November 03, 2007

 
Anju is a little girl who crosses a stream to get to school everyday. She loves the narrow, bubbling, dancing work of nature that is surrounded by lush greenery and all manner of animal life. Each day she feels blessed to be a witness to such beauty and relishes the bounties all around her. Anju’s school breaks for summer and she doesn’t get to see her stream for a couple of months. When the time finally comes for her to cross her little paradise she discovers that her natural friend has all but dried up. The wildlife seems to have disappeared and instead of the bubbling, lyrical sounds of gushing water, there is the curdling of waste and dump.

Anju learns that a soap factory was built close to the stream and it belched its waste into the poor body of water. Along with the factory Anju’s villagers also neglected their responsibilities to nature as they wastefully used the stream’s water and polluted it. Anju cannot stand back and let her haven be destroyed so she decides to take action.

Read how she makes the villagers and the factory owner to realise their responsibility and clean up the stream

The illustrations in this book lend a big hand in making this an enjoyable read for young children. And since the story is told in verse form it holds the attention of kids till the very end. Children who are unable to read can glean the story from just perusing the pictures and the important lesson is that no matter how young you are you have can play a role in keeping your environment clean.

Jhilmil the Butterfly
Author: Vijaylakshmi Nagaraj

It has been days and Jhilmil has not shown her colours to the whole garden. She lies listlessly on the jamun tree leaf as still as the branches around her. Minty the Mynah laments her friend’s gloomy mood, and enquires the reason for the butterfly’s sadness. Jhilmil asks why the sun had not come out in such a long time and that she was missing him sorely. They decide to seek the help of their friend squeaky the squirrel who in turn tells them he was also worried because without the sun the jamuns were not ripening. He suggests asking Flora the sunflower. So off the three of them go looking for the sun’s best friend. As they start disclosing their distress to the drooping flower the clouds in the sky break and the sun shines through with all its might, for winter has gone and spring has finally arrived.

This charming tale told in verse form is an adventure that takes the child, reading it, through the whole garden in search of a treasure we sometimes take for granted, the sun.

Saima Salman