Amal and the Letter from the King/Adapted from the Play, the Post Office, by Rabindranath Tagore [Library Binding]

Chitra Gajadin (Author), Rabindranath Tagore (Author), Helen Ong (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1992 | Age Level: 5 and up

A picture book adaptation of the play by Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore depicts the haunting story of a sick young boy who watches the world pass by his window until a letter from the king brings him new hope.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This haunting reworking of a play by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, with its mystical foreshadowing of a boy's death, will prove weighty emotional fare for some readers. Amal, a sickly child, is forbidden to step outside his house; from his window, he questions villagers--a vagabond, an itinerant merchant, a constable--about their travels. In wistful dialogue, Amal voices his own yearning to travel to an unknown land. The young invalid, who can see faraway events in his mind's eye with preternatural accuracy, dreams of one day receiving a letter from the king that will allow him to embark on this longed-for journey. As he envisions the royal postman drawing ever closer, the ailing child gives away his toys, declares he no longer feels pain and is presented with a final gift of flowers by a young friend. In an abrupt and abstruse ending, Amal falls asleep--or dies?--waiting for the letter's arrival. Ong's unornamented but evocative paintings, in the golds and ochres of the Indian landscape, capture the dailiness of village life as well as a more fanciful dreamscape. All ages.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 4-- This adaptation of a Tagore play attempts to reach a young audience but fails. In his village in India, sickly Amal spends the day visiting with various people who pass by his window: a yogurt seller, the constable, the mayor, a flower seller's daughter, a group of children. He daydreams about receiving a letter from the king and longs to fly to a faraway land. A fakir stops by with the message that the letter will surely come soon. Amal falls asleep with the doctor and his uncle by his side. He will awaken only when "the king comes and calls him." A heavy-handed allegory of life and death, the story lacks tension, sounds portentous, and strains too hard to deliver its message. Amal will bore the picture-book crowd and baffle the few older readers who have the patience to finish it. The illustrations, done in warm tones of gold, orange, brown, blue and green, show some pretty scenes of village life but cannot rescue what remains a misguided effort. --Ellen D. Warwick, Robbins Lib . , Arlington, MA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Library Binding: 44 pages
• Publisher: Boyds Mills Pr (September 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563971208
• ISBN-13: 978-1563971204
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,943,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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