- Categories
- CATEGORY
- AGE
- TYPE
This month, we review books by incredible writers like Sheetal Sheth, Manjula Padmanabhan, and Vaishali Shroff.
We are huge fans of Sheetal Sheth's first book, Always Anjali. Bravo Anjali is a great successor to that special book that our kids could relate to and understand so completely.
In Bravo Anjali, Anjali demonstrates her talent as a tabla player and loves playing it. Things turn sour when Deepak, once her good friend, starts giving her a hard time for being better than others. "People are only interested because she’s the only girl in tabla class and they want her to feel special. She’s not that good.” Doesn't this somehow sound familiar to us? This is what Deepak tells everyone in class, much to Anjali's disdain. She then purposely messes up her playing to fit in but then finds a way back to the music that she loves so dearly.
I was stunned when I heard what Deepak said and what Anjali did to deal with the situation. We tend to underplay our talents on purpose in order to fit in. I did this constantly in college because the teasing and the taunting got too much. At one point, I decided to throw these apprehensions to the wind and do what I loved doing most - learning and acing my projects and assessments, speaking out in class whenever I had an opinion.
This great book, illustrated to perfection by Lucia Soto, written so brilliantly by Sheetal Sheth, cautions us against these little fears and encourages us to celebrate ourselves. Very often, we subjugate our needs to those of others and seek approval as a form of validation. Music is a great way to break free of these barriers and to really connect with what we love doing. Also, we absolutely love Anjali's little monologue in the bathroom stall. This is something that all kids go through and it is great to read a book that gives voice to it. Bravo Anjali is also fun and re-affirms friendship in its final pages. Don't miss!
This fun and interesting book sees a family travel around the world's famous sites and monuments. The pictures and destinations are all mixed up and after reading the book, the reader has to piece together the route that the family took. Even if working out a puzzle is not your cup of tea, you can read the book for its witty and clever observations of different places around the world. We love that dad, mum, Kooks, Bunny, Bobo and Aunty Mimi have such unique perspectives. A regular world tour simply slips in the facts but the family's stamp is on every place they visit. About the Great Wall of China, the tourist guide says that it is so large that it can be seen from space.
I said, "Why go there? China is closer."
Dunno why Dad was laughing.
I am an art lover but there isn't a museum or a gallery where I didn't crack a joke or make witty observations about a work of art. Humor is one way to connect with art. In this book, it is a great way to understand the world and the deeper purposes that lurk beneath those monuments.
The book has pictures that tell their own stories. Tourists and local inhabitants are always up to something quirky, endearing or mischievous. The book is peppered with a lot of interesting visual details and is great fun to read again and again. The book is wonderful to build some basic skills - it is an I spy book, a tracking device, a book that the family can piece together, or just a breezy read.
The beautiful Chitwan National Park in Nepal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with over 550 species of birds, animals and highlights like the one-horned rhino, leopards and Bengal tigers. Sita's father, Man Bahadur, works as the park's nature guide but eight-year-old Sita, having grown up in the park and around its animals, knows enough about the park to show visitors around too! She is unbridled in her enthusiasm for its flora and fauna, eager to share the park with its tourists. Man Bahadur is proud of her but tells her to also listen to the stillness of the jungle and to its hidden sounds. What happens when Sita comes face to face with a rhino? This beautiful and adventurous book is a wonderful way for children to enjoy a story and to learn about Nepal's first protected national park.
The book also features an interview with Doma Paudel, Nepal's first female nature guide. She challenged the status quo and became a nature guide in 2017. The book mentions interesting forest related careers - nature guides, wildlife journalists, range officers, and even dendrologists or tree lovers who study trees in forests. Vibrant illustrations and the colors of the forest come alive in this fabulous book by Vaishali Shroff!
