*Award winning book
Title: The Miracle on Sunderbaag Street
Author: Nandita da Cunha
Illustrator: Priya Kuriyan
Type: Paperback
Age Group: 6 – 8 years
Holding an award winning book in my hands gave me goosebumps, but also made me really curious to know what made the book so special. The Miracle on Sunderbaag Street turned out to be one of the most beautiful and heartwarming reads, for both me as well as my four year old.
The story revolves around how a little girl, Zara, inspired by her old craft teacher from school, Miss Gappi, takes steps to revive a garden that has over the years been turned into a dump yard. Along the way, the reader is taken on an amazing journey of discovering recycling as well as looking after the environment, all of it woven together with an incredibly tender, heart touching story.
What makes the book really stand out is the relatability. Living in a concrete jungle, we often tend to complain about the lack of greenery. The story encourages all of us to take that first step and make the world greener ourselves, rather than wait for others to do it. All it takes is a little determination and some inspiration.
My 4 year old loved the book so much that he’s been referring to the park as Sunderbaag:
Mumma, can we go to the Sunderbaag now? Will we see butterflies and drongos there like the bookwala Sunderbaag?
The illustrations in the book are breathtaking! One of the marks of an excellent book is that it inspires.
One of the pages described making a bird feeder out of a waste plastic bottle. My son wanted to make it as soon as he saw it in the book.
So we did, complete with a pretend bird and some bird feed. But, he wasn’t satisfied because the bird wasn’t pecking!
So, we are going to hang this one out in the balcony and make our own Sunderbaag!
Other books by the author are Just like Papa (read review here) and The Magic in My Fingers. Do check out Nandita’s latest release Pedru and the Big Boom which is a chapter book for 10 years+ .
Who Clicked That Pic? is for 9 years+ and has been illustrated by Priya Kuriyan.
The Miracle on Kachhua Beach is the next book in this series.
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