With a message on pollution, 2 new children’s books from Neluka & Maya

Two exciting stories for young children – Moona Finds Friends and Oshana and the Sili Sili Bag written by Neluka Silva and illustrated by Maya Weerapura were launched on December 15.

The stories are intended to raise awareness about the impact of deforestation and pollution on animals, the message highlighted by the colourful and eye-catching illustrations.

A touching story of friendship and the importance of helping others, Moona Finds Friends is about a proud owl, who is forced to fly to the city when his tree is cut down. Alone and lost, he must find some friends to help him to get back to the forest.

In Oshana and the Sili Sili Bag, a story on beach pollution and its adverse effects on marine life, a naughty octopus who swims into the Dehiwala canal with the small fish gets caught in a sili sili bag. A group of schoolgirls, who come to do a beach clean-up get the fishermen to rescue her.

Neluka and Maya hope that the stories will help young children recognise the need to protect our environment from a young age.

Prof. Neluka Silva’s previous collection of short stories for children is My Elephant Secret and Other Stories (2018). She teaches a course in children’s literature at the Department of English, University of Colombo and also conducts creative workshops for children. Her novel,

The Iron Fence (2011) was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize and the Commonwealth First Novel.

An engineer by profession Maya Weerapura is a dedicated volunteer at the CCC Foundation, Sri Lanka. She has been painting since 2017.

The books are available as a set of 2 priced at Rs. 2,000 at Dilly’s, Flower Road and Milk and Honey, Horton Place and with the authors who can be contacted on email. Their email addresses are: nelukasilva26@gmail.com and ma-ya.weerapura@gmail.com