Snuggle with Indian Picture Books

Much as would have loved to review them, I do not have a source here to obtain Indian books from. So  until I make my trip back home, I would have to stick to local books. But my cousin sent me a blog link and I found it to be a very exhaustive collection of Indian story books for children.

The blog is owned by Richa Jha, an Indian author who resides in Nigeria. She has done such a wonderful job with her blog snugglewithpicturebooks, reviewing Indian picture books and even interviewing some authors.  The blog is very neat and versatile and reflects her passion and her talent as well. The ratings table that she uses at the end of her review is absolutely unique - "Ha Ha! quotient, Touches the Heart, Cuts through the Clutter, Visual Appeal, Encore quotient, Thank God it's not Moral Science and Hey!That's a really important book" all rated on a scale of 1-5 is such a cute idea :o).

More than anything, what instantly attracted me to her blog was the way she has described her craze for picture books, it sounded just like ME!

Perhaps if you have ever come across any good blogs on Indian books ( for children), you could just add it as a comment to this post, so it would be a good place to refer back to when you want to choose books.

Appending all the suggested links:
http://www.saffrontree.org/
http://karadionline.blogspot.in/

The Spider and the Fly

Designed and Illustrated by : Tony DiTerlizzi
Based on an 170+ years old poem by Mary Howitt 
Ages: 4+ years

"Will you walk into my parlour?", 
said the Spider to the Fly

How many times would these eternal lines have been referred to and quoted! This is a poem that I learnt in childhood and adore even today. Seeing this as a picture book made me pick it up instantly. And I wasn't disappointed at all! For this book has all that thrill and caution of the classic poem even more enhanced by Tony DiTerlizzi's truly rich, dark, gothic illustrations. A visual treat, a tale of caution, a lesson that children of today truly need to bear in mind.

This is the story of an unassuming, innocent Fly that happens to pass by a hungry Spider who invites her to his web with sugar-coated, flattering description of his beautiful parlour. The Fly is all too cautious and keeps resisting all attempts until the Spider woos her by praising her beauty. The silly Fly falls for the flattery, and falls prey to the Spider by getting tangled in his web.

The illustrations must really be given a special mention, for they carry this already powerful poem to a whole new level - the sleek, sly gentleman Spider in his impeccable attire and a wicked grin, the innocent victorian damsel Fly with those big, cautious eyes,  the dangerously dark parlour, all in black and white are really very captivating.  And the ever so slight extra touches he has drawn, like those ghosts ( of flies) and the tombstone in the end with a word of caution make the story even more ominous.

And now, dear little children, who may this story read,
To idle, silly, flattering words I pray you ne'er give heed.

It's not just the children, it's that fly in all of us that should learn this lesson and remember it forever. Particularly in these times when the newspaper is so full of news about bad things done to children. It is our duty to educate children to be well wary of the wicked wide world.

Sometimes I've noticed that when children move to bigger chapter books, parents don't really give them a picture book, as they feel it is way too easy for them. Reading is not just about reading words or tackling tougher sentences. It is all about what you take back from the story, what you comprehend from the words, what you discover from the pictures and you might well see that sometimes fluent readers miss out on such delicate details. This is one book that is not to be missed like that. It is a very mature poem and something children of all ages would enjoy and understand at so many emotional levels.

Here's a Youtube version read by English Actress Emilia Fox.

"Be warned, little dears, and know that spiders are not the only hunters and bugs are not the only victims. Take what has transpired within these pages to heart, or you might well find yourself trapped in some schemer's web" - Spider.

The Hueys - It Wasn't Me

Author and Illustrator: Oliver Jeffers
Ages: 2+

If you asked what the maximum used kiddy statement in our house is, I'd immediately vouch for this - "It wasn't me!". Especially with their eyes admitting guilt since their innocence can't mask it. It would be extremely difficult then to stifle the instant laugh that the scene would generate. :o)

The other day I was "Windows" shopping in one of my favourite store, I saw this card and went "Awwwwwww!, how cute is that!". Kids all over the world, they're all the same, all so cute, especially in their guiltiest-most moment ( Disclaimer : Not Always, please adore them at your own peril. Those little brats have a mind of  their own, enough to drive you out of your mind).

And so when I read this book ( standing in the bookstore :o)), it is this very same cuteness that appealed to me almost immediately. The Hueys, if you remember from one of my earlier posts, used to all think and look alike until Rupert and his friend Gillespie created a revolution. The Hueys have since moved on and started being unique.

