The Forest Keeper

If your students liked “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘺 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘈 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵” by Sophia Gholz and want to know more about Jadav Payeng, here’s a new release “𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗿” by Rina Singh about the Forest Man of India. The book is a beautiful rendition of Jadav Payeng’s story of planting a forest on an abandoned sandbar. I particularly liked the way Rina has penned the frontmatter, describing the role of the river in sweeping away soil and then as waters recede, in renewing the earth with silt – “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨.” Ishita Jain’s art endows a magical aura to the book and look at that bold scarlet spread that says “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦…” If you are interested in books that highlight Asian environmentalists, this one’s definitely for you!