The Curious Sameer series

Written by Nandini Nayar

 Illustrated by Francesco Manetti

 Karadi Tales

 Ages 3 to 6

I’ve always enjoyed Nandini Nayar’s picture books - spare text, minimal characters, and always some simple prop or idea that sends those characters  (and us readers)  off on imaginative journeys.  The Curious Sameer books , a series starring a little boy and his wise mother, follow much the same trajectory. 

What Will I be? begins with our little hero and his Amma  playing hide and seek. Petulant at being found almost at once, Sameer declares he will run away, become a train driver and travel somewhere his mother will never  find him. But I will, she assures him, and explains how.  Then I will be a pilot, says Sameer, and  never be found among the clouds. Think again, says Amma,  and explains how she will track him down . Again and again , Sameer  thinks of something new to be, that will take him far away from her.  And again and again, Amma cleverly proves she will still know where he is -  until an unexpected twist  that has our little hero reconsider his lofty  plans. The book  charmingly explores the world through Sameer’s eyes, as he flits from puffy clouds to  candy mountains to subterranean mines.   As a parent,  I couldn’t help chuckling at Sameer’s increasingly ambitious plans to prove his independence, only to be gently reeled in by his Amma  every single time.  

What  Could it Be  is all about the power of creativity. The book has Sameer trying to solve a mystery – what lies inside the blue package waiting  for him when he gets home from school? Amma knows, of course, but  keeps Sameer guessing, only willing to tell him what the gift isn’t. Is it a doll, he asks, which will be my friend? A friend, yes, says Amma, but not a doll. A kite, perhaps, asks Sameer, that will make me soar high? You will soar high, says Amma, but it is no kite.  What follows is a wild flight of fancy, much like What Will I be?, as Sameer  imagines what the gift could be, while Amma’s answers  gets increasingly more profound and mysterious.  I especially enjoyed the pacing of the book – it builds up  the suspense neatly, has us pause with Sameer as we consider all of  Amma’s cryptic clues, before presenting us with the answer in a colourful flourish.

Francesco Manetti’s art captures  the charm of Nandini Nayar’s little stories – his illustrations are playful, beautifully textured and  bring Sameer’s imaginary worlds  to life . Each colourful spread is a delight to  the eye, full of interesting details and humorous depictions of Amma’s relentless pursuit of little Sameer.  Cities of blocks with wavy clothes lines,  faraway moon colonies,   candy mountain peaks – and my favourite image, Amma flying towards mountaineer Sameer on a folded newspaper  ‘plane!   My one regret is that Sameer didn’t consider a career as a deep sea diver – I would have loved to see Fransesco’s  depiction of his underwater capers!

An electronic version of this book was sent to me by the publisher for review; all views expressed, however, are my own.

Daddy Come Lately

Daddy Come Lately

Author: Rupa Gulab

Publisher: Duckbill

Ages : Young Adult

Now here’s a blast from the past, I thought, when my copy of ‘Daddy Come Lately’ arrived in the mail . For wasn’t this once a book called Chip of the Old Blockhead, published  way back in 2006 by Rupa & Co. ? Well, back it is in a brand new avatar, courtesy Duckbill, with a few minor edits.

Thirteen year old Priya has grown up believing her father died before she was born. So imagine her surprise – read shock – when he turns up for dinner, then moves into the house next door and insists on making up for lost father-daughter time.  Priya is determined to hate him, of course, but when the whole world and its mother – okay, her mother – seem utterly taken by Dad the Bad’s charms, what is a girl to do?  It doesn’t help that the rest of her life chooses precisely this moment to get more complicated – her favourite teacher faces dismissal, her mother’s best friend seems overly friendly with Dad the Bad, and why is the boy next door acting so weird around her?

