The first book I read is called, Monsoon, a picture book about children in a city in India waiting for the monsoon rains.  They slog through hot, dry, dusty days wondering when the heavy rains will come to wet the earth.

This book is great for a few reasons.  First, the illustrations are beautiful.  So much of what makes children’s books special is their artwork, and this one is no exception.  Monsoon‘s illustrations feature the sunset colors of dusty purple, blue, orange, goldenrod, and pink.  They also paint a picture of modern India that I haven’t seen in other Indian-themed books.  Buildings and shops with signs in Hindi and English border the crowded streets.  People in yellow and black taxis, in rikshaws, on bicycles, and on scooters share the road with merchants who spread their colorful wares on the streets.  Roaming cows make an appearance too, and one of them stops a taxi in its tracks.  This would be a nice book to prepare kids to travel to India, as it paints a realistic picture of city life there.

I also like how the book features a non-nuclear family in which Nani, the children’s grandmother, lives with them.  She tells them about monsoons in her village from the olden days.  This reminds me of the way my grandparents (who lived with us when I was growing up) would tell my brother and me stories about village life.  Finally, the book connects children growing up in the United States to a season we don’t experience in this part of the world — the monsoon.  The last page provides a short science lesson about the monsoons.

The book doesn’t really address my main point about Indian American literature, though.  The story is set in India, not the United States, so it doesn’t further the cause of featuring Indian Americans in print. Still, it’s a great introduction to modern India and would be a great addition to your local library or a school library.  It’s selling for a song now at $6.78 and is Amazon Prime eligible (Free shipping. Woo hoo!).  In fact, I plan to donate one to a local holiday book drive this season.

The second book is called The Broken Tusk: Stories of  the Hindu God Ganesha and is Krishnaswami’s retelling of classic stories about Ganesha.  This is perfect for second-generation Hindus like myself who want to tell their children bedtime stories about Hindu gods but don’t quite remember how they go.  I’ve tried getting around my memory problem by using books from India, such as a version of the Panchatantra that my mother gave me.  Unfortunately, a lot of those types of books aren’t translated well, so they read awkwardly.  More importantly (if you have small children), some of them have entirely too much violence.  For example, the Panchatantra book had a story about a bird who tried to get even with an elephant by pecking its eyes until it tripped and died.  Eek!  Not the sort of thing that will lull a child into a peaceful sleep, is it?

I must admit, I haven’t read all of the stories in The Broken Tusk (there are 17), but the ones that I have read are great.  There’s the old favorite about Ganesha winning a race around the world against his brother by traveling about his parents.  There’s also one that I haven’t heard before about how Ganesha influenced the phases of the moon.  This book isn’t a picture book, though there are a few illustrations scattered throughout.  Krishnaswami gets bonus points for including a glossary, names of Ganesha section, and an explanation of characters from Hindu mythology and history.  I think these features would make it a nice addition to a public or school library collection.

Are there any other Indian American children’s books I should review?  I would love to get more ideas from you all.  Let me know in the comments or by sending an e-mail to iammomsblog@gmail.com.  You can also tweet to (at?) @iammomsblog.