“Over the years, I have written hundreds of stories. And whenever I write a story about children and the creatures of the forest, the years slip away and I am a boy again,” says Ruskin Bond, one of the best-loved authors of the country.” The years slip away and I am a boy again,” says Ruskin Bond.
Ruskin Bond had his first short story published when he had just left school. Two years later, his first novel, The Room on the Roof, was accepted by a London publisher. On the ship that brought him home to India, he met a twelve-year-old girl called Koki, who shared her chocolates with him, having heard that he did not have money for chocolates. He did not see Koki again, but she turns up in his stories from time to time. She doesn’t grow old. She is twelve-year-old Koki forever. And if you live close to nature, to flowers, trees, birds and mountain streams, you will remain young, like Koki and Somi.
Koki’s Song, Ruskin Bond’s lyrically written and beautifully illustrated story of a little girl in the mountainside who befriends a young flute-playing cowherd is mesmerising..
Ruskin Bond who continues to be one of India’s most well-known children’s writers down generations of readers, was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014. He started writing at the age of 17. He lives in Landour, Mussoorie.
Koki’s Song is one of the twelve books being released under HarperCollins Children’s Books’ Summer List for 2019. All of us will have read Bond’s books and stories as part of our school syllabus and found them in libraries during our childhood making us love and long to experience the life he wrote about in the hill stations.
Besides Bond, rest of the books in the list are: Happy Holidays The Adventures of Kakababu Lucky Its Summer, A Basketful of Animal Tales, All Me, and What Did You Ask at School Today? Be sure to stock up these books for your children so that their summer vacation is filled with wonder and excitement. What is more, reading the right books with stories that are full of knowledge, values, and improve vocabulary, and also keep your child entertained are treasures your child will cherish forever!
