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Stephanie's Ponytail, Story by Robert Munsch, Art by Michael Matchenko. Robert Munsch is a Canadian storyteller and Stephanie's Ponytail is one of his wonderful stories. The book can be read by children in the 5-8 age group while younger ones will love to listen to the amusing story bordering on silliness. However, it is amazing how such a hilarious tale can stem out of an issue of immense sensitivity and concern among young and older children. The crux of the book is peer pressure and individualism. Or simply put, not trying to copy others but to try and be thyself in a crowd. Stephanie is a school going kid who wants to be different. Realizing that none of her classmates have a pony tail she chooses to go to class with one at the back of her head. Although the other kids initially ridicule her, they finally end up imitating her, tying up their own hair just like hers. Irritated, Stephanie appears with a pony tail on the side the next day. It does not take long for the entire...

Title:Little Blue and Little Yellow Author: Leo Lionni Age group: 3-8 years Creative, imaginative, colorful and fun - all pressed out of a simple storyline. Imagine a parallel universe where colors are the human equivalents. Or rather, the characters in this book are all primary colors! Little Blue lives with papa Blue and mama Blue. This is illustrated by three blue blobs - small, medium and large. Extrapolate this for the entire story and you have a vibrantly colored book that will be hard for any child to resist. I guess I can safely conclude now that the illustrations are intuitive but still very uncommon. Moving on, Little Blue's good friend and playmate is little Yellow, who lives across the street with his papa and mama. They play with each other and with their other friends, blobs in a multitude of colors. One day little Blue, unable to find his buddy around, goes searching for him. Ecstatic on finding him a little later, they hug each other and blend into a blob of gree...

Since there is motivation galore right now at Saffron Tree, it could not get easier for me to slouch down to write, combating the chaos generated in the room by my DH and his little associate. The book I am going to review is bilingual, meant for the 3+ age group, that I picked up during my trip to India last year. The two languages involved are Tamil (a South Indian language which is spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu, which also happens to be my native language) and English. It is published by Tulika . Tulika also has the equivalent of it in 6 other Indian languages. The title of the book is THE SEED, vidhai , written and illustrated by Deepa Balsavar,Tamil by Karkuzhali. Check out http://www.tulikabooks.com/bilingualbooks6.htm for your language. A small girl chances upon a tiny seed, puts it in a pot, waters it and takes care of it. The ecstasy from seeing it sprout soon morphs into heaps of anticipation. Will it have flowers? Will it have fruits? Will it grow tall? Will it stay ...

OWL BABIES By Martin Waddell , illustrated by Patrick Benson OWL BABIES is a picture book that deals with a very sensitive issue that every infant or toddler experiences early on. It is a book about the mental anguish that young ones undergo due to maternal separation and the constant reassurance they need - the belief and trust that every mother would unfailingly return to her young one. The book zooms into a simple yet critical incident in the lives of three owlets. The setting is a sober conversation among three siblings upon discovering their mommy's disappearance one night. Waiting is painful. They hope and pray that their mother is out, only to find food, that she is safe and that she would definitely come back to them. The mommy hooter returns. Her unexpected yet expected return makes the owlets ecstatic! I bought this book around the time my daughter started preschool (after staying at home for a good chunk of her early life) . I would always reassure her that I would pick ...

My first review being that of an Eric Carle work is no accident. I have been reading his books to my 2.5 year old since she was 10 months. The one that has impressed me the most is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar' (although my daughter might debate and settle for "Head to Toe"!). The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a picture board book. It can be read to a child as young as an year old. The author is also the illustrator. His art, although not the very common type, is interesting and colorful. The book is a simple story about the three weeks in the life of a mortal caterpillar, the three weeks between his conception from an egg to his culmination into a beautiful butterfly. The book begins with the caterpillar's entry into this world from a tiny egg on a Sunday morning. An apple does not seem to satisfy his hunger. He continues to eat many other fruits in increasing numbers on the following days of the week. Still hungry, the caterpillar chooses to climax his routine wit...