Ramayana: Divine Loophole Hardcover – Illustrated, January 27, 2010

This book is so colorful, beautiful and inspiring. I love the art style and how the colors come together. By far my most favorite telling of The Ramayana.

The media could not be loaded. Sanjay Patel's take on the classic Sanskrit epic is refreshing and engaging. Adapted and written in a lighter prose, the book is inviting to any readers who want learn more about the tale. The story is fascinating and gets increasingly so towards the end, with lots of nice surprises. For someone like me who knows nothing about any Hindu stories, I felt like I know a lot more after reading this book.The story is well paced and laden with beautiful illustrations. Each page is filled with scenes of glorious colours -- nothing less for this colourful tale. The characters are also nicely designed. The vector style drawings (known for straight lines and smooth curves) are unique, especially when used to tell mythical tales, and work very well in this case.Sanjay Patel also talked a bit about the making of this book. It took four years in the making, or 7 days per page. Vector drawings are very time consuming because it involves plotting and joining points using a graphic software to form (countless) lines. Basically you have to draw the draft and redraw everything again in vector with the scanned draft. Hats off to him for this tremendous piece of effort.Also included at the back are some sketches of the preliminary ideas. Pretty fun to look at. The cartoon style interpretation of some scenes will give you an idea what the book could have turned out to be if not done in vector style.This is a fun and nice read. I don't know if this book is intended for kids but it's certainly a book anyone can like.(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I bought this as part of my daughter's 4th grade curriculum. It's an interesting story from India.

Gorgeous retelling of the classic sanskrit epic; every page is brimming with the author’s passion. highly recommend not only for every hindu and buddhist family, but also for every parent with kids interested in mythology.

My kids picked up this book at the local library and fell in love with the illustrations. They have never showed any interest in learning about mythological stories but this book sure changed their mind. We borrowed this book one too many times and now own two copies. The story is very well written for little ones to follow. And the jokes keep them engaged. I want to see this turned into a movie soon!Sanjay, I really hope you have Mahabharat in the works now :).

I bought this book after reading SP's Hindu Deities, which I thoroughly enjoyed. My 5 yr old daughter is really into Hindu goddesses and is familiar with the Ramayana. She was very excited to read this book and loves the illustrations. The illustrations are truly drool-worthy and are a testament to SP's dedication and talent. The story is laid out beautifully and I loved the bonus materials towards the end of the book. A great coffee table book when my daughter is not devouring it. I was disappointed to see that the text was rife with typos. I wish more care had been put into the text - some of us actually read it! Not all of the material was appropriate for young children and so I did a little editing as I read it out loud to my daughter. The author's light and witty writing style was fine by me since it meant we could quickly get to the next page. This might be a turnoff for some who are looking for a more serious version of the story. This book is ideal for those who want to revel in a creative 21st century retelling of this ancient epic. Overall, a great job by Sanjay Patel. Bravo!! (PS - I wish I could give this book 4.5 stars)

I can only imagine how long it took to illustrate this book. The illustrations are fun and stylish. This is a good way to get kids and adults alike to dip their toes into a different culture’s mythology. I have read books that have made references to this story, but this book makes it easy for anyone to get a simplified version, while at the same time enjoying the tales.I am proud to have it in my collection.

There is no way a kids book like this can tell the whole story of the Ramayana, which is something like 40,000 verses long and six books! But having said that, this is probably a book that ANY kid could get into and learn about one of the great Hindu stories. This is a wonderful primer and the artwork is exquisite. If you like Pixar movies/title sequences, then you will love the artwork and the artwork contains a lot of the story which is not written down. If you want to own great artwork in a kids book, and learn about the Ramayana because you have never read it before (by the way it is an action packed story with monsters, good and evil, overcoming adversity, and some kick-hiney characters) this is for you! No question about it.If you really want more of the story in kids version ALSO get Penguin's Ramayan for Children by Bulbul Sharma. That has a lot of the story and is kid friendly, as well as being a good read for adults for want an easy entry to the epic.