Materials from India
Geeta’s day begins as most children’s do, but when she sets off to school, passing the kamar at the forge, the bhandari shaving a customer, and the mali weaving garlands of flowers to offer to the temple gods, her world begins to beat to the distinctive rhythm of Indian village life. Geeta’s Day highlights the unique things that make her world special, but it also reveals that much is the same for children everywhere.
This energetic book takes young readers on a journey with a very curious baby elephant who has one question on his mind: What do crocodiles eat for dinner? But whenever he asks this question, he gets a spanking! Though he’s never seen a crocodile before, the baby elephant sets out to the banks of a river to find the answer to his question.
A retelling of a traditional tale from northern India in which a conceited peacock learns that beauty has many forms.
A bored young boy uses a magic feather to form a tiger, and then must use the feather to save his village when the tiger gets hungry.
Leaving his village in rural India to find a better education, mathematically gifted, twelve-year-old Akash ends up at the New Delhi train station, where he relies on Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, to guide him as he negotiates life on the street, resists the temptations of easy money, and learns whom he can trust.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 4, Issue 1
Dorje is a beautiful Royal Bengal tiger but he has no stripes. In a small Buddhist monastery in Tibet, Master Wu explains the reasons behind Dorje’s missing stripes, and offers hope for the future.
Raja loves red! Red slippers, red shawls, red socks… But when he spots his friend Champs lost red ball in Mr. Mehtas garden, he has to brave a whole rainbow of obstacles to recover the ball and save the day!
A children’s retelling of the epic story from India and Southeast Asia. Rama marries beautiful Sita, but Ravana, the 10-headed, 20-armed Demon King, falls in love with her, too. He captures her and takes her in his chariot to the Demon Kingdom, Lanka. Rama has to find a way to rescue Sita, and he seeks the help of the monkey general Hanuman, and Jambuvan, the King of the Bears. Rama, his brother Lakshman, and the band of monkeys and bears battle their way to the Kingdom of the Demons. With the help of the fish, they build a bridge to cross the sea and find Sita locked in Hanuman’s tower, guarded by demonesses. After a final, terrible battle, the Demon King is defeated and Rama and Sita are reunited. The touching ritual at the heart of the Hindu festival of Diwali features the lighting of earthen lamps, called “divas,” which celebrate Rama’s and Sita’s return home.
Fourteen-year-olds Raphael and Gardo team up with a younger boy, Rat, to figure out the mysteries surrounding a bag Raphael finds during their daily life of sorting through trash in a third-world country’s dump.
Kipling’s classic Mowgli tales spring to new life with the help of stunning artwork by acclaimed illustrator Nicola Bayley.First published in 1984 in THE JUNGLE BOOK, these three stories tell of Mowgli’s upbringing by wolves in the Indian jungle. When he is a baby they save him from the tiger Shere Khan, then teach him the law and language of the jungle animals, with help from two other unforgettable characters, Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther. In this classic edition, Mowgli’s adventures are illustrated in ravishing and exquisite detail by Nicola Bayley.