Stories on the Sand
by Sandhya Rao and illustrated by Srividya Natarajan
“Stories on the Sand” by Sandhya Rao and illustrated by Srividya Natarajan. Published by Tulika. A beautiful book on the timelessness and the unifying power of stories.
For centuries, stories have been a means to explore the culture and know about the people of distant lands. Myths, Legends, Folk Tales and even everyday stories across time and space have been devoured by children as well as adults.
Irfaan has a story in his head. So do other children in different parts of the world like Thanh, Suzanne, Wang, Sumana and others. Well they share it by writing them out on sand in the beaches. The colour and texture of the sand in each of their beaches is very diverse. So is the nature of the waves in each of these beaches.
What happens to these stories? Do they get devoured by the waves? Do they travel? Watch the characters and images from the stories come out in stunning illustrations. The book gives the scope for readers to come up with their own versions of the stories by interpreting the illustrations. Based on the names of the children and characters shown in the illustrations, we can attempt to guess which place each of the children are at. For example, Sumana is from India and the illustration of her story leads us to believe that she is somewhere in the Sunderbans.
Me and my seven year old loved the theme of the book as well as the illustrations. Apt for 5+ year olds. I was contemplating whether to buy this book or not as there were very few reviews online and very mixed at that. Either someone loved it or just put it off. But I am glad I decided to go ahead and buy it. Sandhya Rao’s books such as Dosa and Storm in the garden have been a hit with my son and this one is a treasure as well.
It felt like an extension of the folk tale “The Story and the Song” from Tamil Nadu which conveyed the message that stories and songs need to be shared and not kept within us. To borrow a line from someone I listen to a lot on books, “the stories and songs have to travel here, there and everywhere” :) Writing out the stories on sand is also one of the ways to do that.
Where to buy from?
The publishers Tulika books here.
An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.