Gunjan Goel: The Sandalwood Horse, Gebunden

Klappentext

A brave little girl. Seven lost brothers. And one small word that opens every heart.

Long ago, Sofie wished for a little horse carved from sweet sandalwood. To find it, her seven brothers walked into the forest one by one. None of them came back.

So Sofie set out alone. She was scared. But her love was bigger than her fear.

Along the way she meets a tiny ant, a forest mouse, a winged elephant, and a great tree wrapped in pythons. To each one, big or small, she bows her head and says the same gentle word: Namaste. And that one word changes everything.

Be strong enough to be gentle.

Six Indian art traditions are on the horse himself. Madhubani flowers from Mithila, painted by women on the walls of their own houses. Warli figures from the Sahyadri hills, drawn by Adivasi women for weddings. Gond patterning from Madhya Pradesh, built out of lines of coloured dots. Rangoli, laid fresh on the doorstep every morning. Bidriware from Bidar, where silver is set into metal blackened with soil from inside the fort. And Koftgari gold on his bridle, hammered into steel by the armourers of Udaipur.

All six are still being made today, by women in Mithila, by Adivasi families in the hills, and by the metalworkers of Bidar and Udaipur. Five of them are protected by name under India's Geographical Indication law: Bidriware since 2006, Madhubani since 2007, Warli since 2011, Gond since 2023, and Koftgiri of Udaipur most recently. Putting them in front of children who have never seen them is a large part of why this book exists.

A warm read-aloud for ages 3 to 7, about courage, kindness, and the bond between a sister and her brothers.

At the back of the book: a page that teaches a child how to say Namaste, with pictures to follow. The six art traditions shown on the sandalwood horse himself, with where each one comes from. And a note for the grown-up reading along, on the meaning of Namaste and on why a sister searching for her lost brothers is one of the oldest stories in the world.

The story is an old one and a widely shared one. Folklorists call it tale type 451, the maiden who seeks her brothers. It is the same story as Grimm's The Seven Ravens and Andersen's The Wild Swans, and it is told in Norway, Hungary, Morocco and Bengal. Children who know nothing about India recognize it immediately.

Written by a mother and daughter across nine and a half time zones, and illustrated by a six-year-old.

The author is available for library and school read-alouds, with a hands-on namaste lesson and a coloring craft based on the six art traditions in the book.