A River Runs Through It

“Your life force, your prana
is a river that only knows
how to flow.

Do you ever tell a river,
“Stop wanting more.
Stop flowing”?

If the river doesn’t flow,
It’s no longer a river.
Its essence is movement,
depth, expansion.”
– Anon

Rivers are a life force. Even though they only hold a small amount of the Earth’s water, they are vital to human life, carrying freshwater to people, flora and fauna all over the world. Rivers are forces of nature too – carving out valleys, gorges, deltas and shaping the land as they flow to the ocean. It is often believed that rivers are a reflection of life itself. Much like a river, life is always in motion, constantly changing, rarely stagnant.

From the geography of rivers to the history of the civilisations that have thrived along their banks; from wildlife that calls rivers their home to human societies that depend on them; from environmental issues threatening rivers to people’s movements to protect them, children’s books capture the essence of the world’s waterways in all their richness and variety.

Rivers of Life

In Submerged Worlds and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Mighty Rivers, Vaishali Shroff explores India’s rivers through thoughtful stories about their ecology, mythology, politics, history and culture. Taking readers through melting glaciers, dammed rivers, urban flooding, river revival, river interlinking projects and more, she highlights the significance of rivers in nature and society while narrating how they have been used and abused.

The two volumes of The Story of Our Rivers by Lila Majumdar and A.L. Valliappa respectively, relate interesting tales of the rivers of India, fortunately including the south of the country. Not only do the authors talk about the geography of our rivers, but also about their place in the everyday lives of people.

In The Incredible History of India’s Geography, the children’s adaptation of Sanjeev Sanyal’s Land of Seven Rivers by the well-known writer Sowmya Rajendran, readers get a glimpse of India’s history as shaped by its geography, specifically its rivers, mountains and cities. Meanwhile, in Sonia Mehta’s Discover India: Mountains and Rivers of India, Daadu Dolma makes things fun for young Mishki and Pushka by sharing interesting facts about India’s majestic mountains and mighty rivers.

Rivers of Stories

Rivers have long captivated human imagination, serving as a wellspring of stories real and imagined. Sushil Shukla’s River or a String of Clouds?, translated from Hindi by Salil Chaturvedi and illustrated by Roshni Vyam, is a charming picture book in verse that joyfully explores the many meanings of a river – is it where raindrops are stored or is it a flowing city? Is it where farms flourish or is it a string of clouds?

In Satya’s Boat by Saraswati Nandini Majumdar and Ayeshe Sadr, readers are introduced to young Satya who lives by the River Ganga in Banaras and wishes to row her own boat, just like her father. But he says she isn’t old enough or strong enough to do so yet. One day, she makes a paper boat and that very night her dreams take her on an exhilarating journey that captures both the watery worlds of the river as well as the hurly-burly of the waterfront in Banaras.

Originally written in Khasi, Race of the Rivers by Esther Syiem and Benedict Hynniewta transports readers to the hills of Meghalaya where sisters Ka Iew and Ka Ngot, daughters of the powerful god U Lei Shyllong, love to play. One day, the adventurous Ka Iew looks at the sun shining on the plains and challenges her reluctant sister to a race. In a flash, Ka Iew becomes a river, ready to rush downhill, and Ka Ngot has no choice but to join her. Who reaches first? The text and illustrations of this folktale evoke a lush landscape even as they tell a fascinating story of the origins of rivers.

Lavanya Kartik and Swati Kharbanda’s Chasing Waters: Stories About Indian Rivers is an illustrated collection of eleven stories that interweave timeless myths about our rivers with urgent environmental concerns.

On the pages of Flowing with the Currents, the inimitable Ruskin Bond pays homage to the diversity of India and its rivers. He evocatively narrates stories tucked away in the bends of the Indus, Kaveri, Ganga and Brahmaputra, taking readers on marvellous journeys along these rivers.

Bharathi Jagannathan’s A Week Along the Ganga sees a motley group of family and friends set out on a week-long trek along the Ganga. As the journey progresses, many truths emerge that shine a light on the enduring yet fragile aspects of both nature and human relationships.

Brahmaputra Diary, a travelogue and photo essay by Shahidul Alam, follows the journey of the Brahmaputra River from its source in Tibet to its mouth in Bangladesh. Based on a 2003 photography exhibition by the author, the book explains the river’s unusual masculine name and showcases its cultural and geographical diversity.

