Uma Krishnaswamy – illustratör

More funny, clever trickster tales from India.Prince Veera's great-uncle, Raja Apoorva, invites the prince and his best friend, Suku, to the summer festival in Peetalpur, where they participate in some of the competitions. Can they make the peahen sing, though peahens can't sing? Or win the painting competition, or even defeat the country's champion wrestler? The boys face each challenge with great wit and wisdom. Back at the palace, they are faced with more challenges. Raja Apoorva enjoys puzzles and presents several to the boys: who was the intruder who dared to pull the Raja's beard? How can the journey to the seaside be shortened? And at court it's Prince Veera and Suku who will decide which neighbour owns the tree that produces the wonderful figs for the palace, as well as solve the mysteries of the holy man and the astronomer.Four stories packed with clever and amusing tricks and puzzles which will delight children from 6 to 8 – and well beyond.

A girl in India discovers an ancient step well in this companion book to the creators’ much-loved Out of the Way! Out of the Way!When a girl discovers a slab of stone on a weedy patch of land, she calls to her friends, “Look! Look!” The children clear away the weeds and garbage and find more stones. They call their families to come and see and begin to dig around the stones. Word travels to villages nearby, and more and more people join in, until the digging reveals steps that lead down to an ancient well. At the bottom, there’s even a little water! When the rains come, they cause an underground spring to flow once again, filling the ancient well with fresh, clean water and greening the surrounding fields.Lyrical writing and lively, richly colored art come together once again in this compelling story that embraces community, nature and the passage of time. Includes an author’s note about ancient step wells and their potential to help handle floods and provide water. Key Text Featuresillustrationsauthor’s note Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

Here is a bunch of dung-dropping, sweet-stealing, luck-jinxing villains!Four stories about young Prince Veera, who, along with his friend Suku, helps his father, the king, solve some of the problems he is having with his subjects. Trickster tales with lots of humour and colour, based on traditional Indian folktales.