These are a set of ten books with very simple story-lines and everyday vocabulary - 9 to 1, Mirror, Flower, Hello!, Where is Thangi?, Shhh!, Dark, Tail, Up Up! and Song. The illustrations are created with thumbprints - hence the names of the characters. Thambi and Thangi feature together in some of the books and by themselves in the rest. The size of the book is child-friendly and not at all intimidating for a beginner reader. The last page says ' I CAN READ THIS BOOK!' - making the smile go wider!
Creating simple storybooks is actually the trickiest. Hats off to the Tulika folks who made them - Biswajit Balasubramaniam, Deepa Balsavar, Radhika Menon, Jeeva Raghunath, Ashok Rajagopalan and Sandhya Rao! I bet anyone who sees them will go ga-ga just like my friend Ranjani (who mentioned it in an earlier post as one her family's top picks of the year) and me!
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A BIG THANKS for getting Dhruv these books, he was totally charmed by them (and that's a big deal for the guy who usually likes only books based on vehicles n tools!) It's a very sweet idea.
ReplyDeleteBooked them online :) any idea how many days it takes for the books to arrive??
ReplyDeleteThe series has found it way to 'THE LIST' my dear :)
ReplyDeleteChox we have 8 out of the 10 books and I agree they are just awesome!
ReplyDeleteLike you have mentioned, as much as the books seem simple, a lot of thought has gone into preparing them keeping in mind the target audience. Truly it is commendable work by the Tulika team !
My 3 years old's favourites in this series are - 'Hello', 'sssh' and '9 to 1'.
Surely going to be our next buy. Just loved the idea of these books.
ReplyDeleteSounds very interesting. I love the simplicity aspect. Thanks Chox.
ReplyDeleteHuge hit in our household as well. Thanks for this neat pointer, Chox!
ReplyDeleteThe 3 yr old, with an explosion of lengthy sentences has a few cute one-liners just for Thangi,
"You are not scared anymore. You did a good job shooing the scary faces away. I love you!"
(the book MIRROR by Sandhya Rao
pictures by Ashok Rajagopalan)
IMHO - Not just for reading and art exploration, the book also helps explore emotions in a fun way. (We all know tantrums are minimized when toddlers/preschoolers communicate their emotions (the EQ - emotional quotient) Thangi's Mirror helps in that!)
Also, reminds me of Brand New Reader series http://www.brandnewreaders.com/ - Worm is Hot, Well done, Worm - LOL ones that K loved during preschool years.
Sorry about this lengthy comment! :-)
Oh, ChoxBox, a while back when I saw the post by Ashok Rajagopalan, Illustrator, The Thumb Rules! on Tulika Blog, I was so impressed by the simplicity. And as P noted, I am sure a lot of thought has gone into it! Thanks again for a wonderful set of books!
ReplyDeleteStarry: My pleasure!
ReplyDeleteMM: YOU will love them!
utbt: And your posts have lengthened THE LIST in these parts as well :)
Ranjani: The fav here is Mirror. Kannadi I mean!
Vibha: Go get them!
Meera: There is simplicity in the execution as well - in the sense there is no clutter at all in the illustrations.
P: LOL @ the cute one-liners!
Some of the others don't necessarily have much beyond the story though - which is great idea IMO. For eg, Up Up! is just about Thambi making a kite and flying it.
Thanks for the link for the BrandNew Reader series. Going over to check.
Sheela: I bet you will put an even more creative spin to it :)
Sheela, thanks for making my day!
ReplyDeleteThanks to all of you here who liked the books.
A lot of thought has gone into the concept and execution, true, Choxbox.
And, may I add, a lot of love, too. :)
Thanks Ashok for stopping by and commenting. You just made MY day :)
ReplyDeleteSounds terrifically cute and innovative. What an idea!!!
ReplyDeleteWe got the books! Just read 1-10 yesterday and the best part is that both the kids are loving it.
ReplyDeleteHeard the little one trying to say Thumb Thumb Thangi yesterday :-)
Today we have some fingerpainting activity planned as a result of these books :)
can u please correct the pics please?? Linked this post at my blog. :)
ReplyDeleteT: You bet!
ReplyDeletePoppy: Our house has been overflowing with thumbprint art as well, all around Thambi and Thangi :)
MM: Done!
That's wonderful to hear! This post & the comments that follow made my day.
ReplyDeleteAlso @Poppy @Choxbox @Praba: Would you care to share some samples of thumb print art/one-liners for Thangi with us? We're putting together reactions to and improvisations of our books on our blog and would love to share this with our fans.
Thanks again!
Sure - will send it over ASAP!
ReplyDeleteFinally got the set of 10 books, thanks to my parents, and boy, the kids love it! It is wonderful to let the 5 year old read it to the 2 year old... made me thik of Edward Teller's famous words, "No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect."
ReplyDeleteHello Chox and Saffron Treers, Would you like to submit this blog post for the 'I can read' blog carnival at The Book Chook blog? I thought of this post the minute I saw the announcement:) I'm sure there are others that might qualify as well...
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