A much-needed children’s book with a local flavour

You are what you eat, goes the popular adage, and this applies to the stories we consume. They form an important part of our memories and colour our world view.

As Michael Morgan, former Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst says “Stories affect how we live our lives, how we see other people, how we think about ourselves.” He is one of a growing number of academics focusing their research on ‘symbolic annihilation’, a term that was coined in the 1970s and used to describe the absence of representation, or under representation of some groups of people – usually in the media they consume. Symbolic annihilation is the idea that not seeing yourself represented in the stories you read (or watch) makes you feel unimportant.

Imagine then, an impressionable young Sri Lankan child, hungry for stories in English and finding only those written by non-Sri Lankans for non-Sri Lankan children?

Neluka Silva’s book, Elephants, Dreams and Crazy Schemes is a much-needed addition to the Englishlanguage literary landscape for children in Sri Lanka. The stories cover a range of protagonists, from the privileged Nishani going on her first elephant safari, to Sulaiman and his hilarious macabre streak and the plucky Anjali who is determined to save her school. Effortlessly scaling the heights of imagination where needed, these stories are firmly rooted in Sri Lanka and – as in ‘Knowing the Unknown’ – do not shy away from tackling the prejudices and absurdities of the community – or in “Google the Three-legged Wonder” the pain of divorce in children -in an age-appropriate manner.

Neluka’s book appeals to children of multiple age-groups. She is a tireless champion of creative writing for children, even recently publishing a collection of stories by her students. (The stories of Elephants, Dreams and Crazy Schemes are also intelligently layered to appeal to the adults who are sometimes called upon to read and re-read favourites to the offspring of the house). Whether it is for a birthday party, festival or milestone in a child’s life – along with the usual ‘international’ books – slip this book into the pile and give children a taste for local literature.

Because - think about it –if you had a bookshelf the length of a bus for all your favourite children’s books written in English by Sri Lankans, for Sri Lankans... could you even begin to fill it? Elephants, Dreams and Crazy Schemes is a great book to add to that bookshelf. And a great way to get young people interested in writing about their own realities – imagined or otherwise.

Unless we foster a culture where ‘local’ books are created, consumed and constructively criticised we aren’t supporting the next generation of Sri Lankan authors or indeed the country’s English literary community. Elephants, Dreams and Crazy Schemes is a welcome and necessary addition to this all too exclusive group of texts.

(The book is available at leading bookshops, and at Kumbuk Cafe and Caramel Pumpkin)