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Title: Monsoon Afternoon Author: Kashmira Sheth Illustrator: Yoshiko Jaeggi Publisher: Peachtree Age Group: 4-8 years Soft watercolors all over, stroked elegantly to reveal pleasing sights of peacocks, cows, and paper boats. A city drenched in monsoon. And that is not the only picture this book paints, there are images that bear the warmth of a special relationship. This book helps kids get acquainted with an Indian setting and partake in the experiences that stem from the smell of moist terrain typical of monsoons in India. The story also unravels a treasured bond between a boy and his grandfather. The little boy is looking around for familial playmates, just as the first drops of rain hit the earth. His efforts in vain, we see grandpa appear from behind with a tempting offer to sail paper boats. A monsoon afternoon well savored - swinging from aerial shoots, witnessing a peacock's glorious spread, and hopping on to dadaji . Our little friend, now comfortably set...

TITLE: Rechenka's Eggs AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Patricia POLACCO PUBLIHSER: Philomel Books AGE GROUP: 4-8 years. While Patricia Polacco needs no introduction to those of you who have been enjoying her stories, rest of you book lovers deserve to experience the warmth that her books generously ooze out. And that is why I chose Rechenka's Eggs . From my Russian background my stories are kind of ethnic, primitive, Eastern European — that's one type of voice I write in , says Patricia. Set in Moskva in pre-revolutionary Russia, that is exactly the voice we hear in this book. Babushka (Russian for grandmother ) is a kind hearted old woman who spends the cold and dark winter days painting eggshells in her country home. She has a reputation for her beautifully designed eggs and she plans on taking them to a contest for the Spring Festival in the city. On a snowy day that winter, even as she is greeting a herd of caribous outside of her home, an injured goose separates from its f...

TITLE: Mrs.McCool and the Giant Cuhullin AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Jessica Souhami PUBLISHER: Henry Holt and Company AGES: Good for "Read Aloud" and "Read it Yourself". The joy of folktales is something that we recently discovered at our home. Stepping aside from classics and contemporary humor , we seem to embrace folktales, quite effortlessly. The book that I have with me is an Irish folklore, bearing a tale very similar to the ones that were orally passed on to me while I was growing up. The central characters in this tale are legendary giants Cuhullin and Finn McCool. Mrs. Oona McCool is the one with the brains and quite intuitively, also the one to save her husband oftentimes from Cuhullin. Now, Cuhullin has a magic finger that makes him strong and Finn has a magic thumb that bestows upon him, the power to foresee things. Finn uses his magic thumb and announces (in jitters of course) the impending arrival of Cuhullin. Mrs.McCool to the rescue! A simple story y...

I saw Google incorporate the face of Gandhi into their logo first thing this morning. I was reminded of this book. Her aunt had given it to her on her birthday. I pulled it out of my saved-for-later stash and turned to look at the back cover. For all ages it said. I flipped through to make a quick judgment of the content before I presented it to her. I smiled and beckoned my little one. My Gandhi Scrapbook , compiled by Sandhya Rao at Tulika Publishers, India. A very warm and casually written introductory note from Sandhya talked in simple terms about scrap booking and went on to encourage children to add to the collection in the book. We flipped and we saw Gandhi everywhere! I can’t help but verbalize a scrapbook here, now that I actually saw one, a well-made one. Photographs and images of currency and postal stamps bearing his visage were splattered all over. Tags, comments and labels floated near them with little details. She took her finger here..there. Mine followed hers. She ...

Its EARTH DAY today everyone! As always it calls for a celebration here at Saffron tree! And what better way to do it than through a good book? That is why I have here with me BEST FRIENDS, written by Nina Sabnani; a neat blingual production from Tulika Publishers, India. No contemplation preceded the choice of this book. And it cannot be more befitting for today - the celebration of a little girl's friendship with a tree. We are introduced to little Tamanna playing in the garden. We see her talking and sharing stories from her school and home to the big tall beautiful Kuchi. The sounds of nature had led her to believe, when she was a baby, that the tree actually spoke. Shhhuunnn! Muuuunnnn! was the language her companion spoke, she thought, and thus a friendship was born. However, her chatty friendship becomes a subject of ridicule and mockery amongst her human friends and that prods her to rethink her relationship. Pragmatism wins and her delusion ends. Years roll by and we ...

Publisher: Tilbury House, Publishers, Maine, USA Author: Katia Novet Saint-Lot Illustrator: Dimitrea Tokunbo What is a snowman doing on the front cover of a book bearing what I think looks like an African boy in a village setting? Little did I know that it was curiosity of this nature that was the basis for the transformation in young Amadi's life, the central character in the book Amadi's Snowman . Amadi is a native of the Igbo tribe of Nigeria in Africa. The story is set in a hamlet in Nigeria, boasting marketplaces and friendly faces amidst which Amadi is raised by his hardworking mother. What we come to understand after the introductory pages is Amadi's impregnable resistance to learn to read. He strongly believes that the ability to read is unneeded for an Igbo boy whose stereotyped ambition is to grow up to be a business man. Wandering at the marketplace, Amadi chances upon his friend Chima furtively buried in a book. It is now that Amadi's eyes fall upon an ima...

MARCHING TO FREEDOM Author: Subhadra Sen Gupta Illustrator: Tapas Guha Publisher: Pratham Books, India Age Group: 11-14 years For today's children Gandhi is just a face on our currency note or a picture in a dull history book. But what he stood for is something that I feel all children should value —tolerance and non-violence. - Subhadra Sen Gupta Ample reason to write a book on Mahatma Gandhi for children. And today seems adequate enough to review this book from Pratham Books. The setting is the Sabarmati Ashram in the western state of Gujarat in India, which Gandhi and his followers called home during the Freedom Struggle in India. Dhani is a 9 year old boy being raised in the ashram by his Gandhian parents. Dhani also seems to be responsible for taking care of Binni, the goat, who is his incessant companion and whose milk seems to be a part of Gandhi's morning diet. Dhani is portrayed as a cheery little boy skipping around the ashram premises, inquisitive, eager to ...