Anitha Ramkumar blogs about children's literature at Saffron Tree, where this article first appeared. Her post is reprinted here with permission.

I discovered Anushka Ravishankar only a few months back. When I first saw the books authored by her on Tara's catalog, I did confuse her with Anoushka Shankar, the sitar player. As I started reading more about her, the title "Dr.Seuss of India" had me riveted.

The first Ravishankar book we read at home, The Rumor, published by Karadi Tales and illustrated by Kanyika Kini charmed us to no end and left us wanting for more. Luckily we found a couple of her books in our library.

Elephants Never Forget!
written by Anushka Ravishankar,
Illustrated by Christiane Pieper
(Houghton Mifflin, 2008)

Ages: 3 - 6

The story is simple. An elephant calf gets separated from its mother after a storm and is adopted by a heard of buffaloes. He grows up as a member of the buffalo herd. When he encounters an elephant herd few years later, will he choose to go with the elephants or will he remain with the buffaloes?

The simple story has been made interesting by the typical Anushaka Ravishankar’s style of story- telling.

“He needed some water
To wash himself clean.
The buffaloes looked so calm, so serene.
The water was lovely, cool and green.”

What endeared this book to me was not just the rhyming verses. To me the elephant growing up with animals totally different from him, forming his identity and in the end deciding his zone of comfort was very similar to the identity-forming experiences of immigrant children.

To market! To market!
written Anushka Ravishankar,
illustrated by Emanuele Sanziani
(Tara Books, 2007)

Ages: 3-6

I still remember my tri-weekly trips to the vegetable market with my dad. A buzzing Indian bazaar is not exactly a theme park, yet I found it very entertaining. Walking along the aisles touching the fresh vegetables, observing the art of bargaining, being mesmerized by the art of peddling (don’t even the mundane tea and coffee have a magic to them when the peddler calls out in his deep voice - "Teeeeeee-kaapi-kaapi-kaapi-kaapi-kaapeeeee!" ?)...

The essence of my childhood experiences is captured effectively in rhyme and in illustration in To Market! To Market! It brings out powerful nostalgia. It evokes fleeting images of a five-year-old me walking to the old Saidapet market holding my dad’s hands. And reminds me of a particular visit to the market when I was busy looking around and reached out for my father’s fingers. When he shook me off rather rudely I looked up at his face and realized that, in my trance, I had lost him and was trying to hold a stranger's hand!

Contrary to her claim to fame as India’s ‘nonsense verse’ writer, Ms.Ravishankar personally makes a lot of sense to me.

Posted October 2010