same seeds with "Surf" (detergent powder for washing clothes) and then have them. It seemed like the most intelligent idea we had at that time.

Not quite similar but somehow after almost 25 years I was reminded of this incident when I was reading - "Goldfish Don't Take Bubble Baths" , to my children. Innocent minds just know very simple ways to clean things up or bring some change.

In this book, the unaware Tess decides to give the goldfish a bubble bath by putting Dish Detergent in their tank, to make the goldfish feel better.

This book is the first one of the series of - Abby and Tess Pet-Sitters. Two sisters Abby (elder one) and the younger one - Tess are desperate to have a pet of their own, but cannot do so because of the building rules - No pets allowed.

Abby wants to be a Veterinarian when she grows up and loves reading books on different animals. Tess is imaginative and likes to behave like a puppy to express herself. Fortunately Abby gets a chance to fish-sit Mrs. Wilson's goldfish - Speedy and Slowpoke, when Mrs. Wilson went out of town for a week. She tries to get as much information on goldfish as possible by reading various books from the library on goldfish. As this is the first "pet-sitting" project that came Abby's way, she wants to prove to her parents that she is responsible enough to take care of Speedy and Slowpoke in the best possible manner. She wants to do it perfectly so that she can request her parents for the permission to start a pet-sitting business of her own.

The whole new experience starts and that is when while accompanying Abby to Mrs. Wilson's apartment to check on the goldfish, Tess does her bit too and it is interesting how Abby rescues the goldfish who seemingly do not like the soapy water. That is when all the information that Abby had gathered from the books comes handy. Obviously very angry at Tess's philanthropic act of making goldfish feel happier, Abby decides to take care of Speedy and Slowpoke all by herself. But later when just two days are left of this job, something terrible happens which can completely ruin all the impression that she wants to build to earn future pet-sitting projects. It is very natural that in the most miserable conditions, we tend to feel bad for what we do wrong, similarly, Abby now feels bad for Tess and talks to her and apologizes to her for her indifference towards her. Then two of them together try to save the situation. Initially Abby thinks of hiding it from her parents but then realizes that taking responsibility means owning the mistakes too and surprisingly for her, her parents understand that everyone makes mistakes and making mistakes is so human. They still decide to give her a chance to pet-sit in future too. The same night Abby gets busy in preparations for her exciting pet-sitting job with Tess as her reliable assistant.

We read this book over a few days, one chapter everyday, keeping the curiosity of kids high. Everyday they used to wait for the designated reading hour. A wonderful way to introduce children to the habitats, eating habits and other characteristic features of different animals along with some messages - working together is always better than working alone, owning the mistakes instead of hiding them. Getting such messages from different sources and in different situations always help in making the values firmer in their impressionable minds.

{Image courtesy : http://www.amazon.com/}

Amos & Boris

Picture source Amazon

Author & Illustrator: William Steig
Publisher: Farrar Str
Age : All, Read alone- 5+ years

‘Amos and Boris’ is one of those books that I enjoy reading repeatedly to my daughter, Anushka. A mutually cherished book. This lyrical ode to friendship, I felt, would be a fitting start for this novice reviewer at Saffron Tree.

William Steig is the award-winning author/illustrator of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, which I am yet to read, and he also created Shrek. Amos & Boris is a simple and timeless tale, laced with humour, about friendship. It is said to have evolved from a sketch of elephants pushing a whale into the ocean.

The story opens with Amos (a mouse) building a boat, the "Rodent". He soon finds himself at sea literally and otherwise. Boris (a whale) rescues him. They have fun together and after a while, inevitably part ways, not expecting to meet again. But they do and Amos finds a way to reciprocate the kindness shown to him by Boris.

Without being pedantic, Amos and Boris is a thumbs up to unlikely and generous friendships. There is profoundness to this tender tale which will not escape a little one.

It also spurs a child’s curiosity and helps bring forth some differences between sea creatures and those that live on land.

The adult like illustrations in soft water colours, largely blue and grey with a dash of saffron, are rendered by the author, Willian Steig and are very evocative.

Although it is a warm story, I must admit that there is a sense of poignancy/loss, since the two friends need to go their own separate ways. I suppose that is reality.

