The Enduring Ark
Author: 
Gita Wolf
Illustrator: 
Joydeep Chitrakar
age group: 
7+ yrs
Number of pages: 
32
Publisher: 
Tara Books
Themes:
Patua art Noah's Ark folk art animals
Genre:
fiction, picture book
 

 

Gita Wolf has taken the well-known biblical tale of Noah’s Ark and given it a totally new Indian avatar!
Simply told, in an exciting new graphic format, the story is narrated in a few words, (the story, after all, does not really need re-telling), giving the art the centre space.

The illustrations by Joydeb Chitrakar, in the Bengal patua style of scroll painting, are par excellence. The illustrator has filled the pages in brilliant flowing images, just as in a patua scroll.

As the book opens up accordion style, image after image unfolds before our eyes filling up one’s senses in a riot of forms and colour.

What a great story-telling tool as well as an introduction to a great folk art form.
 

Reviewed by Shamim Padamsee