Reviewed by – Soham Chhabria 10 years old
The moment I read that the book is about Ramayan I couldn’t lay my hands off. However I was also surprised to find stories from Mahabharata as well.
We are currently doing a block on Mahabharata in our school and I could relate to the stories shared.
What I liked about the book was the way its presented , when I read or listen to stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata, it’s usually my imagination of the characters, however here the characters’ are depicted well and the details of each characters adds further to the kind of role they play.
My best part in the book was about Epic Performances- I learnt something that I wasn’t aware of I am going to pass on this book to my teacher so she can incorporate the information about Epic performances and few facts showcased like the Fiery Being and mapping the Ramayana.
Reviewed by Rakhee Chhabria- Founder,
TeachersHelpTeachers
The book took me back to my old days where I would be glued to the Television set watching Ramayana and Mahabharata every Sunday with my parents. Thanks to Amar Chitra Katha , now I have access to stories from different version of the Epics- titled Rama’s Ring.
The book offers detailed aspects about Ramayana and Mahabharata which I wasn’t aware about- E.g. facts on Many Ramayanas- was something that I wasn’t aware of and this is what I loved about the book the most.
Why this book:
As an educator I am always looking at seeking more information which enables students to get into the depth of the topic along with helping them to broaden their horizon.
The section Mapping the Ramayana is again an excellent activity which can be done with the students to enable them to use information from the book and map it to geography- The Content and activity are very well thought of and integrates history as well as geography beautifully.
Every chapter has a brief description which itself gives the reader the much needed information to proceed ahead.
E.g. the story- Defeating Indrajit- talks about why lakshamana was the ideal man to kill Indrajit.
My best part about the book: There are many, could help mentioning the following
1. Just like my son, I enjoyed reading about ‘Epic Performances” which informs the reader about unique art forms in India which are inspired by these epics. I think this is something that can be shared on our platform as well to help educate the teaching community about history and art forms of India.
2. Shakuni’s Dice- Information shared about shakuni and his dice indeed adds up to the story of ‘Draupadi’s Protectors ‘ as it gives the reader a background about the character of shakuni before going ahead with the sequence of events shared in the book
My favourite story:
1. I enjoyed reading about ‘The strength of a Devotee’- This story is a folk legend from the regions of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand ( I bet you did not know about this fact- See I told ya, this books is full of facts and surprises)
This story talks about the unshakable faith of a Sahadeva in krishna and how Krishna had to bow down in front of his true devotion .Sahadeva was the youngest of the five Pandava brothers.
This book is definitely a must read for educators / children and a must have in the school library to enable more young readers to know about stories from different version of the Epics.
Passing it over to my son’s class library.