Two Frogs in Trouble

Two Frogs in Trouble
Based on a Fable told by
Paramahamsa Yogananda

Written by Natalie Hale
Illustrated by Susie Richards

Ages : 4-8

Two Frogs in Trouble, is one book that has stood the test of time with us. It is a familiar fable, one that we are bound to have heard before, told by Swami Paramahamsa Yogananda, also known for his work Autobiography of a Yogi. So when I saw another book of his in the library, and a children's book at that, I jumped on it.

For those who aren't yet acquainted with this fable, it is the story of two frogs who go playing out in the farm one day. They hop here and there gaily, with not a care in the world, when suddenly, they fall into a pail full of milk. They try their best to climb out, but the sides are too slippery. So they keep swimming, with nothing else to do. Pretty soon, the bigger frog starts to get tired and wants to give up. But he is egged on by his friend, who just asks him to keep swimming. After a few more cycles of this, big frog just gives up and well...we know what happens to him then.

Little Frog keeps swimming. Everytime, he starts to feel tired and wants to stop, he thinks about what happened with his friend, and starts paddling desperately again. And what happens to milk if it is consistently churned like this? Yes. It starts to thicken and get blob-by, and then it gets even harder for little Frog to swim, but he perseveres with an iron will and superhuman effort. And finally, his legs find themselves on a mound of creamy white butter, and he launches off from that and hops out to safety.

The end point of the story might become kind of obvious, to us as an adult, but it still didn't make it any less exciting when the milk churned to butter. This is a book with a moral, so to speak, and as a generation, we have moved/moving away from these kind of stories, and yet they have some hold. How else can I explain the innumerable times we have been asked to read this book, over and over? And to understand what exactly it was that my 6 year old understood and truly felt about this book, we had a comprehension style question answer session, two of which I am posting here as final words:

1. What is your favorite part of the story?
When they were playing hide and seek and leap frog.

2. What do you understand from this story?
That you should never quit what you're doing.

This book taught me one thing too, and its not that you should never quit what you're doing. Instead, I learnt quite a bit about humility. That the parts that I enjoy and point out and emphasise on, may not be what impresses him more. When he could just as well be happy with the way the two frogs leaped and played!

Looking at Art

In my London days, I used to take my children to the National Gallery for the Magic Carpet Storytelling sessions for under-5s. The little ones would all walk around the gallery looking for a carpet laid out in front of a painting chosen previously by the story-teller. One time it was Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello. The lady led the children to the carpet with great drama and proceeded to narrate a fantastic tale involving the knight, the princess he was rescuing and the dragon, all characters in the painting. She also wove in little details about the artist and the techniques he used. It subtly introduced a child to art appreciation and got her interested in all those fabulous paintings in the gallery. Supplementing these sessions are scores of books by the likes of Anna Nilsen, Meredith Hooper, Lucy Micklethwait and Allan Ahlberg. The books are masterpieces themselves and often involve a little child's adventures around the situation of the painting. For example, you have James Mayhew's Katie and the Mona Lisa where little Katie goes to the Louvre and in order to find out what makes the lady smile, climbs into the painting - the book is about their adventures together.

I often wondered if one could do similar books around Indian art, the possibilities, after all, are endless. I was totally delighted therefore when a friend told me about Tulika's Looking at Art series. Anjali Raghbeer has authored this set of beautiful books around the lives and works of four contemporary Indian artists. The illustrations have been done by Soumya Menon, an NID grad. Awesome is an understatement.

In The Veena Player, little Valsa goes to stay over at her aunt's place. Aunty Prima is a restorer of paintings and Valsa is drawn to a beautiful Ravi Varma painting that her aunt is currently working on. She befriends the lovely lady who is the subject of the painting and eventually helps her out. The reader is treated to a number of Ravi Varma works, all of which are beautifully woven into the story.
At the end of the story there is a section titled 'Looking at Ravi Varma's Paintings'. It sketches the artist's life and tells us about his works and their influence on the Indian art scene. It is packed with information easily digestible by young readers.

Barefoot Husain is about a schoolboy called Jai who is lost in the art gallery and bumps into someone else who is also lost. He recognizes M.F.Husain and asks him why is looking so sad. Hussain tells him that he has lost his shoes and now cannot attend his show because he had promised his sister that for once he would wear them. Husain conjures up a horse by simply sketching it and Jai jumps on it to hunt out the missing footwear. Read it to accompany them on the rest of their hunt all over the city, all I'll tell you is that the end is the best bit! The 'Looking at Husain's Paintings' part tells us about how the artist started off as a painter of cinema hoardings and takes a look at his style and his vivid creations.

