#387 - Tails & Tales
by Reeja Radhakrishnan and illustrated by Megha Punater
“Tails & Tales” by Reeja Radhakrishnan and illustrated by Megha Punater. Published by Penguin. A delightful collection of some fascinating stories featuring animals from Indian mythology and ancient folklore.
Animals have played an important role in stories from times immemorial. This is evident in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts. A variety of animals and birds feature in these texts portraying qualities such as courage, friendship, sacrifice, kindness, perseverance, generosity, loyalty, revenge and adventure to name a few. Sometimes these animals are the gods themselves who have taken on the particular form to help someone in distress or save the world from disaster, like God Vishnu who takes on various animal avatars to fight against the evil and vain rakshasas. However the shape shifter rakshasas come in the guise of animals as well to trick, attack or scare people and achieve their wily plans. And then there are the animal vahanas or vehicles of the gods who play an important role as well. Then come the stories of animals from ancient fable collections such as Panchantra, Hitopadesha and Kathasaritasagara which usually have a moral embedded within them and were used as a means of education in ancient times.
The book celebrates animals like these through thirty stories categorised into two broad sections of fifteen stories each. The first one is “Deities and Demons”. Here most stories are from the epics of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana as well as Buddhist Jataka tales and Jain myths. The second is “Friends and Foes”. These stories are from the ancient story collections mentioned above. Each of the stories have been exquisitely illustrated. Read the book which is full of their heroic deeds and bravery to delve into the magical world of these animals and birds!
My 8.5 year old son and I had a great time reading these stories. It had been quite a while since we had read a book on mythology and this was a perfect book to savour in this genre. While a couple of stories were familiar, there were quite a few which helped us know more about some of the familiar characters in mythology and many which were completely new. My son was curious to know more about some of these and amazed by their powers. The wisdom in these stories did not go unnoticed by him. He was amused by the curse giving powers of sages and then feeling sorrowful about having done that in anger. He was thrilled to see his favourite superhero god Hanuman feature in a couple of stories. Overall the book celebrates and showcases the diversity and richness of our ancient folklore filled with timeless wisdom. It is perfect for a bedtime read and an ideal option for gifting is what we felt.
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 8 and above.
Disclaimer - We received this book from the publisher, Penguin India, for review. Thank you to Greeshma and Mansi, from Penguin, for sending across the book!