Blue and Other Stories, by Suniti Namjoshi.

Blue and Other Stories, by Suniti Namjoshi.  Art by Nilima Sheikh.  Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 2012.

A review copy from Spinifex press.

A beautiful little book of fables and artwork for all ages.

Suniti Namjoshi is native of India who has been writing fables since the 1970s.  Five of her fables are included in this book; The Unloved Queen, Blue, Kingfisher, The Frog, and Bird Woman. Each is sharp and poignant and utterly impossible to summarize or explain.  They address what the world is really like underneath all our illusions, but they do so in a gentle and loving manner.

The fables are matched with the art of Nilima Sheikh. She is also from India, and like Namjosh she draws on her culture’s traditions while addressing universal themes. Her style is unique and grows out of her method of using materials to produce delicately textured backgrounds to which she adds sharply focused figures. Her work has been displayed globally.

I recommend this book, especially to those who can share it with children. This is not simply a picture book for toddlers, as its form might suggest.  Both the text and the artwork are worthy of the attention of both school-age children and adults. See also my review of Fabulous Feminist, by Namjoshi.

“Blue is the color of Mary and blue gleams off the skin of the Hindu gods.”