The Broken Tusk,
Uma Krishnaswami
Stephen Huyler
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Stories from The Broken Tusk are read by Stephen Huyler, whose love of Indian art and especially Hindu mythology and rituals has led him to spend much of the last 30 years photographing and studying life in India.
THINGS TO DO ONLINE
Uma Krishnaswami
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Introducing the author, Uma Krishnaswami
We thought you’d like to see a photograph of Uma Krishnaswami, who wrote down the stories you heard in The Broken Tusk. She came from India—the Asian subcontinent—to live in New Mexico in the Southwest United States. Remember how Christopher Columbus thought he had gotten to India, when he had really discovered “America,” so he called the inhabitants “Indians.” Well, Uma, who really is an Indian, must try to explain this to “Indian” children when she teaches in New Mexico. Guess what. She has a hard time explaining why she’s a “real” Indian. Can you figure it out?
Gorgeous photographs
Stephen Huyler’s Meeting God is a traveling exhibit that will be at New York’s American Museum of Natural History this fall. Meanwhile, there’s an online version. You can see pictures of Morning Prayers, Festival Processions and Community Shrines and lots more in the online exhibition
Visit India at Babloo.com
Camel’s Hump Radio has a friend in India named Pradeep Mittal who has built a site for kids called www.babloo.com. Babloo the ape hosts the site. Please register when you go to the site—we can assure you that all information is confidential, which is VERY IMPORTANT to know when a website asks for ANY personal information. To do so, click Enter. Then use the Search button in the row at the bottom to read another story about the asuras, or demons, like the one in Uma’s story. Just type in Prahlad, then click on the icon to get the story. Or click on the right where it says “Youngsters” and find out how to make your own shoebox banjo under Arts and Crafts. Or find out, in Indian Panorama, more about this startling and colorful country.
The many faces of Ganesha
All over India stories are told about Lord Ganesha—in the south it’s shortened to “Ganesh”—and great festivals involve wildly imaginative paintings and sculptures of him. Take a look at this Hindu god online.
If you could paint your car
Did you know that the “ricksha” or “rickshaw” is a 3-wheeled kind of taxi with a human engine? It exists all over Asia, it turns out. And the owner, if he’s from Bangladesh, which is northwest of India, competes to paint it as decoratively as possible. Photographer Joanna Kirkpatrick had a ball getting pictures of the results.
MORE THINGS TO DO
Draw a picture
Send in a drawing of Ganesha by himself or in one of the Camel’s Hump stories. Draw it, have it scanned into the computer, then click on Contact Us at this website and send us your drawing as an attachment. We’re building a Camel’s Hump Radio Illustrators’ Gallery and would like to have your submission.
Ganesha’s dish
It’s not hard to tell which of the many Indian gods is Ganesha—he’s the one with the elephant head. But he carries various items that tell you something about him. One of them is a dumpling, since he’s fond of sweet things. This is called a modaka in Hindi and you’ll find a recipe at Camel’s Hump Cooks.
FROM THE CHR LIBRARIAN
Introducing Uma Krishnaswami
Uma Krishnaswami was born in India and grew up hearing stories old and new and being unable to tell the difference. The Broken Tusk, winner of the Scientific American Young Readers Book Award in 1997, and Shower of Gold: Girls and Women in the Stories of India and Stories of the Flood introduce children to the marvelous tales she heard as a child. But she also published a book for children introducing them to Yoga Class. She writes regularly for children’s literary magazines like Cricket, Ladybug and Highlights for Children.
Traveling from her home in Aztec, New Mexico, Uma teaches writing to both adults and children and even online through Writers on The Net where she teaches a course on writing for children. She also has a writing workshop for children through the National Park Service at Aztec Ruins National Monument in northwest New Mexico. Current project: Working with Colorado artist Sonja Horoshko to link two ancestral Pueblo sites in the southwest through children's art and writing, the way trade and tradition linked them hundreds of years ago. Next book: Beyond the Field Trip: Teaching in Public Places, a resource book for teachers but probably an inspiration to parents and home-schooling families, too, will come out this year..
Interview with Uma
Cynthia Leitich Smith has a rich website all about children’s lit. Here’s her interview with our author.
Maps of the world
In Things To Do Online, there’s a link to decorative rickshaws and to a map of Asia showing Bangladesh, where the rickshaws are painted. Books often lead out into the world, so here’s an official site to help orient your children to the world, along with a Panasian map they can print out and color.
Travel to India with the family?
If the reading from Uma’s book has whetted your appetite for India, you’ll need an introduction to traveling there with children. Here it is with a lot of helpful detail on the land and its people, health and other concerns.