My Name is Amrita.. is about the talented Amrita Sher-Gil. The book is inspired by the diaries of the artist when she was a young girl and indeed reads like one, with pictures taken from a private collection of Sher-Gil's paintings, drawings and photographs. The story gives us a peek into Amrita's privileged childhood and and her blossoming into one of India's foremost painters. The Looking at.. section takes us through the rest of her amazing (albeit short) life.

A Trail of Paint takes us on an exciting chase in the streets of Kolkata along with Biswajeet and the old man he bumps into at a Jamini Roy exhibition. Earlier, he had been dragged along with his art-loving aunt and then left on his own for a while. The old man tells Biswajeet that there are fakes in the gallery and shows him how one can spot them. Do they manage to figure out who is creating the frauds? Does the crook get caught? And, who is the old man? Read it and find out!
The Looking at.. section tells us about how Roy was hugely influenced by the folk art around him, eventually developing his unique style. It is full of his stunning works including my favourite, The Pujarin. Did you know that he had created about 32,000 paintings in his life?!

There is no age group indicated but I think it would appeal to a wide age range and also to grown-ups! My older daughter was fascinated by them and read them over and over. I also found the little one peering at the paintings and later begging me to read the books to her. These are books one will savour again and again and are a definitely a collector's item.

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Author and Illustrator: Alison Lester

All Ages

Read Alone - 4+

Imagine that you decide to take a break from work and home and embark on a long, long drive around India for 6 months along with your family. A few posts back we read about folks who travelled along with river Cauvery on a Maruti for 4 months. This story is similar, but around the borders of a country. Sounds very exciting and challenging. Will I be able to do it? Hmmm... Probably no. I would be worried about falling sick, about food and so on. I guess I am not that much of a traveler - well an arm-chair traveler to be precise :). But, I admire the folks who can leave everything and decide to go on a long trip.

Probably based on the author's own travel, Grace, an eight year old girl is taken on a trip around Australia for 3 months on a old camper trailer by her parents. She is accompanied by her elder brother, Luke and younger brother Billy. The kids miss the entire winter term at school. They would probably end up learning more in such a trip. They drive around the perimeter of Australia and watch and stop at every museum, natural landscape, river, mountains and every geographical significant and insignificant place in Australia.

The book is presented from point of view of girl Grace. She throws in a fascinating surprise every other page by giving her own interpretation for some the landmarks. When Grace goes to see the giant Pinnacles near Perth, an extraordinary rock formation; she imagines that these rocks are upturned giant monster with only the teeth visible to us.

The layout of the book is varied and it kept surprising me every other page. Every page is different. A few of the pages look like pages out of a photo album, while a few others look like a full page paintings.

Now for the title for the book - 'Are we there yet?'. You should have guessed it by now. Grace's younger brother, Billy, keeps asking every other page - 'Are we there yet?'. As a driver-designate in my family, I have heard this so many times. My daughter would climb in and as soon as we have moved 100 meters she would ask if we have reached the destination. Imagine hearing this for 3 months and for around 10,000 kms.

One place that really fascinated me was a place called Uluru right in the centre of Australia. If you try to read it in Tamil, it could mean 'Central Town/Village/place'.

The book is a combination of travelogue, comic, fantastic imagination, photo album, brochure, advertisement, National Geographic magazine and Discovery television channel all mixed up together - All these portrayed with some amazing illustrations.

Can you think of a better way of introducing a kid or an adult about a country. I cannot.

Martha Doesn't Say Sorry

Title: Martha Doesn't Say Sorry
Author: Samantha Berger
Illustrator: Bruce Whattley
Publisher: Little Brown And Company

This is the story of Martha. She is an otter, five-ish year old and lives with her mother, father and baby brother who isn’t one yet. Martha wears a pink dress with a nice pink ribbon. Sounds pretty traditional, huh? But that is where the stereotype stops because there is nothing else that is girly about Martha. She skate boards, does karate, sticks her tongue out, throws things and above all she is feisty with a capital F! And of course, Martha doesn’t say sorry for anything.

