  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 03/01/2020 This dazzlingly illustrated new fairy tale, set in a timeless rural India, follows Jiva, who has a passion for growing and eating peas. We first see him kneeling in his garden, with views of women wading in rice paddies, a man driving an oxcart, and distant, rounded temples. Just before harvest, Jiva worries that birds might pluck his peas, so he sets up a turbaned, masked scarecrow. The peas disappear. Jiva’s friend Ruvji says maybe the rabbits ate the peas, so Jiva builds a fence. The peas disappear again, and Ruvji suggests a ghost took them. Ebbeler’s acrylic illustrations are shot through with light, depicting the two friends—one lean, one stout—as comic opposites, and the images burst with engaging movement. Finally, after Jiva chases the ghost into the harbor, the revelation comes that it is Ruvji who has been stealing the peas. The resolution, in which Jiva gives Ruvji the punishment of cooking a feast of peas, upends all expectations of reprisal—a nice lesson on friendship and forgiveness. - Copyright 2020 Booklist. Loading...
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