Title: The Girl Who Loved Words – Mahasweta Devi (Dreamers Series)
Author & Illustrator: Lavanya Karthik
Publication: Duckbill – An imprint of Penguin Random House
Type: Paperback
Pages: 48
Age Group: 6-9 years (publisher recommendations is 7 years+)
“Good things come in small packages” and this book stands as testimony to it.
The Girl who loved words is a biography of the famous Bangla writer and social activist, Mahasweta Devi. While there are many books on biographies and autobiographies, this book, one of the books from the “Dreamers Series” by Lavanya Karthik, stands out for its unique approach.
My 10-year-old girl (Miss. M) is someone who reads across genres (thanks to her dear Asha aunty and the KBC community) and yet when it comes to biography or autobiography there is a slight resistance. Though she reads books from this genre after a little push from my side, I can say for sure that biographies are not something she jumps into excitedly.
But when this book arrived, she took to it at once and was in awe of the book. In her words, what worked was the narrative and the much appealing illustrations.
What left a great impact on her was the way Mahasweta Devi’s life journey was described in simple language, complemented with expressive sketches that brought the narrative to life.
M also mentioned that the choice of fonts was awesome and the blurb was enticing too. And yeah, that cute note about the author on the last page!
I was amazed to see how appropriately the author has packed details about Mahasweta’s childhood, her dreams, struggles, the social stigmas and her empowerment and finding social justice through words in just a few carefully chosen words.
Be it the narrative or the illustration, there’s a characteristic flow to it.
The bold sketches inspired by Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, an Indian political artist of the mid-20th century, leave a strong impact. The illustrations in hues of just yellow, black and white have definitely taken the book to another level.
In parting words, I would say that this is a beautifully crafted book that would make for a great addition to any library. Also, it would be a great idea to introduce young readers to biographies through these books from the “Dreamers Series”. I’m very much convinced to buy the rest of the books from the series. What about you?
PS: M says that the best part about the book is that it can easily be carried anywhere. Well, the book has already found its place in M’s school bag!
Happy Reading!
You can find the rest of the books from the Dreamers series here.
We have other reviews of books in the Dreamer Series which might interest you:
The Girl Who Was A Forest – Janaki Ammal
The Boys Who Created Malgudi – R. K. Narayan and R. K. Laxman
The Girl Who Loved To Sing – Teejan Bai
The Boy Who Loved Birds – Salim Ali
If you are a word lover who enjoyed this review and wish to buy the book from Amazon (kbc affiliate link),
CLICK & BUY NOW!Disclaimer: We got this book as part of #kbcReviewerSquad and we feel happy and privileged to be part of it as we are free to have our opinions and give an honest review of the book.
