Chitra Soundar’s Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship is a clever, gentle collection for 8 year olds about a young prince and a farmer’s son who end up running a royal court.<\/p>\n
Prince Veera is ten. His best mate Suku won a scholarship to study with him at the palace. Their favourite game is spying on the king’s court from behind the golden curtains.<\/p>\n
So when King Bheema falls ill, the boys offer to hold court for him. They get the courtyard, four guards and a very long queue.<\/p>\n
People bring them all sorts of problems. One man wants his neighbour to stop following his cow around collecting the dung. A sweet-maker says a poor farmer should pay him for smelling his sweets! And later a man sells his neighbour a well, then tries to charge for every bucket of water drawn from it.<\/p>\n
The boys have to think fast and be fair. Their answers are properly clever, and half the fun is trying to work out the trick before Veera does.<\/p>\n
Each tale is short and complete, so it’s lovely for bedtime. Some are funny and some are a bit more thoughtful. In one, the king himself nearly sends a poor man to prison for spreading bad luck, and it’s Veera who stands up and tells him he’s wrong. That’s a great one to talk about afterwards.<\/p>\n
The friendship is the heart of it. The boys tease each other constantly (Suku’s jokes are terrible). But when a greedy moneylender takes Suku away to do chores until his dad’s debt is paid, Veera is off to teach the man a lesson straight away.<\/p>\n
And there’s SO much food. Laddus, jalebis, crunchy mango pickles, aloo paratha. Your reader will probably finish it hungry.<\/p>\n
If you’ve got a reader who likes a puzzle with a funny answer, or a quick story that’s done in one sitting, this is a real gem.<\/p>\n
If they’re hungry for more, try The Curious Case of the Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop. It’s set around the only sweetshop in a village called Vasantnagar, with its trays of pedas, orange jalebis and pink watermelon barfi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chitra Soundar’s Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship is a clever, gentle collection for 8 year olds about a young prince and a farmer’s son who end up running a royal court. Prince Veera is ten. His best mate Suku won a scholarship to study with him at the palace. Their favourite game is spying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13066,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8949,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Curious Case of the Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop","lr_seo_hook":"Sweet smells, a sold well and a greedy moneylender, sorted by two boys."},"book_tag":[20],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[186],"class_list":["post-8027","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-real-life-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-chitra-soundar"],"yoast_title":"Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship by Chitra Soundar | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Sweet smells, a sold well and a greedy moneylender, sorted by two boys. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n