The Enduring Ark

As many of you will know, I'm a big fan of Tara Books, a publisher out of India.  They produce many  beautiful, handmade books that celebrate the traditional storytelling traditions and varied art forms from around the country.  I've tagged several blogs ‘TaraBooks’ if you’d like to see other examples of their publications.

Today’s offering is a retelling of the Biblical story, Noah’s ark, illustrated in the Bengal Patua style of scroll painting.

The Enduring Ark by Joydeb Chitrakar & Gita Wolf is the traditional story of Noah, as instructed by God, building an ark that will hold two of each animal to withstand a deluge that will wipe the Earth clean from corruption.

The ‘scroll’ style book is more accordion-like that can either be flipped page-by-page or opened up and displayed as a panoramic view as the story literally unfolds.  Once you've worked your way through the story you flip the last page over and work through the last part of the story. The illustrations are richly coloured folk art with highly stylized elements.

I can’t say that this is an essential purchase for every collection but the format of the book is unusual and for me, very appealing, which I think may be of interest to children.  Looking at this book because of its art form may be of interest to all ages.