The Children’s Book Review Interview in partnership with Eeha Bhatt, author of Moby Plays the Flute
Eeha Bhatt devoted herself to writing and drawing during her school years. Many of her stories were selected for the school magazine, as well as many drawings for the kid’s exhibition organized by Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University. Ever since, she aspired to write stories for children and convey the messages to be better with each step towards betterment.
Her stories are based upon her own experiences in life that have helped her to always move forward. She writes to tell this message to all of the kids out there. Eeha Bhatt is a self-taught part-time artist and a full-time Japanese language interpreter/translator and teacher. She graduated from the Visva Bharati University (University in India opened by the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and also where Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen comes from) with a degree in the Japanese Language. She completed her Masters in Japanese Language from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2012.
Bhatt has published her artwork in Dragonfly Hopeworks’s 2018 magazine of Howards County, Maryland, US. She has won an exhibition opportunity in Greenbelt Arts Center, MD, US, and an award for a Tsunami Picture collage/story at Kizuna India organized by Japan. She is currently located in Dallas, Texas, and aspiring to be a full-time artist and story writer.
Moby Plays the Flute is your first children’s book. Have you always wanted to write books for kids?
I have been writing stories for children from a very young age and aspired to be a children’s book author one day.
The focus of Moby Plays the Flute is to help kids learn the importance of perseverance, patience, and the gratifying feeling of hard-earned success. Did you set out to write about these themes? Or did the themes arise as the story unfolded for you?
I always wanted to write about themes that help children in self-esteem and believing in themselves, which I learned as a child. However, while writing the story, I did not focus on writing on those themes particularly.
Why do you think these themes are necessary for young readers?
Kids and young people make mistakes and they learn from their mistakes as experience is the best teacher to learn from. But when a kid/ young person has low self-esteem, they tend to run away from their mistakes instead of facing them. That also makes them not believe in themselves, thus not trying things again even if they fail at first. They feel unsure about themselves. Self-esteem helps kids to cope with mistakes. These themes can help everyone to lift up their self-esteem, not only young readers.
The story features a strong and touching relationship between Moby and her father, a deployed U.S. Marine. Can you share a little about these characters and what readers can expect to learn about them?
This story is about a family having a military character as a parent. The purpose to choose a father character as a Marine was to help Moby realize her root problem and resolve it on her own too. Kids or young readers love stories where parents or adults do come to their rescue because they like to imagine role models belonging to their age groups.
Are they based on anyone you know?
“Moby” is a character based on my childhood.
Where did the idea for this story come from?
The inspiration definitely comes from my father, who always encouraged me to work hard and try again for something I failed in. While the Moby character and her problems or based on my childhood.
The book includes lovely colorful illustrations. Will you talk us through your artistic process of creating the pictures?
I am a traditional artist. I love drawing in cute illustrative style as well. I did draw a few pages of my own story to submit to publishers to provide the idea of how the pictures in this story would look like. Tabletop, the publisher, encouraged me to complete the illustrations, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was an exciting learning journey for me.
This book also contains fun extras that parents, teachers, and kids can enjoy. Would you like to share some of them and how readers can interact with these extras?
The extras, acting out the story, and the activities will involve the readers more in the story and they’ll learn something new with each reading, game, or activity. Each member of a family, young or old, can enjoy learning together, open up about their childhood or experiences and problems, teaching each other more about how to resolve issues on their own.
Can we look forward to more books from you in the future?
Absolutely! I have so many more stories for children and young readers out there and I would love to bring them out one by one.
Is there anything else you’d like us to know about Moby Plays the Flute or yourself?
It is a story for all ages. I am looking forward to every reader learning something from it and enjoying it.
About the Book
Moby Plays the Flute
Written and Illustrated by Eeha Bhatt
Ages 4+ | 46 Pages
Publisher: Tabletop Teaching LLC | ISBN-13: 9798985961300
Publisher’s Book Summary: Moby Plays the Flute is a heartwarming story of a young girl who learns the importance of perseverance and hard work after her father, a U.S. Marine, must leave home for a year. His last parting gift, a simple flute, becomes the tool that will ultimately show Moby what hard work is and how it can pay off BIG time.
This is more than just a children’s picture book. This story is relatable to kids of all ages as they learn, grow, and find the things in life that they are passionate about. Passion does not come without effort; something all kids learn at some point in their lives. Find out how Moby finds her passion and her resilience in Moby Plays the Flute.
Buy the Book
This interview—Moby Plays the Flute—was conducted between Eeha Bhatt and Dr. Jen Harrison. For similar books and articles, follow along with our content tagged with Military Families, Perseverance, and Picture Book.
