Srividya Natarajan

Zai Whitaker

Kali is an outsider at his school in India until catching a snake makes him a hero.

Kali and the Rat Snake

Children's story based on a little boy who live in his imaginary world.

Kannā Pannā

Kali hates school. And school hates him, he thinks, for he has no friends. The children there find him strange. He wishes his father were an 'ordinary' bus-conductor or postman instead of a snake-catcher, even if one of the most celebrated in the Irula tribe. He worries that others will see him eating fried termites (his favourite snack!) and laugh. And then one day, a large rat snake creates havoc in the classroom . . . and Kali becomes a hero! A simple, sensitive story crafted by a writer deeply involved with environmental issues. Zai Whitaker works closely with the Irulas, and her empathy with them is as evident in this book as it was with the Jarawas in Andamans Boy, also published by Tulika. The watercolour illustrations are evocative and detailed, suffusing the story with many hues of mood.

"Ten-year-old Arif lives with his Chacha and Chachi in Mumbai--they have been his whole life after his parents died in an accident. But it is obvious they are interested only in the money he will inherit when he turns 18. One day, he hops on to a train going to Chennai, and from there he smuggles himself on a boat going to...the Andamans!" --Page 4 of cover.

Zai Whitaker

About

Books

Join the club