The Hueys almost always agree upon everything. Until they have one of those moments when they disagree, which is what happens in the story. Heated arguments and blame games ensue and the fight intensifies. That's when Gillespie comes along and asks what the fight was all about. Nobody actually remembers why it started. Gillespie then asks them if they wanted to see a dead fly.

"Of Course!".

"Why didn't you say earlier?".

"How long has it been dead?".

And the gang disperses enthusiastically to check out the fly, the fight dumped and completely forgotten.

Utterly cute, somehow it makes you feel connected with the story the moment you read it. How many times would you have effectively diverted a raging toddler in terrible twos by pointing out to a totally simple, silly, stupid thing! Or jumped in to mediate kid fights and they don't even remember why they've been mad at each other and worse still, start giggling uncontrollably just when you're sternly delivering a serious lesson of forgiveness, love etcetera.

And oh! It holds equally good for all grown-ups as well. If only we could be diverted this effectively by a dead fly...

A cute book that kids would love. Oliver Jeffers certainly must have a pair of kids' shoes that he gets into every time he writes a new book. He somehow brings out little sweet nothings of childhood so well in his books. And his doodle characters emote so well and speak volumes with monosyllables!

I only wish they weren't this pricey, though.

Colin Fischer

Authors: Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz
Ages: 13+
Note: Contains some sexual references pertaining to teenage talk and adolescence

Colin Fischer cannot stand to be touched. He hates the colour blue. He needs index cards to relate to facial expressions. He has Asperger's, is socially awkward, emotionally bland with a very high IQ. He adores Sherlock Holmes' unemotional logic, sticks to routines, is too blatant, loves facts and can't relate to fiction, can't even lie. Yet when a gun goes off in his school's cafeteria, he is the only one brave enough to stay behind and investigate. And arrive at the truth, even if it meant saving the back of his bullying classmate ( who dunks his head in the toilet the very first day) who everybody thinks is the suspect.

If you got reminded of "The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time", you would be forgiven. The resemblance is unmistakeable and the plot, not really fresh. But the book is still a very good read and is unique in its own way.

Seeing the world in Colin's eyes gives us a taste of how it feels like to live with Asperger's. It is certainly a difficult challenge, and it certainly needs a huge change in perception among family and friends. However It is also amazing to see how much he accepts his own limitations and how well he acknowledges his gifts. Because of his lack of emotions, his inability to see through rhetorical questions and double meanings, he simply lives life black and white, which is kind of innocent and you feel like protecting him.

It is quite interesting how the author has managed to squeeze in humour as well! Also, Colin's diary features in the story almost as a supporting character and is quite entertaining. The wide variety of facts at the beginning of every chapter is also something I enjoyed reading, so would the kids. However, it has a few loose ends, and does not feel as complete as Mark Haddon's curious incident of the dog. Perhaps it is because it deals more with Colin's condition and his perspective than the curious incident itself.

The author has done a wonderful job with Colin's portrayal as an Asperger's child. I was reading through the "Asperger's" search results and this one lists almost everything that Colin feels / does.

The scenes inside the Fischer household are also something we would instantly relate to - calm Dad, slightly over-protective and over-reacting mum, a taunting sibling and a daily routine. I especially liked Mr Fisher's statement when he is nagged by Mrs Fisher to take her with him to fetch Colin when he gets himself into a tight corner by lying for the first ever time : "Sometimes, the last thing in the world a boy wants is his mother - especially when he needs her the most". (I should remember to respect the amount of free space children require when they grow into teens. It would be hard, but I shouldn't end up being the clingy mother.)

More and more children are getting diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder every day. Perhaps what was earlier dismissed as bad behaviour / shy character / clumsiness / dullhead / quirkiness / mental illness is now clearly diagnosed. About 1 in 100 children, and boys more often than girls get diagnosed with ASD. Some forms of ASD are more manageable, some barely noticeable and some, quite detrimental. Parents, doctors and schools are trying more and more to mainstream many of these children. It is only fair that proper awareness is created both among adults and children to be able to support them as class mates and friends. After all, they are also like us,  albeit with a slightly different set of needs.

In fact if we do think honestly, I bet we would certainly find some quirkiness inside all of us that needs quick pruning, but is always overgrown! But unlike those with ASD, we actually know what is wrong, where we are wrong, and yet we choose to ignore and carry on being the worser one, don't we!

Oh Puppies!

