A new book for preschoolers introduces numbers through famous dishes from cities across India
The panel for the number 6 packs in bhelpuri and other Mumbai elements
Three -year-old Kabir loves new books. “We have a bedtime ritual where he gets to pick three books to read before he sleeps,” reveals his mother Deepti Bansal, a marketing professional. These days, his favourites are books featuring animals, and by now, he can identify most of them. “As I read a story, he likes to look for things he can point out,” she tells us. When he saw 1-2-3 Idlis in a Sambar Sea (AdiDev Press), a seek-and-find book written by Ashwitha Jayakumar and illustrated by Tanya Sharma, he was amused by the title and thrilled to check it out.
A panel featuring the titular idlis. ILLUSTRATIONS COURTESY/TANYA SHARMA
The book introduces pre-schoolers to numbers through famous dishes from various cities across India. For instance, the first one shows a vendor from Varanasi making a jalebi at a ghat; the second depicts two bowls of biryani being sold on the streets of Hyderabad. The sixth is a special delight for Mumbai readers with six cones of Bhelpuri, and the seventh shows seven idlis from Chennai. “Kabir loves snacks. For the longest time, we didn’t give him sweets, but he’s now discovered sugar and he loves it. He enjoys laddoos, and jalebi is one of his favourites,” shares Bansal, mentioning how little Kabir was instantly drawn to the vibrant orange illustration of the syrupy dessert on the first page.
Kabir reads the book
However, he took time to understand a few dishes like the Hyderabadi biryani and the Bengali fish fry. Being a vegetarian, he hadn’t heard of them. He was curious, and his mother took this as an opportunity to introduce them to him through the pictures. Bansal also shares how the cities’ monuments like the Golden Temple and Char Minar in the book were new concepts for him. He now recognises some of the cities through such elements.
Ashwitha Jayakumar and Tanya Sharma
He is excited to show the double decker bus, the kaali peeli, and the traffic police on the page depicting Mumbai to his mother. Little Kabir enjoys reading the same book over a week until he’s completely familiar with all there is to know. Hence, such details in the illustrations act as wonderful windows for preschoolers like him to learn what a city is and what it comprises — ideas that can otherwise be challenging to fully grasp at such a young age.
1-2-3 Idlis in a Sambar Sea
AGE GROUP: 2 years and above
TYPE: Educational
PRICE: Rs 499
RATING: 3/4
AVAILABLE: Leading bookstores and e-stores
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