THE BIRD WITH GOLDEN WINGS: STORIES OF WIT AND MAGIC | SUDHA MURTY | BOOK REVIEW

 THE BIRD WITH GOLDEN WINGS: STORIES OF WIT AND MAGIC 

Author: Sudha Murty 

Publisher: Penguin Books

Genre: Children's Fiction

Age Range: 10+

Short Summary:
Like the book suggests the book is filled with stories of wit and magic. This book is more like a place filled with all sorts of stories. This book consists of a compilation of 21 stories all of them being equally good.It has over 50,000 copies sold all over the world. Here's a sneek peak at of my favourite stories from this book.
So there is this kingdom ruled by King Parakshit. Everything is going on great in that kingdom, they had good food, good water and everything that a kingdom needs. But the king was unhappy. He had a deep dark secret which he feared would be revealed. He had ears like a donkey!(did anyone get King Midas vibes over here?).He always wore a big turban to cover them up. Nobody but his parents and his barber,Somu knew it. After all cutting hair with a turban on is impossible. Somu had been sworn to secrecy by the king's mother and he didnt say the anything about the king's ears to anyone. But soon he became old so he had to send his son, Dinesh as the king's new barber. Somu warns Dinesh that when he goes to the palace he will find out a big secret which he should not tell anyone. Dinesh was an obidient boy and went to the king's palace to cut his hair. But when he saw the king'd donkey ears he almost fainted. Why, it was yesterday he had heard a song about the kings good looks. He realised that it was the secret his father was talking about. He couldnt sleep that night. He wanted to spill the secret to someone but he knew he'd be in trouble if he did that. Finally e couldnt take it any longer. He crept out of his house and went to a field and saw a pit that someone had dug to sow a seed.He shoved his head inside the pit and screamed the secret and then planted a sapling over there and left. After many years the sapling from the pit Dinesh had shouted into grew into a tree. The king started looking for a bride so he asked a person to spread the message. The town crier went to the carpenter and asked him to make new drums. The carpenter decided to use the best wood he could find to make the drums. He found a strong and sturdy tree and decided to use its wood for the drums. He cut down the wood and took it with him leaving the pile of leaves there itself. Soon a shepherd came by and took the leaves to feed his sheep.On his way he met a mahout (a person who looks after elephants) and a cowherd. He gave them a bundle of leaves too for their elephants and cows respectively. The leaves and wood were taken from the same tree which had grown in the pit in which Dinesh had screamed the king's secret. So when the cow, elephant and sheep ate the leaves they didnt make their original moo, trumpet and baa. And the drums made from the wood didnt make the usual 'dun dun' sound either. To know what sound they made and how the king's secret was spilled read The Bird with the Golden Wings.
~Avani Endait

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