India Incredible India

Starting with its colourful, vibrant cover full of a diverse array of characters and objects, this book can draw everyone’s attention. The cover simply entices the reader to open the book up – and what treasures they will find when they do. The author is introducing us to Thara and her Nanijee (Grandmother). We read how Nanijee has travelled around India and collected special objects that she keeps safe in a beautiful wooden trunk. This is the trunk which she opens on the nights when Thara has a sleepover. Together they sit whilst Nanijee tells Thara stories of her India, Incredible India.

The reader feels like Nanijee is sharing her country with everyone who has the privilege of opening the book. Every rich, colourful double-page spread takes the reader to a different region and there they will discover sights, sounds, animals, stories and wonderful people they may have never heard of. The accessible, clear narrative is brought to life by exciting, exuberant illustrations.

This book can be dipped into, read at length or can be explored in as many diverse ways as there are regions in India. Every time the covers are opened there is something new to discover. Readers will be able to almost see and smell the wonderful things which are being described. Through the pages, they can travel in their thoughts and widen their horizons and grow in knowledge, creativity and ideas. Curiosities will be sparked, questions will flow and imaginations will be fired up.

As an educator, I believe that books like this are a very rare find and I admire the amount of work and thought that has gone into the writing, illustrating and production of this children’s book.