The Tomato Flood
by Niyatee Parikh Sharma and illustrated by Alankrita Amaya
“The Tomato Flood” by Niyatee Parikh Sharma and illustrated by Alankrita Amaya. Published by Tota Books. A story of a hilarious situation at Veer and Ananya’s home.
The book is a sequel to “The Tomato Thief” though it can be read independently as well. Little Veer and his younger sister Ananya love to help Baba in their terrace garden. They pull out the weeds, dig the soil and water the plants. On one such occasion, they got distracted and started playing. They plucked a few tomatoes from the vine and started squishing them. They began to throw the squashed tomatoes at each other. They were having a lot of fun at the expense of the tomatoes which were splashed all over the soil by now. Well this led to a time out for both, by who else but Mummy ;)
Two weeks later their family was in for an unexpected surprise. Suddenly there were lots of new saplings all over their garden. Baba was puzzled and wondered how they had come up when he hadn’t planted them. The plants started growing and lots of tomatoes appeared. Mummy started harvesting and the number of tomatoes were so much that they lost track of the count soon.
Mummy kept plucking and the tomatoes kept growing back. What can be done with so many tomatoes? Wear your thinking caps and come up with all the possible recipes using tomatoes. Baba, Mummy and their cook did making tomatoes an inseparable part of their daily breakfast and meals. This went on to the extent that they squirmed at the thought of mummy wanting to try tomato laddoos of all things! Whoever heard of that? Phew 😅
Veer started imagining what would they do if there is a tomato flood!! What do they eventually do with the tomatoes? How did the tomato saplings come up in the first place? Read the book to find out. The bright and quirky illustrations complement the story very well. My seven year old has loved the book since he was 4. We have had hearty laughs reading the book each time and imagining how Veer and his family must have felt. Apt for children aged 4+.
Where to buy from?
The publishers Tota Books here.
An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.