Rahul and Luffy read

I came back home after traveling out of city and the first thing I notice in our house are a couple of second-hand books from the book store nearby. I knew they were second-hand books because I had already come across one of the books (which I didn't w ant to buy) when I combed through the childrens' books section in the book store. The good pick was Night Monkey Day Monkey by Julia Donaldson, Illustrated by Lucy Richards . Julia Donaldson should be familiar name to the readers of this blog. Good book. Luffy likes it and finds parts of it funny. An interesting example of evolution from the book is - the "night monkey" wonders why the moths were wearing make up, to which the "day monkey" responds that they're butterflies. Butterflies operate during the day and because it is bright during the day, it makes sense for them to expend energy creating elaborately colorful wings (helps with mating). On the other hand, moths operate at night and because it'...

I don't remember which happened first - did we do something that made Luffy interested in trains or was he interested in trains and we reinforced by buying him railway-themed books and toys. We did travel a few times via train when he was younger though so maybe that was how the fascination with trains started. That naturally led to us (likely Preeti) buying him a Thomas' Train Stories book and luckily for him, one of Preetis' friends gifted Luffy a Thomas & Percy train set. We never ever put the entire toy railway set together - he is more than hapy playing with the Thomas and Percy engines. And it's surprising how relevant this book still is to our lives. The book has been around for more than an year, if i remember correctly, but even as early as last week, we were going through it and reading through some of the stories. And for Preeti and me, some of our funniest memories with Luffy are linked to this book. Like for example the "Thomas and Percy and the D...

Are You A Monkey: A Tale of Animal Charades by Marine Rivoal caught my eye last month at the second-hand book shop next door to where we live. Painted in a stylish and saturated color palette of Pantones, this unusual book will engage children in considering animal behavior and characteristics. Even the publisher calls the book "unusual" because the colors are just absolutely mesmerizing and like nothing I have seen before. Each page has a good hook to grab and retain Luffy's attention. Marine Rivoals' work is absolutely mesmerizing. Alas, most of her work seems to be in French. P.S. I absolutely love the fact that artists and creators can still surprise me with their art. Even after reading hundreds (close to thousands) of graphic novels and comic books, I am yet to come across two authors whose styles are exactly the same. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised about this. Maybe if I had a basic appreciation of the arts during my college years, I wouldn't be sur...

One of my colleagues at my previous employer (Enthought) had just become a father. When the new parents brought the baby to the office, the gift from the company included these books. It makes perfect sense because the org was made up of folks from science and engineering backgrounds, most of them Ph.Ds. And I absolutely fell in love with the books.   Soon after (within an year), a cousin of mine had a baby boy. They live in the U.S and they were visiting India for a short vacation. I wasn't sure when I would meet them again so I bought them these books. Everyone looked at me like I was an alien. The books say that they're for babies but I think they're actually for adults who want to read to babies. I was happy about the gift and I hoped that my cousin and her son would appreciate them sometime in the future. So when Luffy was born, one of the first things I bought was these books. And we've been reading to Luffy from these books since he opened his eyes. For a very l...

Let me start by writing down everything that's on the torn cover of the second-hand book I have. Puss in Boots: The Adventures of That Most Enterprising Feline Written by Mr. Philip Pullman Illustrated by Mr. Ian Beck Starring Puss himself, and featuring: One Ogre, Two Ghouls, One Aged and Respected Hermit, A Beautiful Princess (Daughter of His Most Gallic Majesty), The King of France, And of course Jacques, the Hero

Regular readers of this blog should be familiar with The Bookshelf Library and their collection of work by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler . We had already picked out three books last Sunday and we were on our way out when Luffy picked up a lift-the-flap book near the exit. I went back inside to return one of the other books that we had picked up but the librarian let us take the additional fourth book. And boy have Preeti and Luffy been enjoying the book. Rabbit's Nap by Julia Donaldson, Illustrated by Axel Scheffler is a book about a Rabbit that keeps trying to Nap but keeps being disturbed/prevented from doing so. It's a lift-the-flap book. For example, in this book, lifting the flaps reveals what/who is causing the noise that is preventing the Rabbit from taking a Nap. Lovely book, as expected from Julia and Axel. Solid recommendation for kids. I wish I knew about lift-the-flap books sooner.

Preeti picked up a Hindi childrens' book on Sunday from the Bookshelf library - Dosti aur Mauj-Masti (Celebrating the Girl-child) , a Hindi translation of Veera and the Farm Animals by Aino Havukainen & Sami Toivonen . I'm writing about the book not because it's an amazing book that all kids should read but because it highlights the differences children experience in urban living vs rural living. The book shows us the experience that Tatu and Patu have as they visit Veera at their Farm. They get to meet a dog, a cat, chickens, goats, sheep, pigs, horses, and finally cows. Tatu and Patu are awestruck at the farm because they have never interacted with farm animals before. For example, they don't understand how cows are milked, and they are incredibly proud of themselves when they finally milk a few drops from a cow. Preeti and Luffy found the book interesting - because they have both spent time living with livestock. In Himachal, Preetis' family has multiple cow...

