Passepartout, Is That You?

by Menaka Raman and illustrated by Jemma Jose

“Passepartout, Is That You?” by Menaka Raman and illustrated by Jemma Jose. Published by Duckbill. A delightful tale of little Shyam who has to find Passepartout, a rescued tortoise that seems to have disappeared.

Shyam is on his annual holiday to Trichy. He had come to his Thatha’s (grandfather) home. He enjoyed spending time with Thatha. They would climb up the fort to look for hidden treasures and tell each other scary stories while staying up late in the night. But Thatha, who is a policeman, had been quite busy this time and Shyam wasn’t happy at all. It was the third time that he had been called to work in the police station. He had caught an idli thief, warned a neighbourhood rowdy and booked a parrot for making too much noise. Shyam was proud of his Thatha but missed spending time with him.

Shyam had decided that enough was enough. He marched to the police station and decided to lend a hand much to his Thatha’s consternation. There was already a pandemonium in the station. Someone who had been trying to sell exotic animals as pets had been caught. The animals were all over the place. After they had been taken away by animal welfare folks, Shyam realised that a tiny little tortoise had been left behind. Thatha asked him to keep an eye on it while he went to call the animal welfare people. Shyam named the tortoise as Passepartout after a character from his favourite story. While Shyam was busy playing with the station dog Kannamma, the tortoise vanished. It may have slowly wandered off. Can Shyam and Kannamama find him? Where is Passepartout? Read the fun filled story to go along with Shyam and Kannamma across Trichy on the lookout for Passepartout.

My 8.5 year old and I enjoyed this simple and charming story. We had fun looking for Passepartout as the story progressed. It was nice to see different people stepping in to try and help Shyam. We were amused to discover the things that people mistook, based on Shyam’s descriptions, to be Passepartout. The illustrations are bright and cheerful making the story come to life. The message that exotic animals should not be kept as pets is what we liked the most. My son was thrilled that the main character was a Star Tortoise. He had seen one kept as a pet in one of the hotels that we had stayed at. He was quite upset and had wanted to tell the owner to set it free. This species has a designated conservation status of “vulnerable”. The book is part of the “hook book” series by Duckbill and well suited for children who are beginning to read on their own. The fairly large sized text along with pictures are very helpful in making the gradual transition to chapter books with lesser pictures.

When I first heard about this book, I was wondering what the word Passepartout which sounded like a French word meant. And it was a pleasure to know this at the end of the book. It is a character from one of the all time classic books, Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days”. An ideal companion to this book is “Shell Shocker”, a card game on the turtles and tortoises of India.

Recommended Age

The book is apt for children aged 5 and above.

Reasons to Read

The book is a delightful and exciting read for children as they get to join Shyam and Kannamma on the lookout for a tortoise :)

Disclaimer - We received this book from the publisher, Penguin India (Duckbill), for review. Thank you to Greeshma and Mansi, from Penguin, for sending across the book!