Priya makes for an entertaining narrator – she is sarcastic, whiny, devious, quite the drama queen – in other words, your average thirteen year old. Add to this a vocabulary fed by too much British school  fiction (Has anyone had ‘brekker’ since the ‘60s?  Or 'fancied' anyone outside of Old Blighty?) , a penchant for snide asides about everyone on her radar and a flair for over- reaction  - Priya , with all her quirks, is utterly believable. The plot, breezy  for the most part, takes a serious  turn when Priya runs away from home, and comes disturbingly close to being assaulted by a slimy hotel manager in faraway Mussoorie. Worry not, O reader - she gets away, in an escape  re-engineered in this edition of the book, to sound more with the times. ( Chip..  was, after all, released before Facebook and mobile phones shrank the world and changed the way we live our lives.)

Daddy… deals with some serious issues – divorce, incompatible parents, a lack of real communication between parents and their kids . While I wouldn’t say these were always dealt with realistically- the swift manner in which Priya’s parents reunite, for example, left me incredulous-  these are certainly situations a lot of the book’s young readers would identify with. I also imagine that a generation that has grown up with tools like Facebook and Google is going to find some aspects of the book hard to believe.  I found the portrayal of  Priya’s less than perfect mother interesting -  Tanu, we soon realize, tells lies to suit her purpose, manipulates her parents, spouse and daughter, and is childishly impulsive.  Incidentally, this is the second Duckbill  YA  I’ve read featuring a flawed maternal figure; this one, however, gets a far more sympathetic hearing.   

  I received this book as a review copy from the publisher; however, the views expressed here are entirely my own. The image used here is from the publisher's website.

Au Revoir, Children's Book Week 2014

There is a book for every reader and a reader for every book.

After a week of celebrating what we at Saffron Tree love best - i.e., children's books - it is time to wind down the frenzied activity and take things slow and steady again, one book at a time.

Do you have books that resonated with you? Books that turned you or your child into an ardent reader? Books that you know others will love to read?  Feel free to share it as comments in any of the posts here, any time. And, join us on Facebook to start a discussion on children's book.

Thanks for reading along with us during this Children's Book Week and participating in our Giveaway. The winner will be announced in the comments of the post by May 20th, 2014, and will be contacted via email for further information.

7 Clever and Funny Picture Books

Of course, what's side-splittingly funny for one may not elicit even a chuckle in another. And adults are notoriously harder to please when it comes to rib-ticklers, while the kids find humor in everything silly.

There's the clever-witty humor; the wry-sophisticated humor; the slapstick-goofy humor; and then there's the cause-convulsive-giggles-each-time humor that is popular with the kids.

Every once in a while, a few books come along that are so clever and witty that it makes the adults sit up and take notice; at the same time are so starkly comic that makes the kids giggle uncontrollably and request immediate repeat reads.

In honor of CBW festivities, here are a few offbeat books, in no particular order, that managed to impress the kids just as much as they managed to inspire Mama, who is constantly in awe of picture book writers and illustrators who keep pushing the envelope.



Press Here
by Hervé Tullet

Interactive books provide an immediate gratification for the very young - touch, push, pop-up, lift-the-flap. And then, there are interactive books that ask the reader to actively engage to move the story forward. And some of these latter kind of books can fail to hold the interest of the kids.

However, Press Here is not one of those. Press Here engages the kids in a respectfully funny way that makes them think as they laugh and play along. Each page has a simple set of instruction urging the child to follow and then turn the page. And, if they follow sincerely and turn the page, there is the reward. Of course, the trouble is, even if they don't follow sincerely, there is the same result on the next page.

For such books to be a success, children must want to play along. And this book opens up such a whimsical and imaginary world that the children certainly want to enter and play along.

[image source: amazon.com]


How to Babysit a Grandma

by Jean Reagan
illustrated by Lee Wildish

Much like How to Babysit a Grandpa, this book turns the tables to put the child in the center and in-charge. From the child's point of view. Which is what matters.

When you babysit a grandma,
    if you're lucky...
         it's a sleepover at her house.

