Loading...
Loading...
If you see patterns in clouds and creatures in the sun and moon, then you’ll love this picture book. It draws images in words and the illustrations offer various interpretations. The beautiful images, borrowing from various folk-art forms, are done in bold strokes and often challenge the words on the page. All the animals in the forest are allegorical, even the sun! Meant for all age groups, this picture book is a magical journey into our own imagination.
Priya Kuriyan, the illustrator-writer of this book has woven a tale around an unusual pair of heroines – a sharp and brave rural policewoman and a music-loving buffalo. Beauty, the buffalo goes missing, and Jincy, the policewoman gets down to work to find her. The beautiful illustrations tell half the story, and the tightly written text conveys the rest, subtly and hilariously. This book is a treat for both early readers as well as older children.
Monster Folktales from South Asia
This is a thrilling but thoughtful collection of monster folktales from all over South Asia. A giant ogre who eats people, a fire demon and a sea monster – all create havoc. The language is evocative and the illustrations are quite flamboyant as monsters leap out of the pages. The stories can be read aloud to younger children. As with most monster tales, these too end with victory over the monster, which can be external or internal. Is there anyone who has not fought monsters?
Using the familiar trope of a grandfather who loves to talk of the past, three stories centred around the tiger are narrated to the child, who is both the grandson and the reader. Two of the stories have a germ of historical fact, around which a tale is built. The third one is the old tiger myth of the Sunderbans retold. The royal, dignified, lone tiger, awe-inspiring, terrifying as well as fascinating, shines through all three stories.
Those two words are acronyms for two groups of extremely feisty and gutsy elderly people, not quite like the soft sweet cuddly grandmas and grandpas one sees in most children’s books. These elders don’t cook your favourite food or tell you stories about gods. They get out there and get things done. The little child caught in this storm is only looking for some peace and quiet in this retirement community, but that is not what he gets.
Big environmental issues like mining are not easy to make interesting for children. This book manages to do just that, because the reader identifies with the young protagonist who is not initially very aware or interested in such things, but when he is confronted with a stark reality he actually gets involved in a scheme for deflecting the impending environmental crisis in his home village and surroundings.
History Hunters: Chandragupta Maurya and the Greek Onslaught
History meets science fiction meets classic adventure story in this exciting time travel tale of a group of children and an unlikely pet finding themselves in a world 2000 years ago. Bringing the era of Alexander and the Mauryan rulers alive through the eyes of the children, it is an unusual and gripping journey through history, while also keeping the pace fast and tense, until the end.
A delightful story, written in verse, about a family computer which has lost the letter ‘z’ (American ‘Zee’). We can imagine what would happen if we were to lose ‘a’ or ‘p’ on the keyboard. But ‘z’? Playfully narrated and illustrated, the story makes us think about the much neglected ‘z’. The wordplay and the mischief make this a fun book. There are a ‘illion’ reasons to read this picture book!
