The Sanyasin's First Day

Rating:
Summary: We love this serendiptious slice of life in India.
Review: With a gentle and reassuring folk-tale feeling, this story, set in India, will delight children, who, like the main characters, must wrestle with doubts and fears at the start of new enterprises.

First day jitters afflict a just-graduated plumber, a small schoolboy, a newly trained traffic policeman, a young farmer bringing the first harvest to town, and a sanyasin (sanYASin --- traditional ascetic holy man who has given up all possesions to wander, meditate, and pray; deftly and simply explained in the book). Readers watch each nervously confront his or her own anxiety, and continue forward bravely, if uncertainly, through their respective first days. Our kids related instantly, and found the story very satisfying.

Each character, as it happens, does make a small mistake --- yet, as the reader alone can see --- each of these mistakes makes possible a fortuitous occurence in the lives of one of the other neophytes.

The underlying point (that even when one can't see how, things have a serendipitous way of working out far better than could have been imagined) is powerful and spiritual. Yet it is subtly, gently stated, not preachy, full of charm and good humor.

Rich, funny, and comforting, an added plus is that these interweaving stories twist and travel through the crowded maze of colorful, detailed contemporary Indian village life --- markets, elephants, colorful sarees, oxen pulling piled carts, a lively, busy population. Catherine Stock's joyous watercolor-collage illustrations capture the book's feeling and geography very well. Multi-culuralism at its best! Children will enjoy picking out the details in both text and features again and again, as the absorb both the cultural differences and universal sameness of human life and endeavor.