JHUPLI'S HONEY BEE BOX

A Bengali girl worries about her father when he sets out for the jungle.

Every day, Jhupli’s Baba takes his boat across the river to the jungle to collect honey, which he sells to support the family. Baba’s money pays for their food, like the fish in the chochchori that Ma makes for dinner. While Jhupli understands that he must go, she still frets that her father—like others before him—will fail to come home. As the omniscient narrator explains, “These Sundarban jungles are full of tigers. Those who go in there, go in danger.” Fearful for her father’s life, Jhupli has an idea and asks her teacher if the village can get government-issued honey boxes so workers like her father can “make honey at home.” Jhupli’s teacher appreciates her idea and does the legwork necessary to supply the village with boxes, ensuring that honey gatherers like Jhupli’s father won’t have to risk their lives again. At times, the verbose prose, translated from Bengali by the author, wanders into constructions too awkward for children to understand, and the resolution relies more on the actions of Jhupli’s teacher than Jhupli herself, making the book feel a bit like an instructional text for adults. Still, the tender tone and softly smudged illustrations lend the tale a gentle, dreamlike quality sure to delight young readers.

A sweet story about harsh realities, laced with hope.