Thursday, April 19, 2007

Daddoo's Day Out

Daddoo, the little frog, decides to do something different on her day out ... A lively book that celebrates friendship and introduces children to the world of animals, colours and sizes.



The New Indian Express
(Wednesday, April 18, 2007)
Does Daddoo’s Day Out remind you of the popular film, baby’s Day Out? This book, written and illustrated by Prabjhot Kaur is somewhere on the same lines and even won the Runner-Up Prize at the 10th Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations!

The story revolves around Daddoo, a cute young frog, who lives in a small pond with her mother (Ma) and her friends. Her life goes on happily until one day when Daddoo gets bored of doing the same things everyday and decides that it was high time she went exploring into the outer world and made new friends.

The story is all about Daddoo’s day out in the world that lay beyond her small pond, where she meets other animals like a black snake, white swans, and an alligator! By the time she makes her escape from Mr Alligator, it becomes dark and even starts raining, leaving poor Daddoo miserable, under a mushroom’s umbrella. How Daddoo realizes her folly and how she gets back home is what the rest of the story is all about.

The story has illustrations in bright and bold colours that merge into each other to give an adventurous feel to the story. They are present in all pages and have been done in a very novel style, with a lot of lines in them. They are used to convey certain ideas that cannot actually be put forward with words alone and the language used through out the story is very lucid and easy to understand.

The story’s concept or more popularly called ‘the moral’ has been subtly expressed and clearly explains to the Gen-X, what a nightmare, leaving home at such a tender age, could turn out to be. The way in which Daddoo, at the end of her day out, says, “I want to go home!” strikes a chord with the readers and clearly portrays how lost a child can feel without the protection of his/her family and friends.

The author has taken the fact that children no longer want to stick to their roots, thanks to the increase in individualism in our society, and has spun a simple but impressive story that tells us what the consequences of such a rash decision can be.
Tips for parents and teachers:

A great read-aloud book to share with a young child.
A beginner’s book for children learning to read.
The story with its view of life in a small pond and the larger forest can be used as a supplementary reader in the classroom.

The Author & Illustrator
Publishers: Katha
Also available in Hindi
Age Group: 5-8 years
Statistics: 24 pages size 10 x 8
ISBN 81-87649-94-1 [PB]
ISBN 81-89020-13-7 [Hindi]
Price: Rs 75 [PB]
Rs 50 [Hindi]

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