Book Review- The Milk Thief

By Leena J Haldar

Illustrated by Martina Peskar- Rusznak

Many of us live in urban communities, which tend to be highly selective about admission into them. This could be for safety, security and myriad other reasons, but what happens when other sentient beings which also call this world their home and have slowly but steadily lost their habitat / home try to infiltrate these communities. It's mostly mayhem, and factions get divided into animal lovers - animal haters! I’ve seen this in my community and from what I read in dailies, this is something which happens everywhere else as well.

This is a simple story of a cat finding its way into an apartment complex where finding food on an everyday basis is difficult. Enter the milk man with his milk packets and now the cat figures a way to a full stomach everyday. But disappearing milk packets is not something the residents are going to take down lying. The empathetic matriarch Amooma understands the POV of the residents while also knowing that the cat isnt looking to create trouble, but is just trying to feed itself.

How she finds a balance between the two is the rest of this wonderful tale at the intersection of human- animal coexistence. Written in text which is rich in vocabulary and illustrations which are a delight, this is a book for every child, and maybe every adult as well.

Ideal for children aged 4+ years

Buy this book here