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WHAT SHALL I MAKE? Story by Nandini Nayar Ilustrations by Proiti Roy Read alone: 6+ Read aloud: 3+ Simple and playful, two words that sum up yet another production from Tulika. Neeraj is a small boy, self-questioning what shall I make?, with a rotund piece of roti dough squeezed between his palms. His creative juices in full flow, he shapes the ductile dough to give birth to lively creatures. His mother joins the fun. A snake at first, then a mouse, anatomically close to perfection, with a pair of eyes, a body and a tail. Then a cat that soon morphs into a fierce lion. All seem realistic and fully animated in the creator's eyes. Neeraj is quick to deform the scary lion back into its initial state and start afresh with a small soft ball of dough. This time, he flattens it and generously rolls it into a neat circle. His mother then proceeds to toast it on the tava , completing the culinary procedure. The grand finale is when a round hot puffy chapati lands on his soft palms, read...

Regina's big mistake by Marissa Moss Every school goer, especially in the 4-8 age group, will be able to relate to the incident in this wonderful book by Marissa Moss, author and illustrator. Regina's big mistake, the title kindles interest - who is Regina , what was her mistake and why big ? The scene is an art class. Students are given stationery and asked to draw a jungle or a rain forest. Nervous, Regina draws a blank (pun unintended!). She sits there stumped, while her classmates are busy translating their ideas into art. The feeling of diffidence and the reluctance to try something, similar to what Regina goes through, is something that every child experiences at different junctures as part of school-going, be it art, writing or performing. Regina tries to draw a flower, makes a geometric mistake and destroys her paper in frustration. That's definitely not the end of the story. She is given another blank paper. Another opportunity to start afresh but not enough optim...

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...

KARADI TALES. A huge hit in our household! We picked up our first Karadi Tales Audiotapes during one of our trips to India when my daughter was less than an year old. Since then the sounds of songs, music and stories have been a cornucopia of fun and learning for us. So, if you and your child are looking for an amusing dose of everything India - culture, tales, common sights and words, in my opinion, Karadi tales is a great pick! We started off with a couple of audiotapes that had very creative songs based off of tunes and things very Indian. These days my 3 yr old loves to listen (with a copy of a book with colorful illustrations in front of her) to 'The foolish crow' and 'The Three Fish", simple stories narrated in an animated tone by popular small and silver screen personalities from India. From these, she has picked up names of a few Indian states, plenty of Indian names, names of places of worship and languages, trees and rivers, the Indian flag, sari, chai, sam...

Hi all, As I was snooping around for a new bunch of books for my daughter who recently turned 3, I thought it would be nice to put together a list of the books that have grown on us in the past 3 years, the books that are mostly strewn on the couch, bedside table or floor rather than being snug on the bookshelf :) So, TA-DA... presenting our new MOMMY&ME LISTAMANIA (for the 0-3 age group) . I hope this will come in handy before your quick trip to the bookstore or library! Thanks, Meera

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 ...