Every time we visit the Bookshelf childrens' library, we pick up three books - two for Luffy and one for me - and last week, El Deafo by Cece Bell was my pick. It's been on my to-read list for long enough that I don't even remember where I came across the recommendation so it was a pleasant surprise when I came across the book at the library. I couldn't put the book down on the train once I started it. I don't remember the last time I read a non-fiction graphic novel about a differently-abled person (Daredevil is fictitious so it doesn't count). One of our fears when Preeti was pregnant with Luffy was that he would be born with a handicap. Thankfully he is a healthy boy at the moment but it's a constant background fear in my mind. The author talks about her journey after losing her hearing but I wonder how the parents adapted to live with a hearing-impaired kid. By design, the author talks about her personal experience but there must be books out there whe...

Luffy and I are back with another Julia Donaldson book this week - The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson, Illustrated by Axel Scheffler . It's a good book, especially because this is the first time (I think) Preeti is singing from a book to Luffy. The Giant keeps singing to himself throughout the book, with every event adding a new verse to the song. The book also introduced Luffy to "What's the matter?" - which is now one of his catchphrases. Like with a few earlier books, this book was also borrowed from the bookshelf library in Hyderabad, India . We just returned this book back to the library today. We didn't pick up any of Julia Donaldsons' books this time but I loved reading The Ugly Five (same author and illustrator) while we were there. Preeti thinks that Luffy isn't at the age yet to understand The Ugly Five so i'll eagerly wait for that time. Until then, there are a lot of other childrens' books to go through.

I've been a fan of Karadi Tales , especially since their collaboration with People's Archive of Rural India (PARI) to create the StoRI (Stories Of Rural India) series of books. The StORI (Stories of Rural India) series uses real stories from rural India, of disenfranchised people and communities, and the unique challenges they overcome every day, be it in infrastructure, health care, disability, or job security. At some point in the future, I'll write about the 4 books I have from StORI series II and the books by P. Sainath, but for now let's stick to Karadi Tales. I visited The Bookshelf Library on Sunday as usual and because Sankranti was this week, I asked for books that were relevant. We had similarly asked for books on Christmas in the last week of December 2024 and we loved the recommendations. Given all of this, it's not a surprise that I was interested when the librarian recommended Farmer Falgu Goes Kite Flying by Chitra Soundar . And unsurprisingly, P...

Family is visiting us in Hyderabad this week and we used the opportunity to visit Charminar and Golconda. And the entire time, Shepherd's Hill : the rise and fall of Golconda by Nikhil Gulati was running through the back of my mind. As soon as Luffy and I had finished The People of Indus by Nikhil Gulati , I looked him up and reached out to him to buy one of his earlier books - Shepherd's Hill. I live a few minutes away from Golconda but I haven't visited it since I moved to Hyderabad. I even drove past it once but didn't bother to make time to actually visit the place. After some back and forth, I was able to buy the book and immediately inhaled the 57 page non-fiction graphic novel! It is incredibly crisp and I hope Luffy reads it one day. There aren't enough non-fiction graphic novel authors in India and I hope Nikhil keeps at it. I already bought his latest book The Book of Emperors: An illustrated history of the Mughals so you all will hear about him again pr...

Instead of taking Luffy to the park, I prefer taking Luffy on walks. We usually walk within the Society we live in, looking at all of the vehicles parked, talk about their manufacturers, and so on. One day, I decided to take him to the second-hand book store to see if we could pick things up for him. I put him on a stack of books and we started combing through the large pile of childrens' books in the store but one of the employees at the store asked me to not put him on the books. Luffy also noticed other books that he found more interesting elsewhere in the store and he found toys that he wanted to see and hold. I was picking him up, holding him off, and trying to shuffle through the books as quickly as possible when I came across The Detective Dog by Julia Donaldson . Still in it's plastic cover, it looked beautiful from the outside. The colors popped and something in my gut told me that this might be a good deal. I couldn't even open it, like I could The Very Hungover C...

I think the Nib is an easy recommendation from me - I'll just be sharing lists of the publicly available comics going forwards and marking the comics which I loved the most.   From the Animals issue page on the wayback machine/internet archive Somebody's watching (⭐) Faux No More The Warner Family Pet Hall of Fame The Mother of All Choices   (⭐) Mickey the Minstrel Touring America's Beastly Roadside Attractions The Eighth Wonder of The World (⭐) Unnatural World   The Worst Pet I've Ever Had The Nib Interview : Jackson Galaxy           and from the Power issue page on the wayback machine/internet archive (⭐) Borinquen Summer Royal Remnants (⭐) Half Life Cop Con (⭐) Who gets to live in the city of the future The Mystique of Mystique Rebelling from the Rebel Girl Trope (⭐) Hope Becomes Fear The Nib Interview : Ta-Nehisi Coates (⭐) Roots to Fruits                         I'll be taking ...

