On a recent family holiday, I eagerly showed my younger sister a copy of Little Dipper Publishing’s latest book, Where Is Mr Thookam. The book about two young girls trying to look for the elusive Mr Thookam (sleep in Tamil) had touched a chord when I had read it. It was as though author Anusha Veluswamy and illustrator Janan Abir had drawn our own summer holidays spent at our maternal grandmother’s house, trying to sleep in the oppressive humidity. From the clothes and earrings the girls wore to the mosquito coil placed under the bed and the elaborate banana plant front door décor – every single detail felt familiar and I desperately wanted to share it with my sister who had had the same experiences as me.
Growing up, summer reading was all about Enid Blyton’s characters and their picnics in the lush green fields of small towns in England. Where the characters had scones and clotted cream with strawberry preserves and lashings of ginger beer for breakfast and ate cucumber cream cheese sandwiches and thick slices of cherry cake for lunch. My mother’s humble sambar rice and potato fry just did not match up! As much as I loved reading about their…
