Ekki -Dokki a review By Artnavy

This week we have Artnavy writing in as part of Book Worm Friday

EKKI DOKKI by Sandhya Rao art Ranjan De

Tulika’s Ekki Dokki, a Marathi folktale, has always been a hit with the little ones at home.

Like the names suggest, Ekki has one hair on her head; Dokki has two. The latter is rather vain and indulged by her mother. Ekki runs away to get away from Dokki’s taunts and helps a henna bush, a cow and an old lady that she meets. She lunches with the elderly woman and does as she is told. She returns delighted at her long tresses that are granted to her for her goodness. Dokki in her greed for the same goes into the forest and pays no heed to the needy and is in fact rude to them. What do you think happens to her?

The visuals are bright and cheerful and that compassion and kindness are wonderful traits to have come through well.

Also this book is part of Tulika’s Wordbird series and introduces Indian words to the reader in an engaing way.

It is available in multiple languages.

And like I said, the kids at my place love it. Here’s a video of the author narrating the story..

A word of caution: I find myself saying this about a lot of folk tales. I do not like the story much. The punishment seems too severe and the focus on external appearance unnecessary, The kid running away from home is a mother’s nightmare. Somehow the book ends rather abruptly. Maybe temper the tale with shades of grey when you narrate it.

Art also shared this lovely drawing her daughter, anush made of the main characters but with a twist

Anush’s adaptation has both the girls with an extra hair each and hence a slightly different take on the title, she calls them tokki, dokki 🙂

Now wasn’t that a treat?? 🙂 Thanks Art for this review.. I esp like ur disclaimer cos when this story was narrated to Lil P she asked the same thing – why didn’t Ekki’s mom scold her when she ran away? Isn’t Jungle a dangerous place.. But now, I’m sure the other mom’s won’t do the same mistake as me…

Have you and your kid read any book recently that you both loved and you want to review it?? Then what are you waiting for? Email the review for next week’s Book Worm Friday.

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