A recent discussion, over in the Children's Books Group to which I belong has revealed that there is a real dearth of good children's titles (here in the US, anyway) about, or set during Holi - the Hindu Festival of Colors. There's Here Comes Holi: The Festival of Colors (on it's way to me via Inter-Library Loan), but other than that, this type of informational book, published as part of a series, and explicitly for the library market, seems to be pretty much all there is.

That seems rather unfortunate to me, as holiday tales are a great way to introduce young children to some of the beliefs and customs of other cultures. After all, Hinduism is the world's third largest religion, and a growing number of young Americans are of that faith, and should be able to find books that reflect their experiences. Here's a holiday involving bonfires, throwing brightly-colored paints and powder, and (upon occasion) contests between men and women. If that can't be made into a good children's story, I don't know what can!

Until such time as it is, however, we have books like Lynn Peppas' Holi, which gives a very brief outline of the holiday, and the stories and customs associated with it. With minimal, basic text, and lots of color photographs, this is an appealing volume, and does what it sets out to do: inform the young reader (early elementary-school level, I would say) about Holi. At $26.60 for a 32-page picture-book, however, it will probably need to be a library book for most families. ( )