Roop and the river crossing — written by Samina Mishra and Shivam Choudhary
My take on the book:
Roop got a new toy, a kaleidoscope; everything she looked at was Red-blue-green-purple. She felt the world split into circles and triangles. But the world around her was also splitting, into India and Pakistan. At school Roop’s life was filled with cheer by her best friends Noor, to whom she showed how the blackboard and Baljit’s slate split up into circles and triangles.
However, the fun with her new toy did not last long; schools are shut, everybody stayed indoors, people are travelling in groups to cross the border, the trains are arriving with no one alive on them — full of dead bodies. Preet and Noor’s families decided to stay back while Roop’s family have decided to pack the bare-minimum and cross over to India.
Will Roop and her family be able to complete this dangerous journey forms the rest of the story.
Real life tragic stories of India-Pakistan partition have been passed down through generations, though they were mostly narrated by adults which included a regional and religious cause and typically included violence and death. This story of Roop which is inspired from a real-life one however highlights compassion and humanity.
The author sensibly narrates the story through a young girl who suffered loss — of leaving behind her best friends and her home, as her entire world came crashing. But the author does not restrict the emotional upheaval to only Roop but skillfully includes the pain of those who stayed back.
The story also highlights the trauma undergone by kids, as Roop wonders why the adults never revealed the truth to her. The author also points how political motives of rulers worldwide still created similar situations of forced crossings for kids. The story is familiar while being an extremely personal account with depth of emotions and trauma.
The illustrations narrate the story as much as the words do; if you always wanted to tell your kids about this phase of our history but unsure on how to narrate it, then this book is the perfect pick.
My rating:
5/5.