Book Reviews : Bhabhloo Bear’s Adventure, Cheenu’s Gift, Phani’s Funny Chappals, See You Tomorrow
14 years ago
Last month, we were giving out review copies of few of our books. We were excited to hear what all of you thought of our books (the good things and the bad things!) and hope that this feedback from people (educators, parents, book lovers, children) will help us create better books and help you choose books for your own kids.
These reviews were sent by Lallitha Viswanathan and her 6 year old son Athreya who received our books ‘Bhabhloo Bear’s Adventure’, ‘Cheenu’s Gift’, ‘Phani’s Funny Chappals’ and ‘See You Tomorrow’.
1. A delightful adventure (Bhabhloo Bear’s adventure, reviewed by Lallitha)
Who doesn’t love adventure? And who doesn’ t want to be famous? The little bear
in Bhabhloo Bear’s Adventure story is no different. Full of life and full of questions, he is quite a handful for his mother. Bhabhloo Bear’s Adventure is a wonderful tale of a young bear seeking adventure in his life so as to become famous. Whether he achieves this or not forms the crux of the story.
Little Bhabhloo is a Himalayan bear who is bent upon becoming not just famous, but become world famous. He is constantly dreaming of people writing about him in newspapers and interviewing him on TV. All these thoughts get to his head so much till he goes out one cold night seeking adventure. And, do you know what he does? Well, he climbs the tallest deodar tree so that he can jump straight into the moon. Can he? Will he? What happens next? You have to read this wonderful book to know the rest. Read the book to find out what his mistake is and whether his mistake is irrevocable or not.
The story written by Paro Anand is delightful from beginning to end, striking a chord of familiarity with the readers. Her direct contact with young readers pulls them along into the story as they nod and participate. She instills a sense of confidence and her counsel for intelligent action is subtle without being preachy. And, you can put to rest doubts like why Himalayan bears have their characteristic white colour ‘ V’ lining in
their neck. Paro Anand has interestingly weaved a story to reveal the truth. Suvidha Mistry’ s illustrations are quite graphic and most apt for the story. All in all, this is a good story that parents will love to read and children will love to hear.
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2. A sweet gift (Cheenu’s Gift, reviewed by Lallitha)
Do you get excited to see your mother or father when they come up to pick you from school? I did when I was young, and so does Cheenu, the hero of our story, “ Cheenu’ s Gift” .
Cheenu’s father is a “ kabadiwala” , who goes around collecting old newspapers, magazines and old bottles. Cheenu is his assistant who joins him after school. At the end of the day Cheenu receives his gift from his father for helping him. What is the gift? You have to read the story to find out.
Cheenu’ s Gift is a simple story about simple pleasures of simple people. Author Sridala Swami’ s story is a nice introduction to the young readers about the world that is on the other side: the side of the
have-nots. Life is uncomplicated and happiness does not depend on money, seems to be the message of the story. An invaluable lesson for today’s generation! Sanjay Sarkar’s drawings aid the story very well.
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3. A misguided boy (Phani’s Funny Chappals, reviewed by Lallitha)
In an age of fast-packed action and violence that fills children’ s books and cartoons that race to thump each other, Sridala Swami’ s stories come like a breath of fresh air. Children are introduced to a different world, a simple uncomplicated world and a wonderful world of imagination.
One such story is Phani’ s Funny Chappals.
Phani’ s ingenious replies to his late comings, and watching TV instead of playing outside with friends can make you smile and wonder who the real culprit is. Are Phani’s Chappals the real hero or is Phani trying to shift the attention on to something else to prevent scolding? I think it is left to the imagination of the readers to conclude. Sanjay Sarkar’ s illustrations are graphic in character depiction, and the emotions are all well drawn.
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4. The day animals came home (See you Tomorrow, reviewed by Athreya)
I liked Tanya Luther Agarwal’ s “ See you Tomorrow” very much because it is a very simple, easy, and nice story to read. It’ s funny that the animals in the story accept the invitation seriously and come home. I wish animals would come to my home too. The illustrations drawn are very beautiful, and I love looking at all the animal pictures, especially. I think the message is that you should be nice to your guests and give them food even if they are animals.