So starts this endearing book that is not just cute and funny but warm and witty. The cleverness may not be obvious for the very young, but as a parent, I could not stop smiling. Like the page listing "How to keep grandma busy" - with Go to the park, Bake snicker doodle, Have a costume parade, Go to the park to feed the ducks, look at family pictures, Go to the park to swing... I am sure every (grand)parent can identify with the numerous requests to go to the park, not to mention the cookie-baking. Now, the brilliant touch is:

As the babysitter, you need to let her choose.

As both kids visit their Nana once in a while for holidays, they identified with this book more than the Grandpa book. The nine-year old guffawed at every page, pointing out the funny bits to her little brother.

[image source: Jean Reagan website]


Open Very Carefully: A Book with Bite
by Nick Bromley
illustrated by  Nicola O'Byrne

There is no discounting the power of interactivity, of including the child reader into the adventure of the book, involving them in the story and yet keeping them in suspense. Along the way, if children use their powerful imagination to come up with creative solutions, the book has done its job.

What would you do if you were settling down for a quiet bedtime story and you realized that a crocodile had fallen out of one story and into yours and was - not to put too fine a point on it - furious? A wonderful picture 'book about books'.

So what can the reader do about a disruptive crocodile in the tale about the Ugly Duckling? Shake the book to see if the croc falls out;  rock the book to see if the croc will fall asleep; finding a way to get rid of the crocodile is only part of the fun. Of course, there's the die-cut holes left by the crocodile chomping his way out. But to where? A-ha! The adventure may not be over yet.

[view sample images inside the book at Nicola O'Byrne's website]

[image source: Nosy Crow]


17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore

by Jenny Offill
illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

There are some books that irk some parents because of what a child is allowed to get away with. This is potentially one of them.

While stapling her brother's hair to the pillow will not occur to my daughter and she will not learn to do it or even attempt it by reading this book, there are some highly curious children who would like to give it a try if they have not done so already.

Parents might squirm a bit at "I had an idea to show Joey Whipple my underpants." Rather inappropriate would be the pronouncement. But the blurry cartwheeling picture of the little girl on a handstand with underpants revealed, in combination with the background made up of layers of elastic-waist underpants  in colors of sky and grass, doesn't seem offensive.

There is an age of innocence when such antics just test the limits of what they are allowed to do, rather than an attempt at being provocative. Of course, most schools require girls to wear play-shorts over their underpants, especially under a dress or skirt these days; and revealing the play-shorts is not considered inappropriate.

Now, having gotten that out of the way, this is a clever take on the insanely wild things some kids do and how the adults deal with them. The older child enjoyed reading this to her younger brother, pointing out all the silliness.

One idea after another meets the disapproval of one adult or another, leading our protagonist to list the things she has been forbidden to do anymore. The text is dry and stark, but is paired with hysterically detailed illustrations. This polar pairing makes it terribly funny rather than upsetting and obnoxious.

[image source: jennyoffill.com ]


Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum

by Lisa Wheeler
illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith

Ms. Wheeler has a way with words. She can make them dance and create music with their rhythm and rhyme.

What happens to a carelessly spat out piece of gum that lands on a hot road and is forgotten by the spitter?

Bubble gum, bubble gum,
Chewy-gooey bubble gum,
Icky-sticky bubble gum
Melting in the road. 

Along comes a toad…
A fine, fat toad,
A fine, fat, wild
- SPLAT -
wart-backed toad.

Ew! Yuck!
The toad got stuck~

And along comes a parade of unlikely animals who all get stuck on this piece of melting gum. Of course, that alone is not funny enough. Where's the crisis, the problem?

Along comes a truck…
A big, blue truck,
A big, blue
- COMIN’ THROUGH -
Honk-honk truck!

What can these stuck animals do to not get squished by the truck? There is always a clever solution for every sticky situation, right?

Many stories try to circle back and end self-referentially. Only few manage to do it well. This is one of them, thanks to the master-writer.