One day the stars are not well aligned for Martha. She throws cookie dough on her mother on purpose. Then she proceeds to paint her father’s behind with red paint. As if all this is not enough, she sets up her brass drum set right next to her sleeping baby brother and brings the house down. The whole family is mad at her because Martha after behaving purposefully does not take responsibility. She just walks away without a sorry. Soon Martha realizes that she does not get cookies, piggyback rides or hugs. Martha’s family is clear that they don’t bother doing all this for children who don’t say sorry. So Martha apologizes and she does it from her heart.

What I liked was, the book doesn’t stop there and if it had it would have been preachy and not realistic. The last page says that Martha still does some things that are not so nice, but she apologizes as nicely as she can. They have a picture of the baby brother’s first birthday cake with a number one candle on it, but the cake is missing a slice, the rest of the family is looking distressed and a sheepish looking Martha apologizing.

The pictures are awesome. Bruce Whatley has brought out such expression on the face of these otters. I almost choked on my tea when I saw Martha’s dad’s expression when she paints his behind with a smug, “Yeah, I did it, what can YOU do about it?” look on her face. The baby brother’s face when he refuses to give Martha a hug is simply priceless!

Following the link on Linda’s comments on Chox’s post on Saffron Tree, unfortunately I couldn’t find Linda’s book in our library, so made a book buy suggestion, I found this book.

I thoroughly believe in girls with spunk. So Martha Doesn’t Say Sorry really resonated with me. Plus our resident three year old says sorry as lip service, so I decided to try it with the girls. The book was pink, so they loved it even before we opened the book. After I finished reading, I got request to read the same book again and again and again. We have been reading it every night at bedtime for the past three weeks.

Previously

Author: Allan Ahlberg

Illustrator: Bruce Ingman

Ages: 4-8 years

We remembered another whacky Ahlberg book - Each Peach Pear Plum.

Previously we loved Previously and spent the day making up similar versions of everything we wanted to say!

Previously we read it.

Previously I bought it.

Previously I went to the Strand Book Fair, spotted Allan Ahlberg's name and grabbed it.

You get the drift I suppose! The book goes in reverse and is a riot! It mixes up tales of Goldilocks, Jack & the Beanstalk, Jack & Jill, a frog who was previously a prince, Cinderella and the Gingerbread Man into a hilarious cocktale (mispelling intended) the likes of which Ahlberg excels in creating. At the end of the book, life is just beginning on the planet!

My Dadima Wears a Sari

Title: My Dadima Wears a Sari
Author: Kashmira Sheth
Illustrator: Yoshiko Jaeggi
Publisher: Peachtree
Age Group: 4-8 years


Spending my growing-up years in India around women who took their sarees (saris) pretty seriously, I vividly remember weaving dreams of the myriad shades and textures of saris my wardrobe would be carrying when I became an adult. Later during adolescence, I recall carving out in my mind the exotic collection of saris I would be bringing back from my travels around India, all properly stacked in my suitcase. Not merely to share with family and friends, also as a way to celebrate the stories of places and people the fabrics and intricate motifs would beautifully tell. Bengal cotton, Balucharis, Banares silks, Kantha, block-printed, Chikankari, Ikat, Eri were just a few entries in the long list I had imagined. Many fond childhood memories and dreams related to saris, all tucked in my mind, like the folds and pleats of an elegantly worn sari.

Now, as an adult living in America, I confess months and sometimes, years have gone by without wearing one. Only my wedding saris hang in my wardrobe. Nowhere close to the collection I had envisioned growing up. Not having seen natural light for many years, I can almost hear my wedding saris whisper to me their longingness to be home and partake in festivals and celebrations. Sigh...

However, I must take comfort from the fact that we have a small collection of children's literature featuring colorful saris that we have been reading dearly over and over again throughout the year - on rainy days, sunny days, gusty days, snowy days... One by Sandhya Rao of Tulika Books titled, My Mother's Sari and another, by Pooja Makhijiani called, Mama's Saris. Both were a hit with my older daughter. Now, my little one enjoys reading them with me. These books offer little threads of a cultural connection for my children to experience India and her saris vicariously.

