My Mother's Sari

Any parent with a girl child will know about their fascination for Sarees. My D is also not an exception. She converts anything from bath towels to my duppattas into a Sari and the moment she is wearing Sari, her whole attittude changes and she bacomes bossy as a mom or a teacher. So when I saw "My mother's sari", I knew she is going to like this book.

The book, though, is not exactly a story book. It is more pictorial and has just one liners per page. It takes us to the world of a child who imagines her mother's sari as a train one day and a river or a rope next day. She swings in it, slides and hides in it, dances with it and sleeps wrapping the it around her. She enjoys the color and texture of the sari and for her it is the most fascinating thing.

The pictures are very colorful and are the combination of photographs and paintings. The texts are simple and minimal. And the best part of the book is the step by step instructions for wearing sari spread across the first and last pages of the book. There are pistures to collaborate the instruction and thats the part little D loves the most. She is a bit small to understand the instructions on her own though.

Now the only problem with this book is, D is pestering me for wearing Sari :-( Personally, I dont prefer wearing it as it is too much work compared to Salwars. But I too remember wearing mock Sarees during my childhood. So this fascination may not be forever :-)

The book is penned by Sandhya Rao and beautifully illustrated by Nina Sabnani. As per the publisher (Tulika publishers) this book is for 'read aloud' for 3+ year olds and 'read alone' for 6+ year olds. The US edition of the book was selected as one of the "Outstanding international Books for 2007". It is a good book especially for girls, but, I feel the price tag for Rs.150/- is a bit high for it.