Tara Publishing (remember this beautiful book?) sent over their newest book The Old Animals’ Forest Band. It’s an Indian version of the well-known Grimms’ tale where a dog, cow donkey and cockerel are thrown out by their masters for seeming useless. They find each other in the forest and wind up using a different talent- singing terribly- to scare off some thieves from robbing their old village. Then the masters realize they are good for something and want them back but the animals refuse and embrace their voices and decide to form a band. I like the story, it’s so classic but the illustrations give it a great unique look. The animals are drawn with lots of teeny tiny intricate pattern and then big chunks of blobby flat color sit behind them. The people are strange looking because besides their eyes, none of their features are fully defined. Their hands are like mittens and there is only one drawing in the whole book of a person from a different angle than profile, where there are two eyes instead of one. You can learn more about Durga Bai, the Gond tribal artist who illustrated this book right here and get a copy of this book here.

© Julia Rothman 2007