Meera's review of the Monsoon Afternoon few weeks ago rang a bell. I remembered thumbing through the pages of another book by the same author, Kashmira Sheth, titled My Dadima Wears a Sari, while volunteering at my daughter's public school library. It was only natural I would immediately place a hold for My Dadima Wears a Sari at my local library, along with Monsoon Afternoon and a few more Monsoon books to spend the rainy Thanksgiving weekend reading indoors with my daughters.

In My Dadima Wears a Sari, the story is a loving exchange between Dadima and her two grand-daughters, Rupa and Neha. Rupa asks Dadima whether she misses wearing pants or skirts or blouses for which Dadima nonchalantly replies, “I never thought about it”. She further goes on to enumerate the many special ways in which she uses her sari - from using the end of her "pallu" as a fan to keep cool on a hot day, to a pouch for carrying seashells at the beach, in the Gir jungle to hide from a storm, to tie around the knee as a bandage when her grand-daughter has a fall. Next, Rupa thinks of creative ways to use the sari and that includes playing hide-n-seek with her sister, to tieing a knot to gently remind her grandmother to give her a hug and such. Dadima later shares with them stories about all her saris in the wardrobe. And the girls excitedly pick one sari each to wear.

The watercolor paintings are soft and elegant. They tie in with the text capturing the warmth of the story aptly. Kashmira's writing shimmers all through, and she has a way to weave her words evocatively. She has beautifully wrapped inter-generational love through her debut work. The book is a playful, yet gentle way to present traditions and India's rich sari heritage. My Dadima Wears a Sari is a precious find. Hope I can purchase the book for a permanent place in my children's book shelf.

The Mozart Question

Michael Morpurgo has been one of the favourite authors in these parts for a while. He has written more than a hundred books and is the winner of many awards. His journey to becoming a writer is also interesting and one gets a glimpse of it in his collection of essays and short stories called Singing for Mrs Pettigrew. This review though is about The Mozart Question. Illustrated brilliantly by Michael Foreman (the two Michaels pair up fairly often), the backdrop of the story is, like many of Morpurgo's books, the Second World War. Though technically it is for a child between ages 8-12, even older folks will enjoy it.

The story starts with a fresh-from-the-oven reporter who unexpectedly lands with a plum assignment - that of interviewing Paolo Levi, the brilliant but temperamental musician. She is briefed by her boss to be careful about what she asks him as he is known to be very reticent and it has taken a great deal of time and effort to persuade him to do this interview. She is particularly warned to not ask 'the Mozart question'.

Our young lady lands up in Venice and meets Levi who pretty much fits the image she has been given. She blurts out that she has been told not to ask him the Mozart question - which she says she cannot, because she does not even know what it is. She then proceeds to ask him a question which incidentally is the question in question!

Levi spends a few minutes thinking and then tells her that 'the time had come' to tell the secret. He starts his story and takes the reader back to the time when he was a nine-year old living happily with his parents in Venice. Like any child of that age, he pokes around and discovers a hidden violin in his parents room. To his surprise they are vehemently unwilling to tell him anything about it. Around the same time, Paolo meets Benjamin, a violinist who plays at the corner of his street and is mesmerized by his music. The two become friends and Paolo convinces the older man to take him as his student. He smuggles out his parents' violin, gets it repaired and thus begin his secret lessons. Paolo takes to the violin 'as if it was a missing limb' and soon his talent blossoms.

Benjamin insists that one should not keep secrets from one's parents and eventually a reluctant Paolo takes him home expecting to have to face his parents' wrath. Instead he is astonished to find that Benjamin is actually a long-lost friend of his parents and is intrigued by how emotional they all seem upon the unexpected reunion. After some hesitation they decide to tell Paolo their painful secret. The reader is taken back in time once again to the days of Nazi atrocities against Jews, concentration camps and Holocaust horrors. It was their music that saved Paolo's parents and Benjamin, and somewhere in the narrative is the answer to the Mozart question.

So what IS the question and what is the answer? Read it yourself to find out.

Morpurgo is a master story-teller and manages to keep the reader hanging on to his words right up to the last pages. An excellent read and a highly recommended author.

ETA: Picked it up from the Strand Book Fair in Bangalore, have also seen it in major bookshops.

Interview with Michael Panckridge

Michael Panckridge the author of books on sports and fiction kindly replied back with many queries that I sent him. Infact, he had written the replies as an comment itself. Thank you Michael.

