Eyes on the Peacock's Tail  Magic Vessels  Hiss, Don't Bite!  A Curly Tale 

Journey to India with this series of traditional tales... Mugdha Shah's artwork is the result of a study of traditional and folk designs, and each book depicts the style of the region in bright line and water colours. The result is a cultural lesson that entertains and enlightens... The stories have a familiar ring to them, but a distinct Indian tone that transports listeners to faraway lands... This is a winning series for libraries wishing to offer cultural opportunities to young readers.
– November 1998, School Library Journal Review, West Slope Community Library, Portland, OR, USA

The cool shade of the banyan is the ideal place for stories and parables to be told and retold.
Tulika has chosen the banyan as the motif for its series of books for children on stories from India. The wonderful thing about these books is that they are more than just folktales from India retold for the umpteenth time. They are bright, cheerful, beautifully illustrated and designed. I'm sure that children between the ages of four and seven will find them visually exciting...
          What is unusual is that each book is illustrated by talented young artist Mugdha Shah, in a style commonly found in the state from where the story originates. This is an excellent idea... All this information (about each art style), gleaned from the back cover, will surely interest children as much as the stories themselves will...
          So, bravo Tulika!
– May-June 1998, Indian Review of Books 

All in all, Under the Banyan is a series that combines a well thought out concept and good presentation.
– July 1998, Verlag Gesucht, Frankfurt, Germany (translated from the German)

The four stories are not run of the mill folk tales. I'd not heard of or read Hiss, Don't Bite! or Eyes
on the Peacock's Tail. The other two are from Bihar and Tamil Nadu and are variants of well-known and well-loved stories. Vayu uses simple and easy to understand  English and she has taken pains to have the story reflect the language and the social mores of the state it is from... The books are very "little user friendly" – small enough for tiny hands and exquisitely illustrated. This in itself is
a big bonus. The child is led into the vibrant visual folk art of each state... Each of the books has
a traditional motif incorporated in the inside covers... Mugdha has an eye for detail and each illustration will have children asking questions... The colours leap at one. A five-year-old, whom
I lent the folktale from Rajasthan to, kept caressing the pages. "I can feel the colours," she said.
– November 1998, The Book Review

The stories are short and the style and language capture the interest of the young reader. Dr Vayu Naidu, a writer, storyteller and performer, has succeeded in adapting folk tales from different states without losing the intrinsic essence of the place. The illustrations by Mugdha Shah help visualise the story better and get a better understanding of the place described... Children are sure to find this series interesting.
– May 1998, The Hindu

....the story, language and design integrate to create the magic of a storyteller...The stories are written in a style that is reminiscent of a performance.
 – April 2000, Indian Folklife, Vol 1, Issue 1

...through the four retellings of folktales Vayu Naidu emerges as a great storyteller. When read aloud, Hiss, Don't Bite and A Curly Tale create excellent performances of storytelling...The linking of local painting tradition with the presentation of the tale is another laudable effort from Tulika Publishers.
 – November 2003, The Book Review