School for Princes: Stories from the Panchatantra

Gr 3–5—Describing the ancient teaching stories from India, Gavin explains that the old tales known as the Panchatantra were traditionally used to educate princes and were divided into five themes or frames. She has chosen a complex scheme for retelling one story for each theme, threading them into her own longer text, which introduces three unpleasant princes whose father hires a wise old teacher "with the intention of educating the princes into the art of kingship" in six months. As they live out these months, the foursome are joined by Preeta, a sensible girl from a neighboring farm, and Prince Kanu, an envious, wily cousin. As the young people share daily competitions, jealousies, and quarrels, the old wise man tells them stories of animal tricks and treacheries, and Gavin emphasizes the lessons playing out in the tales. She adds considerable description, conversation, and explanation in both her own story and the old fables. Some of this becomes verbose, and some contemporary wording seems an odd fit for the long-ago people and settings. "That Preeta-you should watch her. She's such a phoney, sucking up to you all the time, just to see what she can get." Willey's pleasant mixed-meda scenes on pages of soft yellow and aqua alternate simple homely sketches of the animal characters with small, full-color paintings of the humans in the ongoing story. Panchatantra tales published in recent years tend to come from Indian publishing houses and are geared to younger readers and listeners. Older collections, such as those by Joseph Jacobs and Joseph Gaer, offer many more tales presented in the more spare tellings associated with folklore. This loquacious account will have a limited audience.—Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston