Jungle Nama by Amitav Ghosh and Illustrated by Salman Toor

Review by Shwetha H S

Title: Jungle Nama
Author: Amitav Ghosh
Imprint: Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9789353379128
Genre: Mythology, Illustrated, Children, YA, Adults

If you are into reading books, then you would have probably heard of Amitav Ghosh. He is a prominent name in the Indian literary circles and is also a recipient of Jnanpith Award. I always stayed away from mainstream books. Amitav Ghosh’s books seemed so mainstream, I never thought of reading his works. But while browsing through a bookshop in Leh, Ladakh, a book cover caught my attention. It was Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama. As you must have guessed, I bought that book to enter the world of one of the greatest Indian literary celebrities.

Jungle Nama is based on one of the chapters of The Legend of Bon Bibi. It is written in the form of poetry. This is a story of morals with a link to local mythology, anchored in reality, for both kids and adults alike. Particularly this story talks about greed – how a wealthy merchant makes a pact with a regional deity or a demigod, Dokkhin Rai, who often shape-shifts into a Royal Bengal Tiger and is restricted to the areas of Sunderbans, to leave his relative as food in exchange for honey and wax, but are punished by Bon Bibi and her twin brother Shah Jongoli.

I found it good to read Jungle Nama aloud. There are quite a few Bengali/Bangla words, so it is better to read in the same accent, for fun as well as it gives a sense of relevance. There are a few moderately difficult words used in the book, which make a good addition to the readers’ English vocabulary. Most of all, the Afterword of this book is as precious as the story. The last time I was so mesmerised by someone’s writing was while reading Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie. There was no need for a bookmark while reading Jungle Nama as I finished reading it in one go! I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am no longer skeptical about reading a mainstream Amitav Ghosh’s book. While the writing is great, the illustrations aren’t so. Although the last few pages of the book praise the illustrations by Salman Toor, I thought they could have helped glorify the story better, especially because this is based on mythology. Nevertheless, I definitely recommend reading Jungle Nama.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

Review by Shwetha H S

Title: The Velveteen Rabbit
Author: Margery Williams
Imprint: Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780593382103
Genre: Children, Illustrated

I heard of The Velveteen Rabbit, for the first time, from Chandler Bing while watching him on the TV series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. It had stuck in my mind since then. When I found an edition of The Velveteen Rabbit in Goa, while looking for something else, I had to buy it. I had to read it.

A rabbit made of velvet cloth and sawdust stuffing feels insecure among other modern toys of a child, but another old toy tells it that a toy is not noticed by how it looks or what it can do, but by how much it is loved. The child eventually loves the velveteen toy so much that the two cannot be parted, making the rabbit look rather worn out yet making it feel like a real rabbit. But, when the child falls sick, all the old toys are discarded, including the velveteen rabbit. Does that mean the velveteen rabbit’s life has come to an end? What happens to the velveteen rabbit?

As I read The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, it taught me a good life lesson: sometimes, we are moulded/made by others, but our life does not end with what they do to us or how they see us, or when they pass away. This book is a precious one, written especially for children, but adults can learn from it too. I was so moved by this book that I don’t see this as a children’s book. Not to forget the beautiful illustrations by Erin Stead. She brings the decades old story to life.

Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman

Review by Shwetha H S

Title: Fortunately, The Milk
Author: Neil Gaiman
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9781408873021
Genre: Fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Children, Young Adults

Neil Gaiman is not new to people already submerged in the literary world. But, for those who don’t know, let me quote The Times from the back cover of this book, Fortunately, The Milk: “Gaiman is the nearest thing children’s books have to a rock star. If you enjoy fantasy, he is irresistible.” Well, he is not limited to children’s books. Go on, explore his world. Many of his books are with illustrations by Chris Riddell. If Gaiman’s words spark the reader’s imagination, Riddell’s illustrations bring the imagination to life.

A mother goes to a conference leaving the father in-charge of their two children; a son, the eldest and a daughter, the youngest. They trio are fine on day one. The next day, there is no milk to have a decent breakfast. Off the father goes to buy milk. The children wait and wait and wait. When the father comes back and is questioned about the delay, he tells his children how he got caught up in time-travel and went back and forth to the past and the future with pirates, dinosaurs, tribals, a demi-god, precious stones, unicorns, vampires, dwarfs, aliens and, of course, a carton of milk that he bought. What is this new breakfast recipe instead of milk with Toasties? Do the children believe their father? It is for you to find out by reading the book.

I finished reading Fortunately, The Milk by Neil Gaiman in one go because I couldn’t put it down. As the Observer has made an observation and quoted, it is truly an entertaining story for adults and children alike. Chris Riddell’s illustrations are an added bonus. Anybody can pick it up to read and nobody would be disappointed.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Illustrated by Alice Pattullo)

Review by Shwetha H S

Genre: Classic, Drama, Illustrated version
ISBN: 978163159076
Imprint: Rockport Publishers, USA.

