A Village Is a Busy Place!

Gr 1–5—The community life of the Santhal, an indigenous group in India, unfolds vertically in this colorful scroll book. In the first scene, readers are welcomed into a rural village with the news that a wedding followed by a feast is about to happen. Two paragraphs of text describe what's going on. This text, located on the backside of the elongated image, disappears as the next section of the image is unfolded and replaced by more text. As each section of the full image is revealed, readers learn more about the villagers—their work, how they spend their time, and so on. Throughout, the author points to particular scenes: "Spot the man and the woman holding up cones of peanuts!"' and "Do you see a donkey?" A few of these may be difficult to locate, such as the "special knives" that are used to prepare food, as most children won't know what they look like. Created in the Bengal Patua style of scroll painting, the art features stylized figures and is outlined in heavy black line against a vivid red background. The figures appear flattened in the shallow space, often in profile, while splashes of greens, blues, and white highlight fabrics, plants, and animals. A reinforced hole at the top of the full vertical scene turns this title into hangable art.