The Secret Kingdom

Nek Chand, a Changing India,
and a Hidden World of Art

Candlewick Press
(pub. 2.13.2018)

 48 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor:  Barb Rosenstock
    and illustrator: Claire A. Nivola

C haracter: Nek Chand Saini

O verview from the jacket flap: 

     "As a refugee during the partition of India in 1947, Nek Chand Saini was resettled in the city of Chandigarh with nothing but the stories he carried in his heart from his homeland. Dismayed at the modern new city he now lived in, he began collecting broken glass, cracked water pots, and discarded construction materials.

     In a section of wilderness he cleared himself , Nek Chand built the Rock Garden, full of curving paths, intricate mosaics, and hundreds of sculptures of people and animals, which eventually grew to a thirteen-acre wonderland.  It was his tribute to the village of his youth, a land full of hidden stories."

T antalizing taste: 
      

      "Then on the banks of the village stream, Nek built a world of his own He dug silt palaces and spilled waterfalls, molded clay goddesses and planted stick kinds He found rocks shaped like jackals, monkeys, and geese, and made them pounce, scamper, or fly...

     Nek became a farmer, part of the ancient cycle of changing seasons and shared stories.

     Until the men with guns came."  

 
and something more: In the Author's Note, Barb Rosenstock explains that "Nek Chand is a famous folk artist. Between three and four thousand people a day visit his Rock Garden of Chandigarh, a wonderland built fro recycled materials. The Rock Garden is the largest visionary art environment in the world, now twenty-five acres of art set on a forth-acre site....
     Until his death in 2015 at age ninety, Nek Chand spent each day at home in the Rock Garden meeting with visitors, creating new plans, and supervising the continued constructions of his kingdom."  
     The Secret Kingdom includes a delightful surprise -- gatefold pages featuring a photograph of the Rock Garden.