First Sun Stories

"Sunrise stories ..."

"Interesting stories from the Northeast."

Here is Katha's first collection of folk tales from North East India, lovingly retold and illustrated for children.The story of creation from the Ao people … a Khasi tale of how the peacock’s tail gotits golden spots … the story of the hornbillgirl from the Meitis … the Tejimola legend of Assam …All these and many more in this exciting collection of stories from the Seven Sisters, many of which have never been on page before!

The Hindu
(Young World, October 20, 2006)

Fourteen folktales from the Northeast. And each one of them so different yet so interesting. Some funny, some sad but all sure to keep the reader engaged to the very end.

By far, the funniest is the story from Konyak Naga tribe titled "The Dog's Hat". Why is it that the land of Assam is flat while the land of the Nagas is rocky and mountainous? There is an interesting answer to that in the story "Lichaba: Creator of the Earth". The ever-inspiring wicked stepmother is not left out of these folktales either. So we have the story of "Tejimola" — sad, yes but then justice does prevail as we see in the end. There are also stories that take a humorous look at greed as in "Tseube" and the tragic tale of Nongdangnu and how she escapes her hard life by becoming a hornbill.

- Nimi Kurian

The Writers

T Bijoykumar Singh
Easterine Iralu
Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih
Mamang Dai
Santanu Phukan
Thingnam Anjulika Samom

The Illustrators

Amanda Suutari
Ludmilla Chakrabarty
Neeta Gangopadhya
Nityan Unnikrishnan
Prashanta Kumar Nayak
Sanjay Sundaram
Sonali Biswas
Sujata Singh
Taposhi Ghoshal
Uma Krishnaswamy

Publishers: Katha
88 pages, size 11 x 8.5
Age Group: 7-12 years
ISBN 81-89020-33-1
Price: Rs 295

Katha thanks the North East Writers' Forum for their cooperation.