Noon Chai and a Story

An Uncle From Far Away shows little Amiya’s class a storybook with beautiful pictures. Now they must build a library, he says. But how? “In Gurez, there are no storybooks. Only lots and lots of snow!” Well, Amiya knows that her Deidi has many stories in her old-old eyes. And over steaming cups of pink noon chai, Deidi begins, Amiya writes, her sister draws, and a book is born! Set in the isolation of a village at the edge of the Line of Control in Kashmir, with the hint of conflict, this is a heartwarming story about books, and what they mean to those who don’t have them.