The People of the Indus
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
MY THOUGHTS
What do we know about the Indus Civilisation from our history textbooks? The Great Bath, seals, the Dancing Girl statue, and the ingenious drainage system. I remember my history book had a smudged green and orange pic of the Great Bath, and that was my only visual cue of that period.
Nikhil Gulati’s The People of the Indus is a book that will blow your mind. This 150+ page non-fiction graphic novel takes us through 700 years of the Indus civilisation. The story is told through a narrator who ‘walks’ us through the age. The narrator picks up the soil under which ruins lay, he walks right up to Mohenjodaro, he holds their jewellery and their seals in his hands and helps us decipher their script. The omnipresent narrator intersperses facts with their relevance today and explains how archaeologists and Indus civilisation experts arrived at these conclusions. Each page is filled with illustrations, and the intricate detail will give you more insight into what the chapter talks about. The book also has a fictionalised story of a family that lives during that time, and we are able to observe and understand what life must have been like during that period.
The beauty of the book is the ability for the reader to immediately visualise what life must have been like then and to be pleasantly surprised by the various similarities to present-day living. There are no dates or jargon that will weigh the reader down; instead, fun facts cement themselves in the mind. The story engages and intrigues, and is the perfect combination to encourage additional reading.
Giggles (10) and Gurgles (6) both read the book, and it was fascinating to see them take away vastly different pieces of information. This is a book that you can read year after year and still manage to learn something new. I am beyond thrilled (and jealous!) that my kids have access to books that help supplement school learning in interesting ways.
The book is perfect for children 8+, but younger kids will love looking through the pictures. Trust me, invest in this book and watch as your child returns to it time and again and takes back something new and valuable each and every time.
If you think your child would enjoy this book, you can buy it here →
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