The Secret Kingdom

December 18, 2017
As a child in his poor village in South Asia’s Punjab region, Nek Chand found every opportunity to create art from salvaged materials. Partition in 1947 forced Chand to leave his home for the modern Indian city of Chandigarh, “a sharp-edged city of colorless concrete.” Seeking to create a home more like the one he left, Chand constructed a hidden forest sanctuary from stones and discarded objects, which he would keep secret for 15 years. Though Chand’s kingdom was eventually discovered, the community embraced his artistry, despite ongoing threats to demolish it. Chand’s quiet resolve comes through strongly in Nivola’s understated paintings, and a dramatic gatefold reveals photographs of his kingdom today. Rosenstock’s gratifying story conveys how art has the capacity to revitalize and restore. An author’s note shares additional details about Chand, his creation, and the ongoing struggle to preserve it. Ages 7–10. Author’s agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio.

December 1, 2017

Gr 2-5-The story of artist and visionary Nek Chand, who turned a story of exile and social division into a beautiful artistic tribute to India and its people. Chand was raised in the village of Barian Kalan and spent his childhood in the company of ancient stories, laughter, planting gardens, and roaming freely in the jungles and open fields. After the great partition of 1947, Chand fled as a refugee from his home in Pakistan to his family's new home in India. Heartbroken, he dreamt of a place he and his family could truly belong. Eventually he found a hidden jungle on the north end of Chandigarh and began to create a wonderland of art from scraps, stones, rusty pipes, cracked water pots, and boulders. He revived the plants, built winding paths, and shaped the recycled materials into animals, sculptures, and archways. He kept it a secret for 15 years, until the government found it and threatened to shut it down. But the people of Chandigarh had fallen in love with the secret kingdom, and won the fight to preserve it. To this day, the kingdom remains the largest visionary art site in the world. Watercolor illustrations bring life to the vision of Chand and kingdom of magic and imagination. VERDICT A captivating biographical narrative, this book is an ideal choice for expanding any visual arts-focused picture book collection.-Natalie Romano, Denver Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2017
Rosenstock weaves the story of folk artist Nek Chand Saini and the magnificent secret garden he built in Chandigarh, India. Now spread over 40 acres and open to the public since 1976, Nek Chand's Rock Garden is a world of palaces, temples, and villages, showcasing over 5,000 creative sculptures of people, animals, and whimsical creatures, all made from discarded industrial items and household articles. The spare, lyrical text brings forth the stories that Nek Chand grew up with and evokes the village that stayed with him long after he and his family had to flee during the Partition of India in 1947, "walking for twenty-four days across the new border into India. Nek carried only village stories in his broken heart." When his garden, built illegally on government ground, was discovered and threatened with destruction, the people of Chandigarh rallied, preserving both his job and the garden. Nivola's delicate and detailed watercolor-and-gouache illustrations feature people with dark hair and skin of different shades of brown. They show authentic snippets of pre-Partition village life as well as the surreal landscape he built; these are complemented by a double gatefold of photos of the actual garden. There is no glossary, but most of the few Punjabi words in the text are easily assumed from the context. Readers may wish for maps of India and the garden. Compelling, delicate, and spare, this book brings both artist and garden to life. (bibliography, author's note) (Picture book/biography. 5-10)

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October 15, 2017
Grades 3-6 In this biography of the remarkable folk artist Nek Chand Sainicreator of the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, the largest visionary art environment in the world India is depicted as a romantic rural utopia, filled with folklore, animals, curvaceous rivers, and happy farmers. As an adult, displaced by war and politics, Nek Chand devised an uncanny plan to recreate the place he once knew as home. He built a rock garden, sculpting walls, animals, and people out of mosaic, recycled materials, and river rocks. His project was hidden in the forest on the edge of town and kept a secret for 13 years, until it was discovered by the government and threatened with destruction. Fortunately, the citizens of Chandigarh and some well-connected officials supported the garden, and Nek Chand was recognized and rewarded. Despite a few gaps in the historical narrative, this biography is valuable for its sheer novelty. Delicate watercolor illustrations bring it to life with texture and detail, and a large gatefold photograph of the actual Rock Garden is a special treat.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2018
Rosenstock's moving picture-book celebration of folk artist Nek Chand (creator of the Rock Garden of Chandigarh) opens in an idyllic village in Punjab. After the Partition of India in 1947, resettled refugee Chand assuages homesickness by (illegally) clearing jungle land and building an ever-increasing number of sculptures and mosaic walls out of recycled materials. Nivola's folk-art sensibility befits the simplicity of Chand's art. Bib.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

March 1, 2018
This stunning picture-book celebration of folk artist Nek Chand, creator of the Rock Garden of Chandigarh in India, offers a moving depiction of the power of art. Opening text about Chand's youth presents an idyllic existence in a tiny village in Punjab, in which season by season, Nek's head filled with stories, until it overflowed. When the Partition ?of India occurs in 1947, it changes everything. Nivola's art depicts Nek, a Hindu who, post-partition, found himself in what was now Muslim-majority Pakistan, in a snaking line of refugees leaving for India. He settles in a sharp edged city of colorless concrete and assuages homesickness by retreating into the jungle, where he illegally clears land and builds a mud hut. Around it he also builds an ever-increasing number of sculptures and mosaic walls out of recycled natural and found materials, akin to the stick, stone, and clay world of his own he had constructed on the riverbank of his boyhood village. Nivola's style has a folk-art sensibility befitting the simplicity of the forms and colors of Chand's sculptures and mosaics. When readers are treated to a breathtaking photographic gatefold spread of the real Rock Garden of Chandigarh, the sight makes plain why Chand's community rallied to preserve his work in the face of government threats to destroy it. Appended with an author's note (which gives more detailed information about Chand and his Rock Garden, the largest visionary art environment in the world ) and a substantial bibliography. megan dowd lambert

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)