1. How did you hit upon the idea of cricket and science fiction/fantasy together? or for that matter sports and fiction/fantasy.

Michael: Well - I think the easy answer is they are both passions of mine. I am always saying to young writers that it's a great idea (esp. if stuck for writing ideas!) to write about things you're passionate about - for me that is sport (cricket) and time travel. And cricket has such wonderful history - it demands some time travel for my characters (and me!!) to go back and visit great matches from the past...

2. In you website, you had mentioned that you like talking to boys about reading. Although, I would not like to generalize or make sweeping statements, I notice that less number of boys pick up a book compared to girls. What are your thoughts on this.

Michael: My thoughts on boys' reading habits compared to girls - it's a really REALLY interesting topic - as a boy I used to love reading sports related stuff - info, facts, scores, numbers, results, records - reading for information. Of course not ALL boys are like this; not at all. But that was the way for me - it wasn't until I got to about year 7 that i started to enjoy reading novels. I think it took me a little longer to make that emotional connection with books - once a reader does that - they are off and away with the wonder of books...

3. Do you think days of Test matches are over?

Michael:Test matches over? Gosh,I hope not. As long as there are Ashes Test matches....

4. A tough one :) - name your favourite cricketer?

Michael: My favourite cricketer at the moment Michael Hussey!

5. The concept of Master Blaster, a virtual reality machine in your book, to play cricket with is an interesting concept. If it really existed, whom would you love to play against in this virtual reality machine?

Michael:I loved coming up with the idea of the Master Blaster - the virtual cricket machine - I think I would like to face Shane Warne... NOT the fast bowlers!!

6. It is interesting to note that Toby Jones team contains both girls and boys in the same school cricket team. Is this normal in Australian schools?

Michael: Yes - girls do play in boys' teams; it is not THAT common, but it certainly happens - esp. with younger aged teams.

A Penguin Story

Image courtesy - HarperCollins

Author/Illustrator: Antoinette Portis
Publisher: HarperCollins
Ages: All ages

Sometimes you’re not sure what you want but you might know exactly what you don’t want. I did not want yet another color book filled with bright primary colors and shapes for my 18 month old but I had no specifics on what I was looking for. My search led me to this wonderful find from Antoinette Portis. Her Not a Box, reviewed here by Praba, was a super hit with us!

A Penguin Story is a book of colors that is devoid of colors, except for the three that surround a penguin. White – of the snow, the Antarctic desert, the icebergs. Black – of the night sky. Blue – of the ocean as far as the eye can see.

But Edna, our protagonist, questions these limitations. Surely there must be “something else”. Something that is not black, not blue, not white. She doesn’t know what it would be, but she knows for sure that it had to be something other than the three colors she’s been seeing her whole life. Her friends want her to join their penguin pyramid, she’d rather not, because she’s busy looking. They think she’ll tire of it and join them sooner or later. But Edna tells us, determination writ large in her face, that she will never get tired of looking.

That’s when we first spot it. In the background, against the blue sky, over the white peaks. We spot something that is not black, blue or white – we see orange! Till this point in the book, the story is illustrated in only the colors the penguin sees. We haven’t seen anything other than the three colors in Edna’s life, so the jolt of bright, cheery orange comes as a pleasant surprise.

But Edna doesn’t see it, not yet. She is still searching and her search takes her far away from home, up hill, down hill, through night and day, when suddenly she stumbles right into a dome of orange.

The exhilaration of having found the object of her quest washes in color all over her. “I knew it! The world isn’t only white, black and blue!”

She shares her discovery with the rest and they all rush to see the orange “something else”. There’s not just one orange dome. There are many things orange here, including people in orange suits. There are also some boxes, in brown! What a bonus!

The people in orange befriend the black and white natives and when it is time to leave, they leave behind a souvenir that is orange, of course! But Explorer Edna can’t stop there. The thrill of having found what she was looking for, only makes her thirsty for more. She wonders what else there might be. That’s when we first see it…in the background…a splash of …..something else, that is not blue, not black, not white, not orange.

My 18 month old was content with pictures of penguins, and my 4 year old was engrossed in the story. Especially when he found the orange object before Edna did, and he knew that she’d find it too. He couldn’t wait to turn the pages to see her reaction.

Take it as a simple books of colors, or take it to a different plane and question your confines. Either way, A Penguin Story is something else.

