|
a children's book by the
late
Ned Shank
(1999;
illustrations by Catherine Stock,
published
by Marshall Cavendish) |
|
What it's
about |
| What could
be a less likely topic for a children's book than the start of an
ascetic life for a would-be Indian holy man?
|
 "It was
the sanyasin's first day. He sat in the shade of a tree beside the
busy road with his walking-stick, dressed in his brand new orange
cloth. He had given away everything he owned to lead the holy life
of a sanyasin, to do nothing but pray, and walk from town to town,
begging for just enough rice to fill his bowl."
(Left, the book's cover.) |
|
Yet this
story, beautifully placed in a culture and land that will be exotic
and fascinating to most
readers, proves much less about the sanyasin (pronounced san-YAS-in)
at all, but about the fear and self-mastery required on "first days"
--- of, or at, anything.
(Right, a
young plumber --- female --- approaches her first customer's home
with excitement and trepidation.)
For those seeking more options about
Indian culture, this thorough alphabetical listing of
Best
South Asian Children's books,
by Dr. Sumana Reddy,
offers a feast of choices, each with a thoughtful mini-review. |
| With a
gentle and reassuring folk-tale feeling, this story delights
children, who, like the main characters, wrestle doubts and fears at
the start of new enterprises. |
|
The
necessary terror of first days |
For instance, there's the
traffic policeman. On his first day, he "stood on the center island
... in the middle of the busy intersection in the center of town,
eyeing the honking taxis and beeping three-wheeled open auto
rickshaws and rumbling pain-decorated lorries and bicycles with
their bells clanging and the oxcarts from the country all around
him." Who wouldn't be scared amidst all that?
No wonder
that, despite the policeman's "crisply ironed khaki shirt with
braid looping over the right shoulder," his hands "in white gloves"
and the "silvery metal whistle on a white cord"; despite his
training, both at school and "at home in front of the mirror", to
move his "gloved hands with authority... to guide traffic smoothly,"
the young scared traffic cop
(pictured
above right at work )
is now saying his prayers: "Oh please, let me direct the traffic
safely and quickly." |
|
Confronting their anxieties |
First day
jitters afflict not only the just-graduated plumber, the sanyasin,
and the traffic policeman, but a small schoolboy and a young farmer.
Readers watch each nervously confront his or her own anxiety, and
continue forward through their respective first days.
Each
character, as it happens, does make a small mistake.
Yet as the reader alone can see, each mistake makes possible a
fortuitous occurrence in the lives of one of the other neophytes ---
including the sanyasin, whose rice bowl does not go empty by day's
end. |
|
The writer
explains how he came to write |
|
In 1998, Ned
explained to young readers when and how he came to write
The
Sanyasin's First Day: |
| "I was
traveling in South India when I saw a jolly, very rotund sanyasin
holding forth to a laughing crowd in a tiny bakery shop wrapped in
an orange robe as stiff with starch as if brand new, he
looked almost like an Indian Santa Claus! Since sanyasins are
usually very skinny, the incongruity was
enormous. I mentioned it to a French friend that evening. He
quipped, "Perhaps it was his first day." |
 "I thought
about it and I realized: everyone has a first day. I imagined how as
a child in school, one of my teachers might have had her
first day, and been nervous. But I as a child would never have
thought so, being nervous myself. That began the idea for the book.
(Left you will see a group of Indian
school children and their teacher crossing a town's busy main
intersection. Though you can't see him --- he's one page over ---
the new policeman is guiding them safely through the traffic.) |
| "Each person
in the story seems to make mistakes. But are they mistakes? The
apparent errors turn out to make everything come out fine in the
story." |
|
About the
illustrations and illustrator |
 When the
book first came out,
Ned said:
"I love these
pictures. The illustrator, Catherine Stock, spent a month in
southern India sketching.
Her drawings --- which also incorporate bits of cut paper
collage, are beautifully true to the text, the South Indian state of
Kerala, and how its people look."
(Click on
the picture to left to see the rice-farmer being misdirected to the
market instead of the granary by the young policeman. Can even the
wrong directions turn out to be right?) |
|
Catherine
Stock is a native of South Africa, who now divides her time between
France and New York City. She has not only illustrated over sixty
books (including one by Crescent's mother,
Charlotte Zolotow ), she
has illustrated and written several, including
Sophie's
Bucket. |
| Who
it's dedicated to and why |
| Ned noted,
when the book was published: “This being my first book, I naturally
dedicated it to my parents, who gave me my first day.” |
|
Reviewers
and readers say... |
 " ...
As in a six-degrees-of-separation story, the lives of these
individuals intersect and touch other lives, until a child fills the
holy man's bowl, answering the man's prayers at the end of his
first
day. Both the lively text and Stock's bright watercolor street
scenes are packed with clear details--people, animals, auto
rickshaws, bicycles, oxcarts, even someone on an elephant ---
expressing the vitality of the crowd and also the fragile
interpersonal connections that answer the sanyasin's prayer.
--- Booklist |
| "The
pictures and stories convey the daily life of a few characters in
India and culminate with the inter-connectedness of people in a
culture. Very cleverly done, the book also depicts the
interdependence necessary in any society." --- Children's
Book Review Service |
| "Follows
four workers...on their first day of work in a city in
India....Realistic watercolor paintings...bring to life the busy
streets of an Indian city....This good read-aloud book has merit as
an appealing evocation of life in India." --- Library Talk |
| "Vivid
atmosphere." --- Publishers Weekly |
|
" A
serendipitous slice of life in India. Multi-culturalism at its best!
Our kids related instantly, and found the story very satisfying.
Each main character... make(s) a small mistake on a first day... The
reader alone can see (how) each of these mistakes makes possible a
fortuitous occurrence (and the way) things have a serendipitous way
of working out far better than could have been imagined... powerful
and spiritual... gently stated, not preachy... full of charm and
good humor... comforting... an added plus is that these interweaving
stories twist and travel through the crowded maze of colorful,
detailed contemporary Indian village life --- markets, elephants,
colorful saris, oxen pulling piled carts, a lively, busy
population." --- reader review, at
Amazon. |
|
I'll
tell you a secret... |
| Ned said:
Actually, I'll tell you two secrets. |
| "The first
is, my illustrator, Catherine Stock, my wife Crescent, and I became
friends during the course of this book. This is unusual. Generally
publishers prefer not to have writers and artists even meet,
fearing that a writer's comments or opinions might influence the
artist so much that he or she would have a hard time finding their
own style and ideas. But because Catherine had not yet been to
India, she wanted to talk to me. We wound up talking together, and
e-mailing, and finally the three of us went out to dinner together
when we were in New York. She ultimately went to South India, and
has stayed in touch with us ever since. |
|
 |
| The second
secret is that everyone, no matter what they do or how old they
are, has a first day. And even though it is usually scary, it can
come out all right. |
| Which is
true for me as well, since this is the first children's book I ever
wrote." |
|
Click here to purchase
Sanyasin's First Day
and other
books . . . |
|
©Dragon,
Pen & Inc. 2000-2007 :: Last Updated:
03/05/07 ::