To read about Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and its graphic novel version, click here. To get a review of the illustrated version by Alice Pattullo with Rockport Publishers, read on.

To misinterpret a classic is one thing and to ruin the enjoyment of a classic is another. And Rockport Publishers have succeeded in ruining the pleasure of reading this illustrated version of theirs by gaudy illustrations by Alice Pattullo and horrible editing and spelling mistakes. Did the publishers not have an in-house editor or could they not hire one? Here is a list, but non exhaustive, of mistakes that can easily be found in the book:

• Keep keep instead of keep
• Me instead of my
• Combinationa
• Coining instead of coming
• Ouly instead of only

Don’t waste your money on this illustrated version of Pride and Prejudice. The illustrations will haunt you. Not worth feeling bad about a classic as great as this work by Jane Austen.

What’s Neema Eating Today? by Bijal Vachharajani (Illustrations by Priya Kuriyan)

Review by Shwetha H S

Genre: Children
Imprint: Pratham Books

What’s Neema Eating Today? is a children’s book by Bijal Vachharajani with illustrations by Priya Kurian. It is a book that tells kids as well as adults on what to eat according to different seasons. Not only the names of tasty fruits and vegetables, the illustrations also make the book all more enjoyable. The colourful pictures will definitely make kids want to eat fruits and vegetables, especially the Neema gobbles her food in the illustrations. Apart from foods, the book also explains about different season. So, this book is good for kids, and also to adults who want to read to their kids. The author and illustrator of the book needs a huge round of applause for not using a fair skinned girl to depict Neema.

If You Were Me and Lived in Ancient Greece by Carole P Roman (Illustrations by Mateya Arkova)

Review by Shwetha H S

Genre: Children Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781523234295
Imprint: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, North Charleston, SC

Carole P Roman is children book author and is known for her series of books “If You Were Me and Lived In…” showcasing life in different countries and also different eras. Illustrations are by Mateya Arkova and her illustrations are cute and splendid at the same time.

If You Were Me and Lived in Ancient Greece belongs to the same series of children books by Carole P Roman. As the name suggests, the author tells the readers, children or adults, how their lives would be in ancient Greece. Starting with how Greece would have looked back then, where it is located, which era, what common names, democracy, Mount Olympus, gods and goddesses, cities and states, wars, households and family hierarchy to food and beverages, occupations, education, clothes, jewellery, hair, markets, trade, the Olympics, philosophers and Alexander the Great. The rich heritage of Greece in Western civilization makes this book more interesting and informative to children as well as adults.

This book is a good way to keep your children busy reading as there is no hint of boredom here.

Cave Kiddos: A Sunny Day by Eric Jay Cash

Review by Shwetha H S

My first reaction as soon as I saw the cover of Cave Kiddos: A Sunny Day was to clap my hands together and exclaim about the illustrations of four cute cave kids. They appear throughout the book trying to pronounce the word “water” and teach you the same. The author and illustrator, Eric Jay Cash, teaches children as well as adults how to pronounce the word “water” using four cave kids named Alk, Haha, Lala and Zee. There is not much to read in here except the splits of the word “water” so that the reader can read them in halves first and together later to learn how to pronounce the word “water.” This book is basically and especially made for children with speech development problem and for people who are dealing with such children. If not either, you can buy the book only for the sake of illustrations.

The Kite Runner (Graphic Novel) by Khaleed Hosseini (Illustrations by Fabio Celoni and Mirka Andolfo)

Review by Shwetha H S

If you are an avid reader and have read every best seller book, then you must have read The Kite Runner by Khaleed Hosseini. This blog is not a review of the novel, but the graphic version of the novel. All the illustrations in the book are by Fabio Celoni and Mirka Andolfo.

The story revolves around the concept that a person who is not capable of standing up for himself is not worthy of any relationship in life. It is set in the background of the changing facets of Afghanistan. Young Amir abandoning his confidant Hassan when the later gets sexually violated to save the former paves way for rest of the story. Amir is not even brave enough to face the bare realities of life, despite his father telling him to man up to the situations and face the problems. His cowardly behaviour is the matter of concern to his father as well as his uncle. When Amir slowly changes himself according to the problems he comes across in each phase of his life, he finally faces his last fear in the form of Hassan’s son whom he has to rescue from a childhood tormentor. Who is that tormentor? Will Amir succeed in rescuing Hassan’s son? Read the Kite Runner to know. If you suffer with inability to imagine what you read, then go for this graphic version of The Kite Runner. Kudos to the illustrators.