Friday, March 31, 2023

Confessions of a book collector - Art of Children's books and variations by SK (Shehan Karunatilaka) - [ Please don't put that in your mouth (PDPTIYM) (2019), Where shall I poop (WSIP) (2022) and Those Sneaky plants (TSP) (2022) ]

 


I may be the first person in his thirties to forget about 'Chinaman' and 'The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida' and to read SK's children's books because I am a book collector and that was because they consume less time. 

When Anuk Arudpragasam got shortlisted for Booker in 2021 I got so obsessed, I purchased both his books  (The story of a brief marriage [2016] and A passage North [2021]) the same year from Sarasavi Gampaha branch and online bookstore. 

As usual, when Shehan Karunatilaka won the  Booker prize in 2022 I purchased most of his books from Sarasavi online bookstore. ( The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022), Please don't put that in your mouth (PDPTIYM) (2019), Where shall I poop (WSIP) (2022) and Those Sneaky plants (TSP) (2022)) 

That's how I got hold of his three children's books. 

They are thematically Paradoxical since many of his messages are for children who can't even read. (PDPTIYM & WSIP) 

But artwork by his brother Lalith Karunatilaka (for PDPTIYM and WSIP) and Ruwangi Amarasinghe (TSP) are very colorful, bright, and childish which gives life to the stories powerfully. 

The 'PDPTIYM & WSIP' books have beautiful rhyming phrases and have a very Sri Lankan style involved. 

Books are printed in high quality and some are even hard bound which makes them very valuable. 

As a bad uncle due to my babyish obsession with books, I didn't give these books to my 2-year-old nephew and kept them in my library. 

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