What would you do if you saw a brilliant orange butterfly? I followed it right through the pages of Niveditha Subramaniam's Flutterfly, just like the book's excerpt suggested, and left thinking of a poem. Who knows where it might take you!
Do you think it could distract you from a marvellous moustache you were trying to draw over an indulgent thatha's grin? Or would you go on instructing your "classroom" undeterred? Do you think it could turn a sibling squabble into a roomful of smiles?
The wordless format gives a new strain of free rein to an imagination that we so love letting loose when we engage with words in books, stories and songs.
Flit through Flutterfly to see if you can spot yourself, your pet or someone you know in its pages. And then, go back to it every time you feel like you have some time to stand and stare.
If I could leave wordless reviews (no, not emojis), I would. Instead, here's leaving you with the poem that's on my mind now, one that has kept coming back to me since I was in high school,
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
- Leisure, W.H. Davies
Book: Flutterfly
Publisher: Tulika
Author / Illustrator: Niveditha Subramaniam
:)
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