"I'm the fastest animal in the forest!" boasts Kanchil the mouse deer. "And I challenge any animal to race me!" Who will step forward to accept this challenge, and can Kanchil be beaten...? The Great Race is an exciting retelling of an Indonesian folktale, featuring the popular trickster Kanchil. Illustrated using the exquisite Mata Ni Pachedi style of ritual textile painting from Gujarat, this is the first time that this rare form of traditional art has been used to illustrate a children's book. This is the third story in our Kanchil series, which includes the bestselling Mangoes and Bananas and The Sacred Banana Leaf.

 

There are 32 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2012 by Tara Books .

Arthur Flowers a Delta-based performance poet, who teaches MFA Fiction at the English Department of Syracuse University, US. A native of Memphis and co-founder of The New Renaissance Guild, he considers himself heir to the western written tradition as well as the African oral one. Author of novels and nonfictions, including Another Good Loving Blues and Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman, this is his second book with Tara after I See The Promised Land. Jagdish Chitara is a skilled folk artist from the nomadic Vaghari community, working in the Mata-Ni-Pachedi style of ritual textile painting from Gujarat, western India. He is based in Ahmedabad, and works in close collaboration with his family, who are also practising artists. He has participated in various government-run workshops and fairs within India. This is his third book, after The Great Race and The Cloth of the Mother Goddess. Nathan Kumar Scott was born and raised in India of American parents and has been bridging cultures all his life. He has been a theatre director, designer, playwright, puppeteer and storyteller, and his work has been performed across the USA as well as in Ecuador, Mexico, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Nathan is currently the director of an educational foundation which introduces Indian culture to students from around the world. To find out more about Nathan Kumar Scott and his work click here