I participated I the I <a href="http://http://tulikapublishers.blogspot.in/search?updated-max=2012-05-18T15:59:00%2B05:30&max-results=3">heart</a> mangoes contest hosted by Tulika books and would you believe it? I won a prize. Which is the new book by Malavika Shetty...The Sweetest Mango.
Ask anyone about hot summers in India, and the very first few thoughts that are spoken are mangoes. Rightly crowned the king of fruits, the mango is a universal favourite. Not only the taste but the memories and imageries associated With it make it the best loved fruit. A sweet, ripe, yellow, juicy mango is irresistible and summer months are incomplete without his fruit.
This short and sweet story set in Udipi is about enjoying this luscious fruit basking in the warmth of friendship. Not just the act of eating but the anticipation of the eating brings a warm glow to Suma the girl who had eyes for the largest, sweetest mango hanging from a tree that she crossed on the way to school everyday.
Suma and Jyothi are two friends who live next to each other in Udipi. This year they thought there were more mangoes in the tree than ever. They would play a game of guessing the number of mangoes in the trees that saw and also pick mangoes from he ground and feed them tithe cows who dutifully chewed them up much to the delight of the girls.
Suma savoured all forms of mango,the pickles, the fruit and best of all enjoyed climbing the trees to pick her own fruit.
Among all varieties of mango, the mundappa was her favourite. One day she spots the biggest mundappa in a tree and is eagerly anticipating the day the fruit will ripen and she will get to eat it.
Will Suma get her mundappa? There are also he monkeys and squirrels to consider WO o might be waiting for the fruit to get just about ripe.
I leave it for you to find out when you read this book.
The illustrations are lovely and playful and the choice and number of words on each page make it easy for a 5 year old to read. The word birds explain the region specific words beautifully and the imagery of the word bird pecking at the mango or dragging the mango is just about perfect.
Title- The Sweetest Mango
Author- Malavika Shetty
Pictures- Ajanta Guhathakurta
Price-Rs 135
Publisher- Tulika
Age group- 5+
1 comment:
Thanks, I love to read out Tulika books' titles to my son, will go and get this Sweet Mango for him...(and me!)
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