India

Materials from India

A Time To Dance

Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit. Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

The Sultan’s Tigers

As in the middle grade series debut Island of Thieves, scrappy twelve-year-old Tom Trelawney and his swashbuckling Uncle Harvey are a dynamite combination—in the dangerous, explosive sort of way. This time around, they impulsively fly from Ireland to India in hot pursuit of a small bejeweled tiger that yet another Trelawney, a British soldier, allegedly plundered in 1799. They’re pretty sure they can get a couple million dollars for it too, if they can make it past a gun-happy Aussie and a pit of man-eating tigers.

The City Of Death

British schoolboy Ash Mistry, the reincarnation of the great Indian hero Ashoka and an agent of the goddess of death, faces the evil Lord Savage again after the villain sends his minions to capture Gemma, Ash’s unrequited crush.

A Bucket of Blessings

Near a majestic mountain in a vast jungle with many mango trees, it has not rained for weeks and weeks. The village well and pond are dry. Monkey and his friends look everywhere for water, but they have no luck. And then Monkey remembers a story his mama used to tell him, a story about how peacocks can make it rain by dancing. So he sets out to see if the story is true…

In Andal’s House

As a young boy in Gujarat, India, Kumar sometimes feels like he lives in two worlds. First there is the old world where people and their choices are determined by prejudice and bigotry. But then there is the second, modern world: in this world Kumar can be friends with whomever he chooses and his future looks bright. As part of the annual Diwali celebration, Kumar is invited to the house of his classmate Andal to watch fireworks. Andal is from a high-caste Brahmin family so Kumar is especially pleased to be included. But there in Andal’s house, Kumar’s two worlds collide in a very unpleasant way. Instead of being welcomed as a guest, Kumar is sent away, forbidden to join the festivities. Angry and hurt, Kumar is left questioning his place in Indian society. Where does he fit in? To which world does he really belong?

Excuse Me, Is This India?

Illustrated with rich quilts put together with Indian textiles, this whimsical story in verse is an unusual book of travel-through a child’s imagination. Brilliant nonsense verse and exquisite textile art together plot a blithe, philosophic journey through the surreal mixture of places, people and times that is India.

What Should I Make?

Neeraj loves to help out when his mom is making his favorite snack–hot, light, puffy chapati–and today she has given him a bit of dough with which to make all kinds of animal shapes and wonder if they will come to life, in a playful story about imagination.

My Mother’s Sari

Children in India playfully use their mothers’ beautiful saris as a train, a stage backdrop, a river, a rope, a hiding place, a blanket, or a handkerchief-ultimately, the sari expresses the love of mother and child. Dramatic photographs and acrylics on lightly stylized paper illustrate the simple text. Endpapers demonstrate how to wrap the long sari.

Grandfather Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson tells the story of how his grandfather taught him to turn darkness into light in this uniquely personal and vibrantly illustrated tale that carries a message of peace.

How could he—a Gandhi—be so easy to anger?

One thick, hot day, Arun Gandhi travels with his family to Grandfather Gandhi’s village.

Silence fills the air—but peace feels far away for young Arun. When an older boy pushes him on the soccer field, his anger fills him in a way that surely a true Gandhi could never imagine. Can Arun ever live up to the Mahatma? Will he ever make his grandfather proud?