Like with the Death issue, I loved the Empire Issue. Interestingly, it wasn't just about colonial empires - it as also about digital empires and media empires! The story that scarred me the most is about The Highway of Death . The Highway of Death is a six-lane highway between Kuwait and Iraq, officially known as Highway 80. It runs from Kuwait City to the border town of Safwan in Iraq and then on to the Iraqi city of Basra. The road was used by Iraqi armored divisions for the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. During the American-led coalition offensive in the Persian Gulf War, American, Canadian, British, and French aircraft and ground forces attacked retreating Iraqi military personnel attempting to leave Kuwait on the night of February 26–27, 1991, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of vehicles and the deaths of many of their occupants. Between 1,400 and 2,000 vehicles were hit or abandoned on the main Highway 80 north of Al Jahra. If I remember correctly, the Highway of Death/The ...

At some point during the COVID-19 pandemic, I think I came across Matt Bors' work , specifically The Nib . I've wanted to get The Nib issues for many years now but it was always wayyyyyy too costly because I live on the other side of the planet from where they are published and usually sold. Recently, a couple of family members were traveling from the US and were kind enough to say yes to bringing them over with them. And The Nib shutdown so they also sold the few physical copies that they had at a huge discount. So here I am, the proud owner of 8 issues that The Nib published, the first being The Death Issue . I absolutely loved reading the Issue and I can't wait to write about the next issue tomorrow but as I try to write this post, I'm slowly getting mad at The Nib team or disappointed at the state of the publishing industry. Not all of comics ever published by the The Nib are accessible from their website. But the pages that are meant to catalog together the availab...

I'm back again to sing praises of The Bookshelf library but this will be the last time for a few weeks - I promise. We had just walked into the library and met the librarian/owner. We tell her that we are looking for books for Luffy and the first book she recommends is The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, Illustrated by Axel Scheffler . Preeti loved reading it at the library but we're still not sure why we walked out of the library without it. So she insisted that the next week, one of the books that I pick up was The Gruffalo! And Luffy loves reading it. We're into the second week now and we love hearing him describe how the animals interact with one another! There are also a bunch of ancillary details that he likes focusing on and discussing. Coincidentally, we picked up another (second-hand) book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, only to later realize that it's same duo. I'll mention this other book by them in a later post but safe to say, we're slowly beco...

Epics have been written about brothers so it's surprising that a 20-ish page childrens' book captures the fundamental essence of brotherhood - we don't like sharing with one another, we fight over trivial things, we make up, and most importantly we are there for each other when needed. I absolutely loved reading A kite called Korika by Sharada Kolluru, illustrated by K P Muraleedharan . The story is just perfect and the colors are art/illustration/colors are vibrant and warm. I especially loved the sound-effects interjected into the story, which aren't obvious to someone who isn't a native Telugu speaker. I poked a lot of fun at Preeti when she tried to pronounce the sound-effects e.g. the sound that a bus makes as it is passing by or the sound of a bullock cart on a dirt road. P.S. This is another great recommendation from the Bookshelf Library. A good librarian knows whether or not they have the book you are interested in reading. A great librarian on the other ha...

I knew that my ex-employer ( Enthought ) was sending us a gift basket after Luffy was born. I had some idea what would be in the gift basket (a few childrens' books) but I was pleasantly surprised by "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle . I knew it was a classic and we absolutely loved reading it. There was always something in the book for Luffy. When he was very young, it was the vivid colors and shapes. When he started eating solid food, it was the fruits and food in the book. When he started exploring the world using his senses, it was his ability to flip through the book and poke his tiny finger through the holes. And now, it is his interest in telling us the story of the very hungry caterpillar, what it eats, and how it turns into a beautiful butterfly.   I loved the book enough that I immediately bought the parody The Very Hungover Caterpillar - A Parody by Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees, Illustrated by Gillian Johnson when I noticed it at the second-hand sto...

We don't have a printer at home. I remember the printer in my fathers' office lying unused most of the time. The few times I really needed to get physical copies of digital documents, I was never more than a few minutes away from a store where I can get them printed out. But, it's a bad thing that we now live a few minutes away from such a store. Because the printer happens to be at the far end of a second-hand book store. I have, on more than one occasion, walked into the store to print stuff out worth Tens of Rupees but ended up also buying books worth Thousands of Rupees (they have first-hand books too). A month or so back, Luffy and I came to the store and found a couple of gems in their second hand book collection. So Luffy and I decided to dive into their collection again today. One of the books we surfaced with is The Littlest Yak by Lu Fraser and Kate Hindley . I immediately read it after reaching home and Luffy, Preeti and I have read it multiple times over the p...

I just put down The People of Indus by Nikhil Gulati, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer and ran to my laptop to write a short review of it. A full-time job fuels my graphic novel reading habit and this book has been on my to-read list for a while but it never blew up in my social networks so I put off reading it. Until I borrowed the book from a local library in Hyderabad and absolutely inhaled it around dinner time. There aren't a lot of graphic novels coming out of India. At least that's how it looks to me. I should have read the book sooner. I'll have to spend time looking at criticisms of the book but i'm happy after the initial read - it prompted a bunch of interesting questions about archeology, language, history, and more. I loved it enough to want to buy his first book - Shepherd's Hill - The Rise and Fall of Golconda - on the rise and fall of the Golconda fort, which is ten minutes from where I live on Hyderabad, India! But sadly, there seems to be some problem with ...