Customer Reviews

Holi (Rookie Read-About Holidays)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book's virtues are its simple text, interesting facts, and beautiful color photographs. There are just 1 or 2 sentences on each two-page layout, with just a couple of pages displaying as many as 3 sentences. However, with these limited words, the book educates the reader about the Hindu story behind Holi, the celebratory traditions of Holi, and the significance of Holi. I especially recommend this 31-page book for readers age 4-8; however, even adults will learn interesting facts about Holi. I never knew what the colored powder was made of, and I had never heard of Princess Holika until I read this book. I also loved the photographs of typical Indian families smiling, celebrating, and enjoying each other's company.

This book would be educational and enjoyable for both Indians and non-Indians, but it does have a couple of minor flaws. One is when the author writes, "Some people visit the temple on Holi." The accompanying photograph shows a kid wearing sneakers, so I doubt he's in a Hindu temple. It's probably some kind of community hall because Hindus never wear shoes in a temple. (However, this flaw is minor because the sneakers are in the background, and you'd have to pay pretty close attention to even notice them).

One thing that is slightly more troublesome is the repetition of 4 non-English words throughout the text; the author never indicates which language they're from. I wish the author had added one sentence like, "These words are from Hindi, the national language of India." I think this would have made things clearer for the many non-Indians who assume all Indians speak the same language, and it's called "Indian."

Minor flaws aside, I did enjoy this book, and I highly recommend it. I learned a lot and loved looking at the pictures!

My 3 year old son just loved this book, the pictures are great, very relevant, and appealing to his age group, and older(visiting 4-6 yr olds have also appreciated this book). They understand the story of good vs evil a little better than he does, but this is an indispensable addition to any S. Asian Hindu who would like to share memories, and create new festival traditions with their children.

Another great holiday book from Rookie Readers! If only other book companies took time to write books about international holidays as much as Scholastic does.