This was the first storybook that caught my eye. I read it all the way through without even realizing it because it was just so interesting and reminded me of a movie I watched in high school. I am familiar with the love story between Rama and Sita thanks to the film Sita Sings the Blues. I remember watching that movie a couple more times outside of school because I liked it so much, though it has been many years since I last watched it, so I do not remember everything about their love saga. This was not the only storybook I found about Rama and Sita, but I was drawn to this one in particular because the author made a point to tell her readers that she is a woman and is sympathetic towards Sita, so her perspective of this story may be different from how it is normally told. Some of the story is written in Sita's perspective as a diary entry, immersing the readers into her thoughts, and some of it describes the author's opinions. I loved the layout and design of the storybook. It was very simple and easy to follow, and the gifs included in one of the storybook chapters were a funny and lighthearted touch to a sad part of the story. And, I love the inclusion of a Spotify music playlist to listen to while reading!
I love history and learning about cultures and traditions different from my own, so I find Hinduism to be very intriguing. I enjoy learning about the various Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism, which is exactly why I chose to explore this storybook. What I loved about this storybook is that the author did not choose to write about the three principal gods, rather they decided to section their storybook based on three behaviors of deities and chose which deities to feature based on that. I thought that was really clever, and it told less well-known stories! The way this storybook was designed was visually calming, which is a strange way to describe it but hear me out. They incorporated their images as featured images (with the exception of one image) with the title of each page atop them instead of breaking up the stories with images, which would have distracted me from what I was reading. In my opinion, that made the storybook look very clean, organized, and visually appealing. I am inspired by this design choice for my own storybook.
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Hindu deities are of interest to me. This storybook did not initially catch my attention, but I just decided to read the introduction anyway. I am glad I did. Shiva is one of those three principal gods I had mentioned, but what is particularly fascinating about Shiva is his role as a god. One common theme in Hindu belief is the cycle of death and rebirth, so while Shiva is seen as the destroyer, his role is more complex than that. With destruction comes reincarnation and renewal, a power that Shiva also possesses. Though the author of this storybook does a great job of introducing Shiva, they do not really introduce the topics they will discuss in the storybook. I think including that would have been helpful in the overall organization. Regarding the design itself, I think the storybook is a little harsh visually. This was the main reason why I was not initially going to read the introduction of this storybook. I think a softer color palette would have been easier on the eyes. The story itself was really well done, but visuals play a huge part in whether someone will want to read the story or not, so that is something I will keep in mind for my storybook.
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