Author: Sandhya Rao
Illustrator: Tanvi Bhatt
Publisher: Tulika Books
The dreamy-looking picture of a child with closed eyes and the intriguingly simple title piqued my writerly curiosity, and obviously, it was hard not to resist the temptation to pick up this brand new picture book from Tulika Books, written by my favorite editor and children's writer, Sandhya Rao.
The narrative revolves around the varied colourful dreams that a child named Shobha dreams, and she's only eager to know how all of her dreams end. With a gentle nudge from her English teacher, she quickly figures out a way to find a solution to her predicament.
A picture book plot in the hands of a great children's writer can sometimes pen itself - and this one probably did exactly that with its awe-inspiringly simple and clever pen-oriented theme.
The slightly poignant touch added to the pictures reveals a parallel thread that the reader sees unfolding - a hidden story element that does not needlessly parade pity, but one that speaks the state as is and deserves five stars for the not-at-all-heavy handling of it.
Dream Writer is one of the books that made my “Picture Book Picnic” children at the local art gallery, drool over the delightfully funny images, especially the page with Shobha’s nose growing like an elephant trunk.
Vibrant artwork by Tanvi Bhat speaks more than a thousand words, while the crisp and clear writing leaves you smiling and craving for more of Shobha’s bite-sized stories and their dreamy endings.
Coconuts flapping and buzzing like flies evoked many laughs. I started off asking my group of raucous children what they thought dreams were made of. I wanted them to get a little descriptive in describing what a dream was, and these were some interesting responses I got from the children.
“Dreams are like a cloud. They float in your head when you sleep.”
“Dreams are like fantastic things that form in your mind when you sleep”
“Dreams tend to have a fuzzy quality. Some are blurry whereas some are very clear.”
Clearly, Sandhya Rao’s Dream Writer spoke to little minds in more ways than one. More power to stories that inspire children in a myriad different ways!
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