Author : Adrian Collman
Illustrator: Duncan Preston
Ages: 3+

You know with all the publicity and PR and stuff books get these days, it is rather very soothing to come across a very talented, yet unassuming author. Adrian Collman is certainly both, as I found out when he visited my little boy's school. Had he not been sitting in front of his books and signing them, I'd have assumed he was just another hassled parent doing the school run :o).

 And the books appear even more unassuming. My elder boy asked me if they were really books or something printed out by school.

But the stories do the trick very well. The text is simple and repetitive, catchy for a toddler to latch on to and enjoy. The story is about kids requesting Dad for a puppy with all the usual promise of taking care of it. But then Oh! Puppies will be puppies - cute, loving, adorable, but naughty! The puppies actually happen to be the author's own, and there are photos of the author's household with the sweet pair, sometimes up to their neck in mischief.

It is fun to read the book with little ones. Forget about a moral, a learning, whatever. Kids need to simply enjoy sometimes -  no punctuation, grammar, stress and pause attached, and this book achieves just that ( although there are so many things that they would pick up and remember for a long time - Like asking for puppies!). There is a little hide-and-seek thing as well which would interest the tiny readers a lot.

I liked the intro page and the last page a lot in this book. It provided for good guided reading tips for adults and a very important message for kids - "Dogs are very hard to look after and the naughty things they get up to won't always make everyone laugh". Perfect, just the handy thing parents would need after the kids are done with the book and started with the " Pleeeeeease Could we get a puppy" mantra.

The author's website was quite interesting as well.

We also enjoyed our signed copy of another book by Adrian, "Worst Animal Jobs Ever". Quite suitable for the toddler kids, it was hilarious seeing what jobs ought NOT to be given to some animals!!

My elder kid wasn't quite interested with the repetition, he has been reading the following:

"A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawkings
"Bleach" series by Tite Kubo
"Just William" by Richmal Crompton
"Big Nate" series by Lincoln Peirce

Also revising "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World" and the "Horrible Histories" for the last who-knows-since-when days.

Not sure if I'd be getting round to reviewing any of these soon! I guess I need some growing up as well!! :o)

The Journey Home

Author and Illustrator: Frann Preston-Gannon
Ages: 3+ years

The author of this story happens to be the only person from UK who has won the prestigious "Sendak Fellowship" and worked on this book while staying with the author himself during the fellowship program. The book is so neatly written and illustrated so splendidly that it is hard to believe that this is the author's first picture book, although she has illustrated for Walker books, Burt's Bees etc before.

The world as we knew it has since deteriorated. The world as we know it is being devastated by us even as I am writing this. I sometimes wonder if all this pollution and deforestation could ever do anything at all to Earth which has borne testimony to life and endurance since its genesis. One giant wave, one rapid solar flare, one meteor blaze and all the plastics in the world would vanish into thin air. And before long, life forms would start establishing themselves afresh. To quote one of my most favourite lines by Dr Malcolm from Jurassic Park, " Life will find a way".

But that does not in any way justify what Man is doing to his co-inhabitants- how he is unethically, unlawfully, inhumanely destroying their homes, their food and the creatures themselves. It is nothing but pure horror story. If this is what is the survival of the fittest, then I am ashamed to survive.

In this wonderfully penetrating book, the author handles just this very issue, but in such a simple way that children could understand. It certainly is a book that parents should read out to kids or read with them, because it opens up so many avenues for discussions and would hopefully linger inside the children long enough for them to decide on acting upon issues in any way they could ( walk more and use car less, reduce plastic bags, plant trees, recycle properly and be sensitive to nature. After all, as my DS2 said, we are 100% natural, but 100% acting against nature!).

The story opens with the Polar bear sitting on a tiny iceberg wondering where the ice had all gone, because its food had also disappeared with the ice. So he is forced to swim away, and finds a lone boat and climbs into it. Soon, he swims by a city of machines and sky scrapers and finds a lone Panda there. He is certainly the odd thing out in a concrete jungle with no bamboo shoots to eat, so he joins the polar bear.

As they float on into what was once a jungle before deforestation but now just tree stubs, they spot an Orang-utan looking so lost as there aren't any more trees to climb on. They invite his to join the boat and they all sail along. Very soon they spot an elephant who is hiding behind a boulder from poachers trying to steal his tusks. He joins the boat gang as well.

Then the boat sails into a storm and drifts very far away form their homes. The animals think of their homes and miss them so terribly. They feel completely lost until they sight a Dodo in a tiny tropical island. They tell the Dodo that they want to go back home. The wise Dodo says that that is very much possible "when the trees grow back and when the ice returns and when the cities stop getting bigger and bigger and hunting stops".

