India, Incredible India

Lovely book with great illustrations

It’s designed for kids yes but I enjoyed reading it to. It’s bright colourful, lots of drawings and text is grouped together without overwhelming you with lots of text. Covers all the different regions of India and done in an informative and fun way. Brought for my 6 year old nephew

Lovely for a family especially for my Anglo/French/Indian great grandchildren

At the time of writing, if ever a book needed ‘LOOK INSIDE’, this is it, IMO, for it is different to the norm, which isn’t a bad thing, but the back cover information does not really convey the format.Each ‘topic’ begins with a special object retrieved from a personal collection in a wooden trunk, the meaning of each then embellished upon in short paragraphs in varying fonts. Colourful in the layout, with illustrations galore, some chunks of information are relatively complex at times, age & reading experience depending.Without doubt, it is an interesting book, the patchwork of informative snippets especially handy for project work, with references to FIND OUT MORE (mainly online) on the very last page.ooOooFrom ABOUT THIS BOOK (image below refers):🇮🇳 ‘All through her life, Thara’s nanijee has collected special objects from around India and kept them in a beautiful wooden trunk. Each object reminds her of a wonderful place she has visited.This book will take you on a journey around India ~ you can read it all at once, or dip into it when you feel like visiting a particular place. Every time you choose a page, it will be like choosing an object from Nanijee’s trunk yourself.India is a land full of amazing things to discover. Things that will shake you up, take your breath away and make you as curious as a monkey!’From the back cover (image below refers):🇮🇳 ‘Welcome to India, Incredible India!Journey across the diverse regions of India in this joyful celebration of its people, places and wildlife. Watch elephants bathing from a houseboat in Kerala, marvel at ancient cave paintings in Bhimbetka, wander through Delhi’s bustling streets, and ride a train through the snow-capped peaks of the Himalaya.Uncover India's fascinating history and culture, and explore the unique mix of traditional and modern that makes India the incredible country it is today.’ooOooMeasuring around 25.5 cm x 29.5 cm, the colourful thick board cover opens to 76 good quality, (mainly) numbered pages, split over double page spreads for the main part.At the front is a note about the author, Jasbinder Bilan & illustrator Nina Chakrabarti, alongside the list of CONTENTS, followed by a MAP of India, an INTRODUCTION & the aforementioned paragraph entitled ‘ABOUT THIS BOOK’, which explains the format.Finishing with a picture + brief paragraph about the Indian FLAG that follows on from a HISTORY OF INDIA timeline, a 2-page alphabetical INDEX winds up the durable hardback.Sincere thanks to Walker Books for this pre-publication copy.30 images attached ©Jasbinder Bilan, Nina Chakrabarti & Walker Books Ltd/2022

Really well thought through and put together book. Gorgeous illustrations

This large hard cover book is almost overwhelming in a sense and I mean that in a good way. There is just so much information and and beautiful facts to gather as you leaf through the pages. I think it is more a reference book to different facts about India than a story book, although it is also a story book.The illustrations are bright and bold, there is a lot of text and at the back of the book is a detailed and well put together reference index that is very useful if you would like to go back and re-read a section.It is about Thara's grandmother "nanijee" who has collected items from around India and kept them in a wooden trunk. Thara visits her nanijee on a Friday night and is always excited to see what nanijee will take out of the box. Each week she will be excited to hear the story about that object and learn all about different parts of India.The book is told as a story from Thara's point of view and over the pages you will see amazing sketch drawings of different related things relating to the story.I enjoyed reading about the religious festivals, the section on Gandhi, Crafts, spice market, Sports, The Queen of the hills and also about Wildlife & Gir Forest.I have always wanted to visit India and have found it a fascinating place to visit so now I feel I know more about India and hopefully one day I will also see the Kite festival and spend time on a house boat and of course the Taj Mahal.Beautiful book and definitely one to put on the coffee table and flick through from time to time.

From the illustrated endpapers to the tiny details on the pages, this is a wonderful book about a big country, with a story running through it.Thara often stays at her Nanijee’s (Grandmother) house and tucked away in a corner of her bedroom is a carved wooden trunk. Every Friday night Nanijee will take an item from the trunk and tell Thara the story behind it. The items range from a little metal tuk-tuk, a stamp, a seed pod, and a train ticket.Each item is given a double spread with space for Nina Chakrabarti’s evocative illustrations and Jasbinder Bilan’s words describing the landscapes, noises, smells, and colours of that area of India and the people who live, or who have lived there. There are little extras like the countdown from 10 – 1 in Hindi on the Space Centre pages and an historical timeline at the back which puts everything into context.I loved the idea of a technically non-fiction book but with a story woven through it like the river Ganges. There were people mentioned who I don't know, it makes me want to discover more about them, which is always good. An amazing book with something for everyone. If you’re lucky enough to have a school library, this should be on the shelf.