Priya's Day

Ideally a children's book should stretch a child's imagination without straining it...Books that excite, challenge and inspire the reader. Books that feel good to hold, are fun to read and our uniquely our own...Spagnoli weaves a cheerful story...The book works at several levels as a story, as a tool for language and conceptual learning, as art and as fun.
– Sep 1998, The Economic Times

...the story is just a peg to enable a child's active participation. As the tale unwinds, a sheet of newspaper takes on various shapes to suit the events and action...The child listener feels involved and engaged as she cuts out and pastes these objects in her book. Cathy shows how a simple story can help in the process of language and learning and also provide fun. The illustrations of little Priya...give a feeling of continual movement and liveliness.
– Sep 1999, The Hindu

..what lifts the story out of the realm of the mundane is that it is designed to be uniquely interactive...In a tangible way each reader (or listener) creates his very own book in the course
of hearing the story, and no two will be identical.
– Nov 2003, The Book Review

Malli
The story, in both English and Tamil, is an ordinary tale told with great affection for the character
and the milieu she belongs to. The English used is simple and  lucid.  The  greatest joy of reading Malli, though, is the language of rural Tamil Nadu used in the Tamil text. For the city dweller it is
a treat to see words like seempaal  (fresh, sweet milk) and aathaa (mother) in print.
     Uncle and mama, sweet milk and seempaal carry different meanings and associations with
them but Tulika Publishers have tried to 'translate without  compromising on the integrity of each language'.
     Nancy Raj must be applauded for illustrations that recreate  the  twists and turns in the narrative and throb with emotion. The seemingly artless use of heavy lines and innocent expressions for  every character from the human beings to the cow and dogs work very well with the story.
– 25 May 2005, The New Indian Express

The text is deliberately simple, even literal, to facilitate the learning of one language through the other...Meant for beginners, the story is mostly about the joy of simple surprises. The bright colours and stong lines of Nancy Raj's illustrations enhance the exuberance of the story and carry through the feel of rural Tamilnadu.
– July 2005, The Hindu

The Boy Who Loved  Colour
...here's something bound to appeal to  budding artists our there...a beautiful tale of a boy, very like  many out there, who started out by colouring his legs when he has nothing  else to  paint. Flowers, trees, houses and even the river cannot escape the sweep of his brush. What happens to this inspired painter? Whom does he change next with a flourish of  his brush? Read on and find out in this delightful picture book, which actually has random splashes on the cover
– 7 January 2005, The Hindu, Chennai

Line and Circle
Number Birds
...with their special emphasis on observation and visual experience, are refreshingly different from formal educational tools which often overlook the role of the visual in the learning process.
– 26 May 1996 Deccan Herald, Bangalore

Tulika, a brave new publisher for children, has recently brought out an excellent series of books for young children which I hope will be visible in all bookshops. This series has been designed as a set of entry level readers for 3-6-year-olds and I am sure children as well as their parents and teachers will enjoy going through them. Line and Circle illustrated by Trotsky Marudu is a delightful little book which teaches a child, in an effortless, friendly way, about basic shapes... This book is a simple yet effective way to introduce children basic shapes to small children and can also be used as a teaching aid for drawing classes...
          Tulika has brought out, in the same series, another book titled Number Birds 1 2 3 which also has a bilingual text and equally lively illustrations by Ranjan De... The neat origami like drawings do not clutter the pages and allow the child to make out the outlines easily. This is an important fact when illustrating for children, which many children's book editors forget, that small children prefer simple yet lively illustrations and are confused by beautiful and elegant works of art which most adults think are suitable for children's books...
– November 1996, The Book Review

The Seed
The language, at least in the Tamil version, is very conversational and hence practical. Although I
did not purchase the book in a vigorous attempt to make my daughter speak/write/read Tamil, the fact that she has, quite effortlessly, picked up the equivalents to seed, water, sun, pot, tree, tall, small in a second language does make me feel good...The Seed is right for the right reasons.
– February 2007, saffrontree.org

Grandma's Eyes
A delightful book for children of  two years and above that delicately explores the relationship between a child and his grandmother. The minimal text makes for maximum impact and the grandmother is shown as being an integral to every aspect of her grandchild’s existence...as one turns the pages, one discovers an innovative feature-that of moving pictures - that adds to the
book’s attraction...Ashok Rajagopalan’s pictures delineate the warmth between the child and his grandmother with loving detail.
– Oct-Dec 2006, Book Review – Journal of the Indian Section of IBBY Writer
and Illustrator

A Gift from the Sea
With its photographs and illustrations and word descriptions, this book is a tactile experience... what's most wonderful about this book, is how all of Rani's beach discoveries come together to create an ingenious gift for her grandmother – as much a surprise for her dadi as for readers!
Great read-aloud book for five year olds.
– July 2007 Parenting