[image source: Lisa Wheeler Books ]


That Is Not a Good Idea!

by Mo Willems  (Author Illustrator)

Being a huge fan of Elephant and Piggie books, the kids brought this home from the library. It didn't look anything like Elephant & Piggie books, but it had Mo Willems as the author, so it must be clever and funny, was probably their reasoning.

Some stories move along in a predictable way and you read along thinking, yeah, this is nice, the pictures are lovely, i think i know what happens next... and then wham! you are hit with a 180° twist that leaves you smiling for long. This is one of those books. Enough said.

[Browse Inside at Harper Collins]

[image source: Harper Collins]


More Bears! 
by Kenn Nesbitt
illustrated by Troy Cummings

A curmudgeonly writer refuses to allow any bears in his book. But what can he do when there is repeated requesting for increasingly numerous bears in the story?

Kenn Nesbitt's style of humor resonates so well with the kids that despite its rather boring, possibly annoying progression, it manages to impress the kids. And parents sit up and notice the sophisticated presentation. Some of the clever bear monickers will be lost on the young ones but the adults will get a laugh out of it while reading it to the kids.

Almost always, the twist in the ending makes such books irresistible to the kids. Sure enough, the author, overwhelmed by bears, decides to get rid of them entirely and start over with a new story when out of the corner, we hear the request for "More Chickens!"

[image source: Poetry4Kids ]


Speaking of funny, for those unbridled laughs anytime, every time, the staples at home are Shel Silverstein and Kenn Nesbitt poetry collections.


What's not to love about poetry, especially the rhyming kind that is also quirky and riotously silly and playful? Turn to any random poem in these books and one is guaranteed to be amused. Every few months, the kids go through this phase of reading the three Shel Silverstein books cover-to-cover over a few days of bedtime reads. Pure wholesome fun.

A Light in the Attic Special Edition
by Shel Silverstein  (Author Illustrator)


Runny Babbit 
by Shel Silverstein  (Author Illustrator)


My Hippo Has the Hiccups: And Other Poems I Totally Made Up
by Kenn Nesbitt
illustrated by Ethan Long

[image source: Poetry4Kids, Wikipedia]

Where the Sidewalk Ends
by Shel Silverstein  (Author Illustrator)

A Bakers' Dozen of Books

Being a die-hard bibliophile, the one thing I was sure of in the general confusion of parenting, was that I would introduce my child to books as early as was possible. Some of her first toys were bath books, touch-and-feel books and board books. I let her bang them on the ground like other toys, let her put them in her mouth, and one of my joys as soon as she could sit up on my lap was reading aloud a book to her. Of course, I would 'read' to her in my native tongue, telling the story as I went, with her intent on seriously turning the conveniently stiff pages of the board book with her tiny fingers. This was a time when she was monolingual, and we wanted to wait for formal school to introduce English to her. I do not know how much of the stories she understood, but at 10 months, she was already associating the words I said with particular pictures.

Here is one favourite book for every year of her life; not necessarily the best book we read that year. Just the best loved - the comfort factor. That would be a baker's dozen.

Year 1



pic courtesy goodreads

The going to bed book

Written and illustrated by Sandra Boynton

Little Simon Board Books.

A hippo, a bear, a rhino, a rabbit, and then some ... are animals on an ark. Come night, they all get ready for bed. They brush, change into their pyjamas, exercise, and then fall asleep to the rocking of the ark in the moonlight. A gentle, soothing, and beautifully silly book for bedtime.

This lasted us a really long time, right until she was 5, picked up every now and then, even after she could read on her own, scratched and crisscrossed with pencil and crayon marks.

Year 2



pic courtesy goodreads

Are you my mother?

Written by P.D.Eastman

Random House.

A baby bird hatches while its mother is away. Eager to meet her, it ventures forth into the world, meeting a series of assorted animals one might encounter ordinarily in a domestic setting, whom it askes this question, "Are you my mother?", only to be disappointed. Until finally it meets the mother in quite an unexpected way.

