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Namaste friends! That is how they say "hello" in the country of India. Welcome back to Multicultural Kid Blogs Read Around the World Summer Series! Every summer, they hold this global book review series to share multicultural books with families. So you can learn about other cultures, traditions, and even how other kids, like you, live in other parts of the world.
The book I will be sharing with you today explores the country of India. India is a country in South Asia and the seventh largest country (by area) in the world. It is also the second country in the world with the highest population, after China!
Map of India Photo By Cacahuate (talk), Ravikiran Rao, Nichalp (base outline) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
The book that I am sharing with you today is called, Let's Celebrate Krishna's Birthday! It is book 12 in the Maya & Neel's India Adventure Series, written by Ajanta Chakraborty and Vivek Kumar of Culture Groove. Culture Groove offers books and videos to celebrate multiculturalism and teach kids about the culture, traditions, food and festivals of India. Here is a video below for you to see what they offer and what you can learn through their educational resources:
Maya and Neel are siblings, like Ayu and me, that travel around India to teach kids of different customs, festivals, and traditions celebrated in the country. In this book, they travel to visit their Aunt Boa (pronounced Boo-Aaa), and discover how the birthday of Krishna is celebrated in different parts of India. According to Hindu mythology, Lord Krishna is the 8th incarnation (avatar) of Lord Vishnu. He is one of the most cherished Indian gods. He was seen as a wise, but very practical god.
I love how colorful the illustrations are and how the authors share how to say different phrases in Hindi-the common language spoken in India.
The celebration of Krishna's birthday is called Janmashtami. It is celebrated at midnight when it is said that Krishna was born. There are many ways people celebrate Krishna's birthday throughout India, and this book does a great job sharing some of those celebrations. My favorite is called Dahi Handi, because young boys and men have to create a human pyramid to break a clay pot (handi) full of curd (dahi). This symbolized what Krishna did as a child. He LOVED butter, so he would always eat it right out of the pot. To stop him, his mom hung the clay pot from the ceiling. But Krishna was determined to get his butter. So he and his friends created a human pyramid to pull the pot down and enjoy the butter together. If sun bears were allowed to participate, I know I could climb fast and high to get that pot, it's what we sun bears do. What a fun way to celebrate!
After sharing more stories from Krishna's life, the book shares a fun and helpful infographic to remind you of what you learned about Krishna.
There is a lot more for you to discover and learn about Krishna's birthday through this book, so I highly recommend the book series and website for all you explorers out there! You can find it on Amazon along with all the other books in the series by Culture Groove. But make sure you ask your parents or guardian first, before visiting Amazon.
Well, it's time for me to go find some adventures of my own, friends. Hope you enjoyed my review and check out the rest of my website to explore the world!
Alvidah (al-ve-dha), goodbye, everyone!
-Joy Sun Bear
Author: joysunbear
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