Biju Spins Some Magic

Book excerpt: Biju and his family are weavers in rural Orissa. They create beautiful fabrics to sell in the cities of India and abroad. This is the tale of Biju's adventures when he accompanies his father to Delhi to sell the saris, and in the process impresses a city boy with his skill. Jaya Jaitly's fun-filled story is illustrated by Bhramara Nayak in the patachitra style. Each book in this series of four, created by the Dastkari Haat Samiti, looks at the life of a child in a rural artisan family from different parts of India. Local forms of painting and craftwork have been used to illustrate the stories so that children can enjoy and appreciate varied cultural expressions.