I read this one too, in my native tongue to her. A loved the litany of the question, occurring throughout the book, and would chime in with glee. She quite identified with the bright-eyed, chirpy (pun intended), and earnest baby bird rushing around to find its mother. This is a book we have gifted many times over to friends and family.

Year 3



pic courtesy goodreads

Home Before Dark

Written and illustrated by Ian Beck

Scholastic Children's Books.

A well-loved teddy bear, out for a walk in the pram with its human, Lily, falls off it. "Teddy was left all alone." So what does poor Teddy do? He bravely squeezes out of the park in between the bars of the grilled gate, and finds his way home. The way takes him through busy traffic roads, pavements full of people, and deserted, lonely lanes full of growing shadows. Until finally, he gets to a door impossibly closed. How he gets in, just in time for being inside the door when Lily searches for her beloved Teddy at bedtime, makes up the rest of the story.

This book was gifted to A by her paediatrician in the UK hospital where we had taken her for a few tests, for being brave and not crying so much. It was a prized possession, and of course we read it over and over again.

Year 4



pic courtesy goodreads

Over in the Meadow: a counting rhyme

Written and illustrated by Louise Voce

Walker books.

Ten animal mothers and their babies have a noisy, rollicking time. One turtle swims, two ducklings quack, three owls to-whoo, four mice squeak, five bees buzz, six squirrels jump, seven froggies hop, eight lizards run, nine piglets oink, ten foxes play.

An adaptation of a a popular rhyme, this is a great introduction to many things - numbers and counting, common animals and their babies, animal sounds, and a sense of meter, rhyme, rhythm, among these; along with being a great springboard for fun activities for a hyperactive child. This was also a perfect book for us to read in English, as she had begun school a few months before she turned 3, and was being introduced to the language.

Year 5

pic courtesy goodreads

A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes

Written and illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton

Kingfisher books.

If I were to pick one book as essential reading for under-fives, this one would be it. Dedicated to "children now who will grow up in the 21st century", this is a truly eclectic collection of rhymes, not just from the English, but from many other languages and cultures, fitting in harmoniously with the flavour of the book. The illustrations, done in pastel shades of watercolours, bring alive these rhymes. Separated into sections - baby, toddler, school children, and a mix of all, the book has some gems that kept us entertained on lazy afternoons. A picks up the book even now, sometimes, whenever nostalgia strikes her.

Year 6

pic courtesy ebay

Amelia Bedelia books

Written by Peggy Parish and Herman Parish

HarperTrophy

Amelia Bedelia is a charwoman, who takes things too literally. The bread dough is supposed to rise, so Amelia Bedelia is confounded when it just sits there in the pan. How could she know that when asked to shorten dresses, she should be turning up the hem and sewing it, instead of snipping away the excess length? Or when asked to stamp the letters at the post office, how could she know that she wasn't meant to put them all on the floor and stomp all over them?

A rib-tickling, rollicky, laugh-out-loud funny set of books, that play on the vagaries of the English language. This is pure silliness for silliness' sake, which was thoroughly enjoyed with giggles and guffaws. The set of books is a treasured possession, and even today A takes them all out and pores over them, laughing away. I would look at them as the precursors to enjoying Wodehouse later in life.

Year 7

pic courtesy goodreads

Naughtiest Girl series

Written by Enid Blyton

Hodder.

It has become fashionable to dismiss, even criticise Enid Blyton. While I agree that there are many elements of her writing one can object to, her books are, in my opinion, essential reading for any serious reader of fiction in English. From the many gems among her books, the Naughtiest Girl series - The Naughtiest Girl in school, The Naughtiest Girl Again, and The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor - stood out this year.

Elizabeth Allen is an irrepressible tween who 'decides' to be bad at her new school, and she does get into plenty of trouble, but everyone, and everything that happens around her, finally bring out the best in her. These are books, along with Blyton's St Clare and Malory Towers books, that we seem to be reading over and over again, going back to them every time there is a 'situation' at school.

