Posts Tagged ‘ Mr. Ganguly ’

Jana Bibi book three–Emeralds Included–is officially out today. It feels like my birthday! You know that feeling? You wake up–and you look the same but somehow things are different. (Yeah, I know, I’m an over-grown seven-year-old.) Joanna Levine, formerly at my publisher Henry Holt & Co,. steered me through the editorial and production stages of the books, and always sent me one of her cartoons with copy-edited drafts or page proofs. The drawings featured Mr. Ganguly, the super-intelligent …Read More

Yesterday, I got a packet of books from Allison Adler, my new editor at Henry Holt and Company. Hooray! It was some author’s copies of my new book. The book comes out July 8, but you can pre-order now just about anywhere. Of course, I started playing with the books so that the parrot would show up in his entirety. The bird is an Indian ring-necked parakeet, a popular pet the world around. It seems that Alexander the …Read More

Jana Bibi book 3 is coming soon–July 8, to be precise. You can pre-order it now from your usual sources. Here’s the summary and an excerpt to download. I love the art department at my publisher, Henry Holt and Company, Inc.–they keep coming up with wonderful new depictions of Jana’s parrot, Mr. Ganguly, for the book covers. This time, you may wonder where Mr. G is heading. Just look at the spine of the book… And then turn …Read More

Knowing that I collect parrot stories, the other day a friend sent me this news item. Recently, a man in Mexico City was pulled over at an alcohol checkpoint. The police were startled to hear a voice from inside the car screeching, “He’s drunk, he’s drunk,” and even more startled to find out that the tattle-tale was a small green parrot. The man did indeed turn out to be under the influence and was put in the pokey …Read More

Someone asked me how I thought of the title for this book. It came from an ear worm–adapted a bit. Abinath, the pharmacist of Abinath’s Apothecary in my Jana Bibi series, is developing an alphabet of vitamins. He figures vitamins A, B, C, and so forth are all very well, but why stop with the ones everyone knows? He’s gotten to L. At the Giant Roller Skating Rink in the town of Hamara Nagar (Our Town), the current …Read More

There’s a new publicity pic on the flap of the back cover of my new book, Love Potion Number 10. As for the title, here’s how that happened: In the book, it’s 1961, and at the Giant Roller Skating Rink in the (fictional) town of Hamara Nagar, they’re always playing the Clovers’ 1959 hit, Love Potion Number 9. Abinath, the local apothecary, just can’t get the tune out of his mind. It seems like the perfect name for …Read More

Mr. Ganguly celebrates all sorts of human holidays, religious and secular. He thinks primates should reciprocate and observe his bird-related holidays! In addition to New Year’s Day, Easter, Holi, Divali, and so forth, he’s got the following on his calendar: January 5 National Bird Day, United States. Mr. Ganguly sends best wishes to any of his friends in the U.S. who are celebrating this day. The organization Born Free USA warns that of the estimated 9,800 bird species …Read More

A minor character in Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes is Mr. Abinath, the town’s dispensing chemist. He plays a bigger role in book two, Love Potion Number 10 (scheduled to come out in May, 2013.) His apothecary is crammed full of medicines and cosmetics, including a line of vitamins he is developing. He wants to go beyond the commonly known vitamins (A, B, C, D, etc.) and formulate a concoction for every letter of the alphabet. I got the …Read More

Jana’s in India, folks. Well of course she’s in India. That’s where Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes is set. What I mean is, in addition to the original book put out by Henry Holt (a MacMillan company), soon there will be an edition for sale on the Indian subcontinent, published by Random House India. RHI offices are in a high-rise building in Noida, a glittering modern town across the river from Delhi. Noida didn’t even exist when I was growing …Read More

In honor of Mr. Ganguly, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for parrot motifs used in décor and fashion. Some examples: Painting blending with wallpaper in a guest room where I stayed recently. Artist unknown. My hosts called this “the jungle room.” I slept very well, all the same. Macaw embellishing a picture frame–and maybe looking at contents. Clutch handbag by Nanette Lepore. Sociable creatures having a cozy conversation. Silk shawl imported from India by Ethnic Hues. Laurel …Read More