Author: Ruskin Bond
Publisher: Penguin/Puffin
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 209
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143335472
Description
This volume of Rusty stories, the first in a series, traces Rusty's development from early childhood to his early teens. Arranged in sequence for the first time ever, these stories will be a riveting read for younger and older children alike.
For several decades now, Ruskin Bond’s inimitable stories about Rusty have enthralled end entertained children. Rusty is a quiet, imaginative and sensitive boy who lives in his grandparents custody in pre-Independence Dehra Dun. Though he is not the adventurous sort himself, the strangest and most extraordinary things keep happening around him, and so the stories he has to tell to tell are simply fascinating.
The house in Dehra is full of strange creatures. Rusty has to deals with his grandfather’s pet python, who looks into a mirror one day, falls in love with its own reflection, and subsequently spends its days curled up in a narcissistic haze with a dreamy look in its eyes. Also presents is the ever-inventive uncle ken, who impersonates Hallam, a famous cricketer, in order to get a free lunch at a match, and saunters off after he gets out early. Soon after, visiting his father in wartime Java, Rusty narrowly escapes enemy bombardment, and survives a plane crash in the Arabian Sea. Back in India, he spends his time making friends with an unlikely princess in a lonely tower, encountering a ghost in the garden, and recreating his grandmother’s youthful days from an old photography. Then, something totally unexpected happens and rusty is forced to leave Dehra, his future uncertain.
Contents
Author’s Note
All Creatures Great and Small
The Tree Lover
A Tiger in the House
Monkey Trouble
Animals on the Track
Escape from Java
The Room of Many Colours
The Last Tonga Ride
Life with Uncle Ken
The Ghost in the Garden
The Photograph
The Funeral
Coming Home to Dehra
The Wish