And when the Polar bear questions when that would be, Dodo just says " I don't know, let's see what tomorrow brings".

And there is the beautiful picture of those animals huddled together and looking at a lovely sunset.

All through the story, the animals never stop to admire nature - the gulls, the fish, the clouds and the sunset. It gives  you a feeling that they are really connected and completely blend into nature, unlike Man.

The illustrations have a hint of Eric Carle's tissue paper creatures. They are simple, but emote remarkably, a bit disturbingly as they seem to question our conscience so much. In all, this is a perfect bed-time cuddle book with a strong message.

The journey home. Perilous but Possible. If only...

Tea Break - Rooibos

... otherwise known as Red Bush tea, grown in Africa. Works as a natural remedy for asthma, colic, allergies, skin problems, gout and PMS symptoms. Caffeine free, so aids sleep as well.

I realized I haven't been blogging so much in the last few weeks. I have been making Hay while the sun was NOT shining! When I say hay, I am actually talking about my nemesis - Hay day, the ipad/iphone game that is truly the craziest, most addictive game I have played so far. If you are one of the lucky few who haven't really come across the same, I request you to skip this post and continue your blissful existence. And for the rest, let's make some more hay!

It all started off with my sister suggesting the game to me. I thought it was just another one of those endless games that kids play on the iphone/ipad and wasn't really interested. But because it was my dear little sis who recommended it, I casually asked my DH ( dear husband) to download the free game and check it out. And then I totally forgot about it and busied myself with the mundane. If only I had stayed that way :o(

Realizing the house had been unusually quiet for hours, I went into the bedroom and saw the DH huddled with DS1( dear first son) and DS2(dear second son), all of them talking farmer tongue -  "Dad, Milk the cows", " Oh no! the barn is too full, sell some stuff, Dad", " there's a school order that needs bread, harvest the carrots and sow more wheat". Apparently, they had been doing it for at least 4 hours, while all along I had been cleaning, then cleaning and after that, cleaning. I erupted with a force that was next only to Eyjafjallajökull's (no I don't know the spelling, I wiki-ed it), grounded all of them just like the volcano grounded the flights and gave a long sermon to DH about "setting a good example for the growing boys and rationing internet time". The house continued to be quiet, but now it was the usual quiet, the aftermath of the eruption :o) :o) :o).

Now I am a big fan of "Aunty Acid" and particularly her saying " I go to bed wide awake and wake up extremely sleepy". So when I was lying in my bed that night wide awake, I ended up picking the iPad to see what the bonkers that application was about.

"Hmmm... easy  to play, cute farm there. But not a good arrangement of the fields, lemme just change it".
"I see, oh, silly boys, they should have upgraded the barn to a bigger storage, lemme just earn some money and buy the things needed for that".
"Perhaps I should jussssst up one level to get those new kind of crops, they seem to be there in all the orders"
"Diamonds for achievements, eh. Well I'll prove who I am!".

"Just one harvest and I'm off".

"Just this sale".

"Only this last order".

"Last ever hunt for treasure boxes".

"Teeny peek to see if some farmer needs a hand".

"Never playing again for the next 10... nanoseconds".

And it never stopped at all. If I weren't milking cows in my dreams, I was shearing sheep or counting diamonds. I became a loonier-than-thou loony. Not even the smug smiles on the boys' faces would make me stop playing. Slowly, it became a family-run farm. DH would walk out from meetings to check if I had "harvested". DS1 would order me on phone( while walking to and from school) not to waste diamonds on useless decorating stuff. DS2 would just ask, "Did you do anything other than Hay Day"?.

It was official. We were hit badly by the Hay Day pandemic. We were losing it up there. Week after week, we were walking, talking, breathing the game.

All until the sun really started shining. It is amazing what sunlight can do to your gloomy, couch-warming self! The boys have been out all day these days, they don't bother about hay, it is all outdoor play. To become more presentable when the coats go off, I've put myself into my own correction facility to shake off those fluffy bits and bobs added during winter ( which is so very easier said than done if you LOVE chocolate. Or cake. Or Toffee swirl ice cream with toffee bits and honey coated pecan. With hot Jamuns. STOP!!!). DH is simply too harassed by office to think of anything. And I've promised myself to get back to blogging more.

But if you are thinking that the farm is now neglected and dead, that is where you would be wrong. Nobody really knows who has been tending to it, as nobody catches anybody playing, but somebody always ensures the jobs are completed. My guess is that it is everybody :o)