The Origami Master

The Origami Master
by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer
Illustrated by Aki Sogabe

Ages : 4-8

Set in the landscape of the high mountains of Japan, Shima, an origami master lives all by himself. His life revolves around his origami and he is happy living alone.

One day, a warbler chooses the tree next to his home, to build its nest. All day long, it flies about, collecting twigs and materials and at the end of a long day, it sits on a branch and watches Shima at work, from time to time singing...hoohokekyo....hoohokekyo. Shima loves hearing the warbler and all is well until one night, when the warbler flies in to the house and begins to fold a piece of paper, just like Shima.

The next morning, Shima discovers a new paper elephant on his desk. Its the most exquisite thing he has ever seen, and even more beautiful than his own origami elephant. He stays guard that night and discovers the identity of the mysterious origami maker. He is consumed by jealousy and decides to catch the warbler and find out all its secrets. That very night, when the warbler comes in, he grabs it and locks it in a cage.

But the warbler, desolate about being trapped, refuses to do any origami and stares longingly at her home in the tree. Shima tries his best to entice it, but nothing works and he falls asleep at his desk. The next morning, when he wakes up, he finds that the cage door is open and the warbler is gone. And its means of escape is quite ingenious.

At this point, Shima realises how much he misses the bird's company and how much happier he was when it was up in the tree singing...hoohokekyo..hoohokekyo. The story has a happy ending when the warbler returns to its home, to find a beautiful gift waiting for it, from the origami Master himself.

That's the story. And it is one story that was equally enjoyed by both my 6 year old and my 3 year old. Its hard to find common reading ground among the two of them, and it was the warbler's hoohokekyo that charmed both these young readers alike. That and the little origami bird tutorial that was on the last page of the book, with very easy to follow instructions. I made them one bird each and they could now sing hoohokekyo to their heart's content.

As for me, I have to say that I liked the minimalism in this book. That there are just 2 characters in all, and the story tosses back and forth between them. That it is a see and do book, interactive and guiding you to try something new. That the illustrations showing Japan's countryside and the architectural uniqueness of the traditional homes there, together with the pink cheery blossoms, all giving it a very quaint-but-never-cliched oriental touch.

And as for you....well, you will have to guess and tell me, how you think the warbler escaped! :)


[Pics courtesy of Origami Resource Center.]

I am Different !! Can You Find Me?

Text and Illustrations by Manjula Padmanabhan
Published by Tulika
3-6 years

Sometimes when I talk to other parents about kid books and reading, I hear a despairing wail - But my child doesn't like to read! He/She is too fidgety/uninterested/prefers other activities whatever. And it stumped me. Until I had another child who was exactly the opposite of my first one. The little one seems to think that it's a waste of time to actually read books when, why you can easily do something more exciting, like say - tear/chew/throw the book ! (Horrors!)

So it's been a challenge to get her interested in reading and I'm still working on that. One way is to probably pick less wordy books, maybe even a wordless book like Tuesday or Flotsam. Or get books with textures or Peek-a-boo books - there are so many in the market. Once my child is old enough to follow a story, then I would get a book with a simple story and narrate instead of read.

One such book that could help a reluctant reader is this one. It's a simple Picture-Puzzle book and each page is an exercise in finding the 'odd one' out. For example in this picture, there's only one 6 point star while the others are 5 point ones.

So that's one thing, most children like to pore over pictures and find the different looking one. And the fun part is this, what's different to you may not be different to me, there are really no 'correct' answers (although there's an answer guide at the end of the book).

Then there's the text, each page has just one line, but in a different language. So there are a total of 16 languages all asking the same thing - 'Can you find me?' There's Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Persian, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Oriya, Bengali.. all written in their own script (with the pronunciation in English underneath) So that's the next point of interest - figuring out how the same thing is said in all these different languages, some that are even written from right to left instead of the conventional way. It's great fun to try to say them, since children seem to love unfamiliar words. Bonus is for the child to learn the names of so many languages that are spoken in India.

My older daughter has picked up some of the lines from this book and now claims that she knows that language! It is quite hilarious but also heartening to see her want to speak another language in an increasingly English Centric India. My younger one? Will just poke the pictures, and babble along with her sister as she tries out the odd sounding words. Try this book if you have a reluctant reader at home and do let me know how it goes.