Surprisingly, there don’t seem to be enough books on the diverse wildlife inhabiting India’s rivers. Some notable exceptions include Ira the Little Dolphin about an Irrawaddy dolphin living in Lake Chilika, a brackish water lagoon at the mouth of the Daya River in Odisha, and Adrian C. Pinder and Maya Ramaswamy’s picture book The Tiger of the River about a giant Mahseer fish living in the waters of the Kaveri.

Rivers of the Mind

In many stories, the ebb and flow of a river has served as a powerful metaphor for the workings of the human mind. Suma Subramaniam and Tara Anand’s captivating picture book, My Name is Long as a River, is about Kaveri Thanjavur Jayalakshmi Ganesan who doesn’t particularly care about her very long name and would much rather be called ‘Kav’. That is, till her Paati takes her on a journey along the river she was named after, where she discovers the power of her name and her identity.

I Talk Like a River, written by poet Jordan Scott and illustrated by Sydney Smith, is a moving story about a boy with a stammer. After a particularly difficult day at school, his father takes him on a walk alongside a river whose flowing sounds help him find his voice and composure.

In Eva Ibbotson’s Journey to the River Sea, young Maia, who has been recently orphaned, travels from London with her governess Miss Minton to go live with her relatives, the Carters, in the Amazon river town of Manaus in South America. Unfortunately, when they arrive in Manaus, Maia doesn’t get the warm welcome that she has been anticipating. The Carter family clearly do not like their surroundings and try to live an English life in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Do Maia and Miss Minton embrace their new life in the dense jungles? A coming-of-age story of internal transformation through external adventure, this dazzling middle-grade novel inspires readers to find courage and inner strength to do what they really love and want to.

Rivers of Hope

Although central to human existence, rivers around the world are facing serious threats to their survival. Some of the greatest challenges have come from man-made dams and pollution.

Published in 1994, Orijit Sen’s River of Stories is widely considered India’s first graphic novel. It tells the story of protests against the building of the Narmada dam and the many tribal people whose lives were affected by it. A parallel thread also connects the origin story of Reva (River Narmada) to the adivasi myth of Kujum Chantu.

In Subhadra Sen Gupta’s Caring for Nature: The Troubled Waters (Rescuing the Ganga), young Dhani ponders the fate of the severely polluted Ganga and questions whether the river can be restored to its former glory.

While children’s literature may not hold the key to solving the crisis facing rivers, it’s a great place to foster an abiding love for the natural world. So deep dive into these children’s books and set sail on meandering journeys along many of our rivers and through the river of life itself!

Bibliography

Submerged Worlds and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Mighty Rivers (Penguin)
The Story of Our Rivers Vols. 1 and 2 (National Book Trust)
The Incredible History of India’s Geography (Penguin)
Discover India: Mountains and Rivers of India (Penguin)
River or a String of Clouds? (Pratham Books)
Satya’s Boat (Tulika)
Race of the Rivers (Tulika)
Chasing Waters: Stories About Indian Rivers (Karadi Tales)
Flowing with the Currents (Rupa Publications)
A Week Along the Ganga (Eklavya)
Brahmaputra Diary (Pratham Books)
Ira the Little Dolphin (Tulika)
The Tiger of the River (Talking Cub)
My Name is Long as a River (Penguin)
I Talk Like a River (Neal Porter Books)
Journey to the River Sea (Macmillan Children’s Books)
River of Stories (Blaft Publications)
Caring for Nature: The Troubled Waters — Rescuing the Ganga (TERI)
The Day The River Spoke (National Book Trust)
Divine Rivers: Stories of Origin (Amar Chitra Katha)
Song At the Heart of the River (HarperCollins)
Ganesha Goes Green (Barefoot Books)
Flying Horses, Secret Rivers, Magical Cities (Hachette)
In Search of a River (Rupa Publications)
At the River (Pratham Books)
The Time-Travelling River (Pratham Books)
Ajji’s River (Pratham Books)
The River at Night (Eklavya)
Ma Ganga and the Razai Box (Katha Books)
Putul and the Dolphins (Tulika)
Beyond the Blue River (Tulika)
A River (Templar Publishing)
The Rage of Waters: Understanding Floods (TERI)
A Song of Many Rivers (Rupa Publications)
The Wind in the Willows (Oxford Children’s Classics)

Image from The Time-Travelling River/Sunaina Coelho (Pratham Books)