Year 8

pic courtesy goodreads

Matilda

Written by Roald Dahl

Illustrations by Quentin Blake

Puffin books.

This was the year for the girl who was different, and who had a thirst for books and a secret magic power. Needless to say, it was lapped up by the girl at home, who also wished for a secret magic power like Matilda, so that she could keep bullies away. This was also the year we began the reading aloud of the Harry Potter series, which was an ongoing thing for the next 4 years, interspersed with the Inkwell series (Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath). These deeply affected the way she thought about language and literature, fantasy becoming a favourite genre to read and write in.

And of course, there were also all those interesting book plugs in there that we explored.

Year 9

pic courtesy amazon.co.uk

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Written by Lewis Caroll

Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Walker books.

Lewis Caroll's masterpiece does not require much of an introduction. This particular edition - a boxed set that has both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - has gorgeous illustrations by Helen Oxenbury to match the scintillating text. A had read the Alice books earlier in an abridged version, as well as watched the Disney version on screen. She was riveted by the discovery of wordplay and humour that characterizes the original.

Year 10

pic courtesy goodreads

The Number Devil: a mathematical adventure

Written by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Illustrations by Rotraut Susanne Berner

Translated by Michael Henry Heim

Granta Publications.

Robert is a 12 year old, who is terrified of math, as also of the alarming dreams that he seemed to be prone to. And then one night, the number devil visits his dreams. And so begins an adventure that goes on night after night. The number devil makes the world of numbers devilishly simple, deconstructs mathematical concepts for Robert, and by extension for the reader, making it fun.

As A once remarked, this book should be part of the curriculum.

Year 11

pic courtesy goodreads

Holes

Written by Louis Sachar

Yearling.

A teen who gets into trouble for no fault of his own. An old family curse. A bunch of crooks who run a correctional facility. A place in the desert miles from anywhere. God's thumb. An entrepreneur obsessed with finding a cure for smelly feet. A legendary woman bandit who became one because of circumstances. Buried treasure. A whole group of dysfunctional teenage boys and their internal politics.

A sure shot recipe for something fabulous in the hands of a storyteller like Louis Sachar. There are multiple narratives that run in parallel, interweaving in unexpected ways and coming together to a startling finale. This book was a winner from the word go. This is also one of those rare books whose movie version was actually as good, if not better, than the book.

Year 12

pic courtesy goodreads

Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl

The Definitive Edition, edited by Otto Frank and Mirjam Pressler

Puffin books.

This book is wonderfully affirmative of life in a period that could be called a blot on humanity. the Holocaust. Anne Frank and her family, along with some friends, all Jews, had to go into hiding as a result of Hitler's Final Solution. They were helped by non-Jew friends. All through the years in the Secret Annexe, as Anne called it in her diary, she wrote prolifically, in her diary, as well as short stories. Through her diary, we realize that she went in a child, but came out of it a woman, growing in her thoughts. It is unfortunate that she did not survive the Holocaust. The world certainly lost a gifted writer and good human being.

This book, too, should be required reading for all teens. It was a sort of 'coming of age' book for A, and inspired in her a desire to be regular diarist too.

Year 13

pic courtesy goodreads

The Book Thief

Written by Markus Zusak

Black Swan.

Holocaust again.

Liesel Meminger is a 9 year old who is sent to live with foster parents after her parents are taken away as communists. She befriends Rudy, a non-Jew boy who has a normal childhood, complete with loitering around with friends, and stealing fruit from the trees of wealthy farmers. She also finds an unexpected friend in Max, a Jew who is given asylum by her foster parents, his life reduced to a dark basement filled with old paint cans. Her Papa owed his life to Max's father, beside whom he had fought in the Great War (WW1), and this was his way of paying back. And everywhere around them, Death was doing his macabre dance, telling the tale as the narrator.

A found the book mesmerising: the narration, and the extraordinary use of words. She has yet not found another one that matches up to this. We are looking forward to the movie, now, which will be released on DVD in early June.