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There was once a young prince who hated food. A series of comic turn of events led the royal cook to create a soft, crisp, golden ball, which again, by a funny twist of words gets to be called a - Bonda! The prince loved them and ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Soon enough all the people in the kingdom started to eat the round Bondas. And as you would you expect, they became round, just like the bondas.
From there starts the story of the round and happy people, in the land that soon became known as - Bondapalli. As the title suggests, it is a silly, rib-tickling story of the people of Bondapalli. Children wills enjoy the bouncy rhythm of the story and cheer at the slapstick war that culminates at the end of the tale.
The animation style of illustrations also enhances the impact of the story. My children read the book for weeks together - every single day! They laughed spontaneously and were engrossed in animated discussion.
The significant part is the end of the story that provides an opportunity to the reader to become a writer and think of different closure to the story or carry forward the story with a sequel. And yes, there should definitely be a sequel or series of this slap-dash comedy style story!
Perfect gift by an author to its young readers!
This book is also available in: Hindi, Marathi, Gujrati, Bangla, Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam, Kannada.
The Silly Story of Bondapalli was selected as an Outstanding Picture Book for the Nami Island International Children's Book Festival, Korea, by the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC).
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Comments
My new favourite picture book!
This is the cutest, funniest book I've come across in a long time. The story and the pictures come together in a magical way. It's just made to be read out to the kids, over and over -- a dog-eared family classic in the making! Too bad our kids are grown up. I can't wait to have grandkids to read it to!
The funniest story I had ever illustrated!
Ruhi’s review of Shamim’s racy story says it all! It is silly, rib-tickling and has a bouncy rhythm. With a good helping of slapstick humour, too.
When the nice people at Tulika asked me to illustrate Bondapalli, I was delighted. And had some bondas for inspiration.
For this hilarious, wacky and cool tale I had little difficulty choosing a drawing style to match. I decided not to go cute, as I usually do, but use a wacky style and draw silly, goggly-eyed characters. Wanted to make everything bondalike but had to wait till the characters got totally into bondadom. Till then, I had to content myself with round eyes, prophesying the shape of things to come.
I have this thing for the underdog, and I drew the minor characters with equal love too: the cat, dog, cook and each and every Bondapallian. And every little bonda.
Loved the story, loved drawing the pictures, and love those readers who read it for weeks together!
Ashok Rajagopalan