The Blue Umbrella - Ruskin Bond (1980)

 A simple Garwali girl exchanges her lucky charm pendant for a blue umbrella from a few visitors from the town. She was enchanted with it and would flaunt it around everywhere she went. Her brother was supportive. The rich village shopkeeper also wanted that umbrella and wooed the siblings to sell it to him. But, they would not budge. Frustrated, he sends his assistant to steal it from the siblings - a plan that failed due to the brother’s alertness. The village took notice, and the shopkeeper’s business was affected. Finally, the young girl went to the shopkeeper on a pretext of buying some chocolates and left the umbrella with him. The shopkeeper keeps the umbrella, but he is no longer enchanted with it as a novelty and lets everyone in the village use it. Slowly, the umbrella sort of becomes a property of the village. The shopkeeper finds a bear claw, makes a pendant out of it, and gifts it to the young girl.

We, adults, would believe a children’s story should have a strong moral. The story is sort of complete. There is no lingering thought - everyone had a winning situation. The shopkeeper has the umbrella, the villagers got to use it, and the girl got her pendant. So, a child reading the book won’t be pestered with what happened next. Is Rusking Bond trying to inculcate the idea of letting go and forgiveness in children? Even for adults, it is hard to achieve. I will not let such thoughts bother the reader.

A simple story that everyone can enjoy.