After a long time, a concept book has come along, that right from the word go invites you to open it, walk right in and revel in the beautiful layout and images - a la collage.

In Bindi, a bi-lingual book, Anand has cleverly used exotic bindis in a variety of ways - to help children learn names of colours and shapes, not only in the English language, but Hindi as well. Even better is that the Hindi sentences have been transliterated into English, thus enabling those kids (and some adults, too!) who are not familiar with the Devanagiri script to ‘read’ the Hindi version.

The jaunty collages are big, bold and aptly highlight the key features of the subject. For example, the peacock’s tail has colourful swirls whilst the deer has an extra-long stride.

The highlight of this book is its large font that creates a great visual impact and is sure to engage kids. Great attention to details, such as a magnifying glass being used to look at the small bindi on a little ladybird, the extra-long bindi on the snake and the colours of the font all add to the charm of the book. Children will love to pore over the images.

The names of all the many characters portrayed in the end pages as additional vocabulary is a thoughtful addition.