Ganesha's Sweet Tooth

October 15, 2012
“Ganesha is a Hindu god. He’s very important and powerful. And a tad chubby,” begins this stylish take on a classic tale from Indian mythology. Patel’s artwork has a candy-colored palette that befits the subject matter, and he merges traditional Hindu iconography with decidedly contemporary influences: the book’s eye-popping jewel tones, dots, and geometric patterns nod to the graphic design work of Saul Bass and Maurice Binder’s title sequences for films like Charade and Dr. No. As a young god, Ganesha enjoys dancing, playing cricket, skipping rope, and—most of all—sweets. When Ganesha spies a tempting “super jumbo jawbreaker laddoo,” his best friend, Mr. Mouse, warns him that it will surely break his tusk. “But I’m a god,” Ganesha replies. “I’m invincible.” Sure enough, his tusk breaks, leading to an encounter with the poet Vyasa, who persuades Ganesha to write the 100,000-verse long Mahabharata using his tusk as a pen. Though the story’s ending fizzles, Patel and Hynes have created a fresh and comedic introduction to a Hindu legend, with a winning combination of both eye candy and actual candy. Ages 4–8. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM.

October 1, 2012

Gr 1-3-Two traditional events in the life of the Hindu god Ganesha are imaginatively recast as though happening during his childhood: "he was just like every other kid except that he had an elephant's head and cruised around on a magical mouse collecting fruit, rice, sweets, and other gifts from the temples in his neighborhood." Drawn in Adobe Illustrator, comical Ganesha is a pink elephant/boy, his large head dominated by enormous round eyes. His love of sweets becomes his undoing when he ignores Mr. Mouse's advice and bites down on a super jumbo jawbreaker, breaking off one of his small tusks. As in the myth, Ganesha laments the loss of his tusk, but soon puts it to good use as a writing implement when he encounters the poet Vyasa, who is looking for Ganesha to be his scribe. Young Ganesha is soon hard at work writing one hundred thousand verses of the Mahabharata-"the great epic of Hindu literature." There's a pleasant color palette of pink, aquamarine, gold, cream, and black, and busy patterns of swirling graphic elements add energy to the boldly designed pages. The cheerful elephant/boy and his mouse and the sweet tooth episode all suggest a far younger audience than seems likely to follow the whole second half of the story. Libraries owning Amy Novesky's more richly rendered Elephant Prince: The Story of Ganesha (Mandala, 2004) and others may like to add this one. Storytellers wishing to introduce the intriguing figure of Ganesha will be best served by Uma Krishnaswami's The Broken Tusk (Linnet Bks., 1996).-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2012
Emphasizing Ganesha's playfulness, this story is a takeoff on one legend about the elephant-headed Hindu god. Ganesha, god of beginnings, is also a mischievous boy. Together with his sidekick, Mr. Mouse, he loves to eat candy. When he bites into "THE SUPER JUMBO JAWBREAKER LADDOO!," he breaks his tusk. He is so angry that he throws his tusk to the moon, but he accidentally hits an old man. Not just any old man, but Vyasa, the poet who has created the Mahabharata, the Sanskrit epic. In this tale, Vyasa suggests that Ganesha be his scribe and use his tusk as a pen. In the traditional story, Ganesha starts to write with a pen, and when it breaks, he uses his tusk as his writing implement. Here, he starts right off with his tusk. The unusual conditions of the legend (that Vyasa never stop reciting the poem and that Ganesha must understand the meaning of the epic) are here, but they are presented in an unusual double-page spread in which Mr. Mouse, as lawyer, sets up a contract. The illustrator is a Pixar animator, and the digital illustrations employ a confectioner's palette of hot pink and greenish blue, sometimes against dark backgrounds. Strong shapes and a mix of modern objects (Ganesha tries to use a stapler and tape dispenser to re-attach his tusk) with traditional designs add to the fun. A sugarcoated but hardly saccharine introduction to one Hindu myth. (Picture book. 5-8)

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October 15, 2012
Grades 1-3 With bright, elaborately detailed illustrations, this picture book tells a fictionalized story based on the legend of how the Hindu god Ganesha transcribed the epic poem Mahabharata. Here Ganesha is just like any other kid except that he has an elephant's head, and vividly colored pictures show him cruising around on a magical mouse. He loves sweets (he is a bit chubby ), but when he bites down on the super jumbo jawbreaker laddoo, his tusk breaks off. He is furious and bitterly ashamed until he meets Vyasa the poet, who needs the tusk to write his poem, which is so long that all the pens in the world would break before it is done. So Ganesha helps the poet and uses his tusk to write the 100,000 verses of a story, which turns out to be so beautiful he even forgets about sweets. Blending computer graphics with traditional images, the intricate, stylized illustrations may be best suited for grade-schoolers, who will enjoy the story's turnarounds and focus on luscious sweets, and many will be ready for the classic Hindu myth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)