Mangoes & Bananas

Children's Bookwatch, Sept, 2007

Mangoes & Bananas

Nathan Kumar Scott, author

T. Balaji, illustrator

Tara Publishing

38/GA Shoreham, 5th Avenue Besant Nagar, Chennai 600 090, India

8186211063, $16.95 www.tarabooks.com mail@tarabooks.com

Mangoes & Bananas is a children's picturebook remarkably illustrated through the traditional art from of Kalamkari, originally developed on the southeastern coast of India in the 17th century. Kalamkari has been used to create beautiful designs on cloth for hundreds of years; Mangoes & Bananas is the first time Kalamkari art has been used to illustrate a book. The results bring to life simple figures and gently muted colors, giving a unique feel to the engaging story about a mouse deer and a monkey who are best friends. They grow a mango and a banana tree together, planning to share the fruit; but only the monkey can climb up high enough to pluck the fruit. In a moment of greed and weakness, the monkey eats all of the bananas; when it seems the monkey is about to succumb and devour the mangoes as well, the mouse deer must quickly come up with a clever plan to secure a fair share of the fruit! A clever and appealing cross-cultural storybook.