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by Catherine Fet (Author), Scott Shuster (Editor)
The history of India is - wow! Kids, teens, and grownups - everyone will enjoy the adventures of Indian warriors and rebels, the intrigues and scandals of the royal courts, and the uncompromising stance of India's spiritual leaders - an inspiration to today's fighters for freedom of speech. The incredible variety and cultural wealth of India's many ethnic and religious communities shine through the interwoven threads of its history. Even a glimpse of India's past captured in the stories of its heroes, villains, and adventurers will leave you with a sense of having learned some profound lessons - such as the value of tolerance and never giving up. These are lessons our kids need - today.
"Before becoming a Muslim, a Sikh, a Hindu, or a Christian, let's become a human first," said India's Sikh saint Guru Nanak. And Swami Vivekananda, India's "spiritual ambassador" who made Hindu philosophy popular in the Western world, advised, "Take risks in your life. If you win, you can lead. If you lose, you can guide." Between the ideas expressed in these two quotes lies a range of character-development lessons our kids and teens will absorb directly from the lives of the kings, queens, heroes, and saints of India. The historical figures whose stories are told in this book include Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka the Great, Harsha, Razia Sultan, Kabir, Krishnadevaraya, Guru Nanak, Akbar the Great, Mariam-uz-Zamani, Roopmati, Shivaji, Tipu Sultan, Ranjit Singh, Rani of Jhansi, and Swami Vivekananda.
As with all the books in this series, "India for Kids" teaches history through stories. These stories are reports of the actual historical events with zero fictionalization. There are so many fascinating twists and turns in the biographies of every personality of Indian history, that Bollywood script writers can just take a break - history wrote their movie plots for them. That's why the historical characters our kids will meet in this book are heroes and heroines of countless movies, novels, and comic books. In addition to the main narrative of "India for Kids," it offers paragraph-long explanations of concepts and terms that might be unfamiliar. For instance, some of these introduce terms describing India's many religious communities, holidays, and customs, while others provide information about Indian culture - languages spoken in India, famous monuments, and even etymologies of English words that came from Sanskrit (such as 'pundit') or refer to events of Indian history (such as 'mogul').
The content selected for this book - both narrative and illustrations - is strictly family-friendly, in keeping with traditional morality, and staying away from reporting extreme violence. The book is richly illustrated and colorful. I know our kids will enjoy their discovery of the astounding wealth of Indian culture presented through the highlights of its history.
