Kabir Sehgal

In my opinion this is a very sweet and well written picture book—however the illustrations are what carry the story and make it much more memorable. The first page opens with an image of a bright green backyard with a beautiful pond and two young children playing; written at the top of the page is “Guavas are ripening. Lotuses are blooming. And Holi, the Indian festival of colors, is almost here.”. Holi is a festival of new beginnings, friendship, and forgiveness. When you turn the show more page, the entire left page is a profile of one child and the right page is a profile of the second child with the words “Chintoo and Mintoo are getting ready. ‘Holi hai. Holi hai,’ they whisper.” The children’s faces fill up the whole page and grab the reader’s attention. On the next five to six pages, Chintoo and Mintoo go around the garden and collect different colorful flowers to make reds, oranges, yellows, blues and purples. Each page is almost entirely made up of detailed illustrations of the flowers, from hibiscus to irises with Chintoo and Mintoo in the background, filling the baskets. Eventually, they lay the flowers out to dry, separate the petals and then press them into a powder to be collected and carried out into the streets. As they walk, they are joined by their parents, friends and neighbors, who are all dressed in white with smiling faces. All of a sudden, the reader turns the page and is met with an explosion of purple, red, orange and blue as the friends and families throw the powders into the air that continue onto the following pages as they shout “Holi, hai” and cover themselves in the rainbow. The big message of the story is the importance of colors and positivity to Holi—they are electric and they set the excitement for the holiday; they enhance the story in a way that makes the reader want to continue turning the pages to see more. If not for the illustrations and the bright colors, if the book was illustrated in black and white or read aloud to the class without turning the book around to show the pictures, all meaning would be lost. show less

Spending the last few weeks with one of my heroes - [[John Lewis]] - was time well spent. Near the end of his life, Lewis was posed with various topics and asked to comment. The result was a collection of micro essays on things such as Activism, Justice, Hope, Faith, and many others. His deeply felt words resonate with his earlier, more voluminous writings on the Civil Rights Movement and Racial History. And each quickens the open heart immediately. This is not the kind of book to sit down show more and read through. Rather, it's best to read a passage every so often and meditate on the concepts for awhile, letting them work on your heart. I can't think of many other people I'd like working on my heart.

5 bones!!!!!
Highly recommended. show less

Taking the classic children's song, The Wheels on the Bus, as an inspiration and starting point, mother-son author team Surishtha and Kabir Sehgal transplant the narrative to a busy city in India, and substitute a tuk-tuk - a sort of automated rickshaw - for the bus. The singsong narrative follows the tuk tuk and its walla (or driver) as they pick up and set down passengers, and make their way through the busy streets...

I liked the idea of The Wheels on the Tuk Tuk quite a bit, and show more appreciated the glimpse it offered of India, a setting too infrequently seen in American picture-books. I was reminded a bit, in this sense, of Karen Lynn Williams' Tap-Tap, a picture-book featuring the colorful trucks that function as buses in Haiti. That said, although I appreciated the theme here, sometimes the rhyme felt a little awkward, as if the authors weren't quite able to fit the words they wanted into the existing song structure. No doubt this is the drawback of using such a well-known piece of music as a template. Leaving that aside, this was an engaging book, and featured colorful, appealing artwork. Recommended to those looking for new takes on the old song, The Wheels on the Bus, or for picture-books with an Indian setting and cultural background. show less

I can't recommend this highly enough to all families and children's libraries! Not only is it a familiar (to Westerners) rhyme in an unfamiliar setting, but it's changed to make it absolutely fascinating. I so wish that this was avl. when my boys were little... what a *fun* way to learn about chai, and yogis, and cattle, and street life in India, and Diwali, etc. etc. I particularly liked all the different skin tones and clothing choices - India is far from homogenous, and far too few show more Americans realize this.

Glossary serves as rich author's note.

4.5 stars rounded up because I think it's important to share more OwnVoices books like this, even if the authors are apparently immigrants I opine that counts.

(After reading others' reviews, I see some have trouble with the rhythm. Others don't. I didn't. I suggest practice. I also see someone rightly point out that the author's note should have said 'where' in India this is set... but otoh it's probably a fairly universal experience.) show less