Diwali in India

For this post I decided to focus on an Indian holiday this Holiday is Diwali. I was inspired by one of my friends at Ohio State that recently celebrated Diwali. Personally I wasn’t sure what it was before this meeting this friend. Now I know it’s the Festival of Lights and lasts five days. This year it started on November 7th. It celebrates good over darkness and invites Goddness Lakshmi in by lighting lamps and candles. I love learning about other cultures and holidays different from the ones I know about. I was intrigued to see if their was children’s literature that writes about the holiday. I knew there would be literature explaining what it was I wasn’t sure if it would be for children however. As I started my research I found several stories written about Diwali and I was very impressed.

I would know like to talk about some of the books I found on Diwali for children. The Diwali Gift by Shweta Chopra. This book won the Mom’s Choice award and follows the story of a couple monkeys through their journey of their Diwali traditions. Amma, Tell Me About Diwali is a book written in rhyme so there’s a lot of line breaks and nice flow about the Diwali and other Indian Mythology. Diwali: A Cultural Adventure by Sana Sood follows the story of Ram the main character during Diwali and his fight to defeat darkness. Hurray for Diwali by Anita Raina Thapan this story follows a group of children through their Diwali celebration. This story really shares the beauty behind the holiday. Let’s Celebrate Diwali by Anjali Joshi this book brings diversity to a school and shares the holiday with other children’s so they learn about Diwali and other things such as Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist. Prince of Fire: The Story of Diwali  by Jatinder Nath Verma is a chapter book this book is centered on defeating the demon King of Lanka. Lights, Camera, Diwali! by Amita Roy Shah is a story of a girl that receives a camera for Diwali and uses it to capture the holiday and all if it’s glory. It was said to “teaches children about the Festival of Lights from a perspective of a young girl.” I think this is a nice touch that it comes from a perspective of a child. Diwali the Festival of Lights (Shalu) by Nick Sharma is a story of a girl that is lost and scared in the dark but finds the lights of Diwali where she learns about the festival. Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Diwali: With Sweets, Lights, and Fireworks by Deborah Heiligman was an interesting piece I thought I would add at the end of my post this book is actually a National Geographic book that shows Diwali celebrations around the world with beautiful imagines that captures the true beauty of the holiday. I think it’s so wonderful that so many books about Diwali exist for children.

Words Cited

Colours of Us. Top 10 Diwali Children’s Books, https://colourofus.com/top-10-diwali-childrens-books/. accessed Dec 4 2018.