Of Colours and Holi – My Little Book of Holi [Review]

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Book Title: My Little Book of Holi
Author: Ashwitha Jayakumar
Illustrator: Swarnavo Datta
Publisher: Puffin
Type: Board Book
Pages: 22 pages
Age Group: 2-5 years

Growing up in Mumbai and having experienced Holi festivities like an adventure i.e., someone dropping a water filled balloon from higher floors while walking; playing with the deepest colours (even silver!); being thrown into a water drum – Holi was not just a festival but an emotion. With Holi around the corner, this was the apt time to introduce this book to the girls (and reinforce/ relive for my 6 yo daughter Ananya).

The book is a perfect segue to the festival. The story begins with the author taking the reader through various senses – depicting the pounding of colours; visualising the logs, sticks, colorful water buckets and pichkaari; illustrating the taste/smell/touch of the yummy delicacies and questioning WHAT’S happening around them! Anika (my 2.5 yr old) was intrigued and was constantly flipping pages – she was surprised to see so many colours in one book!

It doesn’t end there – the author has beautifully explained the WHY of this festival – explaining the mythological facts (about Hiranyakashipa, Prahlada, Holika and Narasimha), a key highlight.

Ananya liked the mythology part. We have been participating actively in our community events over the years – Holika Dahan, and Holi the next day with colorful water guns. Given the water crisis situation this year in our city, I used this opportunity to introduce her to other ways of celebrating Holi (like the Mathura way with flowers) – this was to prep and encourage her to conserve water while not dampening the festive fun.

The illustrations are spectacular – I would particularly mention the diverse nature of the people, clothes (across states, religions and more) – the illustrator has kept an inclusive theme on every page, which shows how well thought the book is. I am truly impressed!

The book is also a good way to indirectly explore our 5 senses which is introduced beautifully at the start of the story. Not just that, we have an activity at the end where kids are challenged to find 11 hidden objects from the story – we had a gala time searching for them. This book stays true to its theme and is indeed a very colourful one –  just like the festival!

Happy Holi Reading, everyone!

There are quite a few more books in this MY LITTLE BOOK OF series like:

1. My little book of Krishna
2. My little book of Lakshmi
3. My little book of Ganesha
4. My little book of Shiva
5. My little book of Hanuman
6. My little book of Durga
7. My little book of Diwali

If you enjoyed reading this review and would like to introduce the festival to your child, you can order this book from Amazon (kbc affiliate link.),

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Sowmya got a review copy of My little book of Diwali from the same series. She has shared a detailed review and some inside pages in the fb group here.

Quoting her:
“With adorable detailed illustrations which are a trademark of the series along with simple sentences, this book is the perfect way to introduce your little ones to Diwali. The language is perfect for young readers to read independently as well as younger ones to comprehend when read to.

The book describes the glittering sights, crackling sounds and fragrant smells of the festival. The names of the different days of Diwali (Dhanteras, Choti Diwali etc) are mentioned too.

The story behind the history of celebrating Diwali (the return of Rama to Ayodhya) is illustrated by shadow art. It ends with a fun activity to locate certain festive objects in the book.”

Disclaimer: Pooja and Sowmya are a part of the #kbcReviewerSquad and received these books as review copies from the publisher via kbc.