Grandma and the Great Gourd: A Bengali Folktale

Once upon a time, in a little village in India, there lived an old woman. Everyone in the village called her Grandma. One day, Grandma received a letter from her daughter, who lived on the other side of the jungle. "Please come and visit me," said the letter. "I haven't seen you in so long. I miss you."

And so, Grandma begins a perilous journey to the far side of the jungle. Can she use her keen wit to escape the jungle animals and make it safely home?

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning and bestselling author, poet, activist and teacher of writing. Her work has been published in over 50 magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories, the O.Henry Prize Stories and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her books have been translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Bengali, Russian and Japanese, and many of them have been used for campus-wide and city-wide reads. Several of her works have been made into films and plays. She lives in Houston with her husband Murthy and has two sons, Anand and Abhay

Susy Pilgrim Waters is an illustrator, designer, and painter. She is the illustrator of Grandma and the Great Gourd. Susy lives in Boston with her husband, Keith, their dog, Tillie, two cats, and two bunnies. They have two grown children.

 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's sharp, rhythmic retelling of this Bengali folktale is complimented perfectly by Susy Pilgrim Waters's brightly colored, captivating illustrations. 

Grandma and the Great Gourd is a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013

“Colorful in more than one sense of the word.” —Booklist

“This fresh new version will soon have young listeners and readers telling the story themselves.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Clever and crafty, this well-told tale will be a fun addition to most collections.” —School Library Journal

“Grandma's witty resourcefulness and the opportunity to compare cross-cultural story traditions make this a useful resource and a good readaloud.” —Publishers Weekly