The series rapidly became recognised as a hallmark of good quality childrens books.

The series was edited by Eleanor Graham who strove to publish 'the best of the new classics of the new generation'. The centre panel contained a small vignette.įrom 1944, Puffin book covers were illustrated - the first being PS9 The Puffin Puzzle Book The covers of the first books produced were in the standard Penguin format, with red covers (red-white-red), with the 'quartic' panel at the top and a 'Puffin' logo at the bottom. It began in December 1941 with the launch of PS1 Worzel Gummidge by Barbara Euphan Todd. Despite occasional head-hopping and some plotting that plays to stereotype, this debut is worth embracing.Puffin Story Books (PS) is a wonderful series of books for children. To please her husband, Kaveri tries her hand at cooking new dishes (recipes are included), and her elderly neighbor, “Uma aunty,” becomes a wonderful mentor and partner-in-sleuthing. The cultural milieu of early ‘20s Bangalore comes to life, from an elegant mansion owned by a snobby British couple to the cowherds’ colony, where respectable women like Kaveri really shouldn’t be visiting. In her gentle, determined way, she acknowledges gender and caste barriers while brushing past them to get the job done. Ismail is pressured to solve the case, so Kaveri must work overtime to ensure the wrong person (a downtrodden woman present at the crime scene) isn’t unfairly blamed. It’s a nice change to have a mystery where the police welcome an amateur detective’s help, but Deputy Inspector Mr. The Murthys are in attendance, as are English and Indian doctors and their wives, with Kaveri’s milkman and his wife assisting in the kitchen. A fan of Agatha Christie and Baroness Orczy, Kaveri puts her own deductive abilities to the test after a burly stranger, later discovered to be a pimp, is murdered in the garden of the exclusive Century Club during a dinner party. Fortunately for Kaveri, Ramu is progressive, supportive, and eager to make his beautiful young wife happy, just one aspect of this series launch that upends expectations. It’s 1921, and Kaveri’s conservative mother-in-law would definitely not approve of her obtaining a mathematics degree or going swimming in a clingy silk costume. “Women’s dreams were only as big as their husbands’ egos would permit them to be,” thinks Kaveri Murthy, who has recently moved to Bangalore to live with her husband, Ramu, a doctor at Bowring Hospital.

The Young Detectives by R.J. McGregor