Thambi takes a piece of paper, tears it into a square, pastes two sticks on it, ties a string and then flies it high in the sky. It's a kite! This beginner reader is part of the Thumb Thumb Books series, created around the common thumbprint and featuring Thumb Thumb Thangi and Thumb Thumb Thambi. Short sentences, bold type and vibrant visuals make entry...
One day, Thangi gets into the mood and begins to sing. Immediately the cats mewl, the dogs howl and the donkeys bray. But when the peacocks join in, what does Thangi do? This beginner reader is part of the Thumb Thumb Books series, created around the common thumbprint and featuring Thumb Thumb Thangi and Thumb Thumb Thambi. Short sentences, bold type and...
The tiger, a popular character in Korean art and folktales, is a villain in this origin tale which has illustrations inspired by kamishibai, Japanese paper theatre. Having gobbled up the rice cake-seller and all her rice cakes, the tiger chases her two small children. But they escape. And the tiger? Although in the traditional ending the tiger too dies,...
The sage Vyasa enlists Ganesha's help to write the Mahabharata — at a price! This is the well-known story about the writing down of the long and multi-layered epic that is the Mahabharata. Presented with lively humour and great affection, it shows the very recognisable human dilemmas faced by Vyasa and Ganesha. Delightful pictures enable a new generation...
Sabri draws wherever she can. On the floor of the hut with rough chalk, or with her one and only pencil on paper from old notebooks. She draws her world – the sun coming up from behind the hills, the chicken, the goats... Then one day in school she sees long colour pencils, and paint that comes out of bottles. After that it isn't enough for her to draw –...
Putul lives by the Ganga in a fishing village in Bengal. In the torrential monsoons one year, the mighty river swells over the banks and into the huts and two friendly dolphins come leaping in the water right through Putul's window. Worried that someone might kill them, Putul leads them back into the river. But the strong currents begin to sweep her away…...
“There was once a mountain made of bare stone…” It stands cold and alone until one day a small bird appears and changes its life. This well-loved story by American writer Alice McLerran, shared all over the world in many languages, draws from universal truths that go beyond boundaries of language and culture. The illustrations are as lyrical, evoking the...
Bhikhubhai's mouth waters for some coconut... fresh, juicy, grated, with a dash of sugar. But there aren't any in the house and he must go to the market for one. The problem is that he'd rather not pay for it! This hilarious folktale from Gujarat has pictures based on the stylised painted paper scrolls used by Garoda storytellers in northern Gujarat.
Nazneen carefully cooks some fragrant marzwangan kurma for a special family dinner. But just when it is all ready, guests arrive — unwanted guests, who cleverly sniff out a good free meal. A warm, amusing folktale from Kashmir which captures life in a simple Kashmiri household. The illustrations use traditional Kashmiri embroidery motifs to provide...
Kali hates school. And school hates him, he thinks, for he has no friends. His classmates find him strange. He wishes his father were an ‘ordinary' bus-conductor or postman instead of a snake-catcher, even if one of the most celebrated in the Irula tribe. He worries that others will see him eating fried termites (his favourite snack!) and laugh. And then...
Muchu the merchant has to work with numbers all the time – but without ‘zero’ it is so very difficult! Arising from an animation film, the story is a well-researched fictional take on how zero came to be used in mathematical calculations. It goes centuries back to Takshashila in northwestern India, where the concept is said to have originated. The people...
An endlessly entertaining tale from Kerala with repetitive text and animated pictures. Eecha the practical fly and her friend Poocha the greedy cat make delicious rice soup. While Eecha flies off to fetch a jackfruit leaf with which to spoon out the soup, Poocha watches over the pot. But Poocha is hungry, so hungry…
Playful little Malu is in trouble! The adorable little polar bear growing up in the North Pole can’t resist running off to “where the sunbeams danced”. And then what happens? As the tale unfolds through her adventures, the lilting cadence of the writing draws another, larger, picture — about girls, what they can do too. Enchanting illustrations evoke the...
“My dear, it’s time for bed,” says Ma. But “Can a frog stand on its head?” wonders her little girl. Lost in a world where she must learn to fly with birds in the sky, snuggle a whale, kiss the kangaroo… she has so much to do! Sleep? Not yet! Playful rhyme and lovable pictures take us lilting through a child’s fantasy world and the cosy warmth of bedtime...
Mati pesters her grandmother and father for her own plot of land. When she does get it, she works hard. And then she hears that a company wants to make a coal mine in their village – the enormous black pit that will eat up all their lands, like it has in the next village… As always, Rinchin powers her questions through irresistible storytelling. The...
