Seasons of Splendour: Tales, Myths & Legends of India - Softcover

Jaffrey, Madhur

4.09

168 ratings by Goodreads

9781857933642: Seasons of Splendour: Tales, Myths & Legends of India

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857933648 ISBN 13: 9781857933642

Publisher: Pavilion Books Ltd, 1994

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Collection of traditional tales about gods and heroes in Hindu mythology, arranged in sequence as they might be told at religious festivals during the course of a Hindu calendar year.

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About the Author:

Michael Foreman is an award-winning children's book author and illustrator.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6 In the introduction, Jaffrey promises a recounting of stories told ". . .not only to separate right from wrong but to prepare us, indirectly, for the vagaries of life and the fact of death." Indeed, this is the unconscious aim of all folklore. Unfortunately, in this case Jaffrey's writing style and grasp of language are not equal to the task of retelling fine old legends. Such dull colloqualisms as "he loved her a lot," "someone's problems are weighing on me like a ton of bricks" and "All right, all right" are sprinkled liberally throughout the stories and destroy the integrity of the tales. Arranged to follow the Hindu calendar of feasts and festivals, the tales are those Jaffrey remembers hearing as a child growing up near Delhi. Each story is preceded by her childhood memories of the events and setting in which she heard the tale. These vignettes give a vivid picture of life in India from a child's point of view, and the pronunciation guide for the names of characters and events is helpful. Foreman's drawings and full-page color paintings that profusely illustrate the text have an appropriate mystical cast, but too often they are needlessly grotesque. A picture of the demon Pootana, a dark, bony creature floating in mid-air with the baby Krishna suckling at her elongated, misshapen breast, could better have been left to the imagination. The stories themselves are exciting and memorable, if readers can get past the choppy writing and grotesque illustrations. Joseph Jacobs' Indian Fairy Tales (Dover, 1969) and Flora A. Steel and R. C. Temple's Tales of the Punjab (Bodley Head, 1984) are better choices for Indian folklore. Connie C. Rockman, Ferguson Library, Stamford, Conn.
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