Which colour is Kunku making today? "The book has brilliant big visuals which can keep a young child interested in the book too. When I read this book to my son I could see him getting curious about various things, asking more questions on how and why of colors, later I saw him taking a reddish leaf that had fallen down and rubbing to see if it will make red color. . . next morning he brought the book to me and said mumma lets see which color is Kunku making today."
Read Bookrack reviewer Monika on The Mystery of Blue here.
More Mayilspeak "The book definitely takes you back to your childhood... I loved the way she (Mayil) expresses minute things in the everyday life. Wish I too had a diary when I was 12. It would have been such fun to reread it." Read Swati's review of Mayil Will Not Be Quiet! here.
Blue + Black is Green
"Let’s Plant Trees is a book that’s meant to make you smile. Filled with simple illustrations, it’s a visual delight that concerns itself with the various roles a tree has to play in our daily lives."
Read Time Out's review of Let's Plant Trees and Black Panther here.
A special note
Anita Balasubramaniam wrote in to say how much her daughter, Nidhi, loves our books. Thank you, Anita, for sharing this. It made our day! "When my daughter Nidhi came into our lives, it was quite natural that I stocked up on Tulika books for her. She has been growing up listening to these books being read to her since she was about a year old. [These books are contributing a great deal to Nidhi's learning in these early years] We never read with the intention of "teaching her something from the book." It is for the sheer joy of reading that we read. Nidhi now picks up books on her own, looks at them, talks to him and enjoy them for what opportunities they offer to her to make sense of life. Often we are just reading a simple story for her - either while eating, at bed time, while traveling and so on. At other times we are looking at the details in the visuals - details which we often find in our daily lives - the stool that kiran drags to the fridge and sits on in where is amma, the flower pots in minnie's house (where is pooni), the lizard in grandma's eyes, and so on - all these are around in our lives and in the visuals waiting to be discovered - so once every few readings we will notice something new :). Sometimes we are discussing the story while we are traveling or experiencing something new - making connections with what we have already ready. So she knows when someone is singing I would ask her how thangi sings and she would say aaa, aaa, aaa in her baby language. When we see a dog, crow, cat, or cow, we make connections with where is pooni. Thakitta Tharitkitta is another favourite - we have sung it in the car, on the beach, at home a gazillion times and even created our own story based on the visuals which she loves! Every book has been read and re-read hundreds of times. . .
One thing that has emerged in this "repeated reading" of Tulika books with my daughter is that in addition to the story the visuals in these books provide a very rich opportunity to connect experiences in our every day lives in India with what we are reading. The context of life in India is present in the visuals waiting to be experienced, discovered and made connections to :) A big round of applause for all the illustrators :) I must also say that the books being paperback is wonderful - we can carry many of them with us whenever we are traveling :)
Keep those books coming! We love them."
July 2, 2011