Kolam Kanna - Vibha Batra - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Vibha Batra

ILLUSTRATOR: Jemma Jose

GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction.

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A cute little novel focussing on a little boy’s passion for kolam art. Love how it shatters gender stereotypes! Will work better for the younger side of the MG age range.

Story Synopsis:

Nine-year-old Bharathi spends a lot of time at the Paradiso apartment building, where his parents work as domestic help. He loves playing with his friends Tabassum (aka Tabu) and Alagu, but most of all, he loves drawing elaborate kolams with animal motifs in the stairwell of the building.

When a kolam “kontest” is announced as part of Paradiso’s Navrathri celebrations, Bharathi’s friends encourage him to register his name. Technically, he isn’t a resident of the building, but he does spend his time there, doesn’t he? And if there’s a hitch in the form of the dominating and scary Mrs. Subramaniam, Bharathi might just have a trick up his sleeve to bypass her decision.

The story comes to us in Bharathi’s limited third person perspective.

Bookish Yays:

💐 Love the central trio. Bharathi, Tabu and Alagu have a friendship that goes beyond just playing with each other. All three of them are adorable characters.

💐 Appreciate the inclusivity. Not once do Tabu or Alagu use Bharathi’s lower social status to insult or tease him. The idea of social equality goes much beyond the kids’ friendship. Through the kolam “kontest”, the story stresses the need to be open to people of various financial strata without bias.

💐 Adore the role kolam plays in the story. It is such a treat to see a quintessentially Indian folk art being used in a contemporary middle-grade novel. In my childhood, I used to assist my neighbour-aunty in drawing her kolam (or rangoli, as we call it in this part of the country.) Reading this book made me all nostalgic for her loving support and encouragement.

💐 The book smashes gender stereotypes by showing a boy as an accomplished self-taught kolam artist. Kolam is traditionally considered a woman’s activity, so Bharathi’s passion for the art and the other characters’ encouragement to him is a heartening experience. Bharathi also cries many times in the story without anyone telling him to “stop behaving like a girl.” Tabu is another character who breaks the girly-girl cliché found in Indian MG fiction by loving to play cricket with the boys.

💐 Though Bharathi is more than adept at making his animal-themed kolams, he doesn’t take his talent for granted and practises regularly, increasing the time he puts into fine-tuning his skill before the contest. A good lesson for kids (and adults) to learn!

💐 The B&W illustrations take the already-cute story and add a greater charm to it. I loved the expressions on the characters’ faces and the little glimpses we see of Bharathi’s kolams.

Bookish Nays:

🌵 There’s some juvenile humour in the story (especially in the first half) that might work nicely for kids but made me (and will make many parents) cringe. The story had a lot of heart, so there was no need to resort to toilet humour. The kids in the story also have a tendency to use funny and/or insulting names for anyone who isn’t their friend or who opposes them. This isn’t a good habit to encourage at all.

🌵 There’s some colloquial lingo in the conversations. Though this might be accurate to the character, it is also in incorrect English, which is not something I like in children’s books.

🌵 The author seems to share my habit of writing add-on comments in brackets. 😂 While these were fun at the start, I think the pattern became quite repetitive as we went ahead. Humour when overused loses its impact.

All in all, despite some minor concerns about the content, there’s no denying that this is a charming story that will win the hearts of its little readers. I hope it also encourages more egalitarian thinking in kids and adults, be it in terms of updated gender expectations or social inclusion based on the principle of equal opportunity for all.

My in-house middle-grader also read this. She had the following feedback to offer: “The start was good and I liked it a lot. But it was too simple and *baccha-level*. There were many Tamil words that I didn’t understand.”

('Baccha-level' is her phrase, not mine! I wonder if she no longer considers herself a ‘baccha’!)

Recommended to all little ones looking for a fun and inclusive story. Officially, this is aimed at middle-graders (ages 8-12), but the over-simplistic approach will be boring for the older kids. I think it will work better for a slightly younger age range, say ages 7-10.

4 stars. (Same rating from mommy and mommy's ‘baccha’.)

This review is powered by Blogchatter Book Review Program. My thanks to BlogChatter and author Vibha Batra for a complimentary copy of “Kolam Kanna”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

To my international friends who might not know what kolam is, check out this article. 

To buy a copy of 'Kolam Kanna', visit https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/0143461133/