Tales of Different Tails - Introduction by Annant Mittal/Surbhi Mittal (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

 7^th Book of 2024

 

It has been a decade in our Indian literature set-up where we have accepted the books written in the form of series- duology, trilogy etc. When I went to a bookstore and found that the same concept is present in the world of children’s story books also, I thought of purchasing it for my near-and-dear ones. I found Sonalika Publications’ initiative of a series named “Tales of Different Tails” which is inspired by the authors’ regular visits to zoo and observation of animals. They felt that even though the humans have evolved a lot in 1000s of years but there’s still a bit of monkeyness in each one of us.

 

The first book in this series is named “Introduction” as it is literally the introduction of this series on how the main five characters of this book came together. One thing that I must mention is the amazing concept of writing story side-by-side on the same page itself in two languages- English and Hindi. This is definitely going to be a great way for making your children learn both the languages and how the same things can be written in both languages using the right vocabulary.

 

The authors of this story are Annant Mittal and Surbhi Mittal who are son-mother by relation. They have also added the name of 3^rd author as well- Diya Mittal. This book is again heavy with illustrations which are contributed by Sachi Shukla. She has given an animated feel to the book by sketching animals the way we see them in television which shall help children to relate and identify the animals immediately while looking at the images.

 

Authors have very intellectually named the animals giving them a human touch. How one can add friends in their life is properly narrated in the book where two friends start their journey for attending a fair and keeps on adding more animals in their group to finally becoming a group of 5 friends. The title of the series is inspired by the same concept – Tales of different Tails.

 

The story also tries teaching how even when one is not your friend and joins you due to loneliness, rather than avoiding them, you show a sense of inclusion and involve them in your activity as well. Similarly, when you find someone wanting more members to play a game, you can yourself give them an offer and help them play the game enjoying the same yourself as well. Similarly, author also emphasizes how we should be appreciating strength of others and acknowledging it rather than becoming jealous of it. This quality ensures that all these 5 animals get together without any ego clashes.

 

The book ends with certain exercises which explains the tough vocabulary used throughout the story. It has a drawing activity which will help young readers in drawing one of the main five characters. They shall also be able to portray their intelligence by connecting the name with the respective animal and showcase their alertness while reading the story. Similarly, they get an option to analyze which animal eats what for their survival.

Overall, this is a good start to the series of the book and I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE

Thanks!

 

WRITING BUDDHA