A Book for Puchku

Deepanjana Pal

“Puchku! Have a bath!”
“Puchku! Eat your food!”

“Puchku! Go to class!”
"Puchku! Get on the bus!”
“Puchku! Do your homework!”

“Where is Puchku?”

Puchku is busy.
She has a book to read.
Puchku reads all the time — at home, in school, in the park, in bed.
Page after page, book after book, one by one, she has read them all.

"Why are you always reading
Puchku?" asks Boltu.
"Come, watch a cartoon
instead!" says Dodla.

"Books are so much more fun!” says Puchku.
“Look! You see a circle? And this straight line? Push it in, pull that out, and it becomes a letter. Line up the letters, and you have a word!
Words can be wise, words can be funny, words can be sad and words can be sunny.
When you put words together, they make sentences.
And sentences become stories. Read it and WHOOSH!
You are in another world! ”

But today, Puchku is in a fix.
She has run out of books to read!
All the books that she could reach in the library,
she’s read from Chapter One to The End.

"What will I do? No more books to read!" wails Puchku.

Wait! What’s that over there?
Puchku looks up and sees not one,
not two, but three more shelves,
FULL of books.
“More books!” Puchku whispers in delight.

There is still one problem though. She is too short.
And the bookshelf is
too tall.
How can Puchku
get up there?

Maybe she can use a washing line?
Or Ma’s sari to climb?
How about the chairs and
tables in the room?

It would really be helpful, thinks Puchku, t o have a giraffe at hand. Even a monkey. Or both!

Puchku has a plan. She calls Boltu and Dodla for help.
As quiet as they can, they climb on top of each other.
“Boltu, you’re heavy!” Dodla complains. “Told you not to eat that last rasgulla.”
“It’s not me,” Boltu hisses. “It’s Puchku!”
“Shh! Almost there,” says Puchku.
Just then, it all goes wrong.

AHHHHHHHH!

“What is happening here?” It is the Very Tall Librarian!
She puts Puchku down.
Boltu and Dodla run away!
Puchku looks up sadly at the book she almost had in her hand.
“Can I help?” asks the Very Tall Librarian.

“I was trying to climb the bookshelf.
I have run out of books to read,” says Puchku, sadly.
“Why didn’t you say so?” says the Very Tall Librarian.
“As long as I am around, you do not have to climb
a bookshelf. May I pick you up?”
Puchku nods.

“I will take this, and this, and this one too!” says Puchku happily. “Thank you!”
“Take this one too,” says the Very Tall Librarian.
“When I was small, I loved this book.”

“You were small once?” Puchku asks.
“Oh yes, even smaller than you,”
says the Very Tall Librarian.
“But then I grew, and so will you.
Until then, all you need to do is
ask for a book and I will be here
to give it to you.”

But is Puchku listening?
No she is not!
She is inside her book,
through a circle and a line
And a letter and another.
Then a word! And another,
A sentence. And another.
And now a story.

Because Puchku has a new book.