Multicultural books for children are catching my eye more often in libraries and bookstores. They are more numerous than before. Also, as those involved in the book business appreciate the importance of this category, they display the books prominently and also promote them actively. Whereas previously most multicultural books for children (with the exception of folktales) were set in America, I’m now discovering wonderful modern tales set in different countries of the world. “Ruler of the Courtyard” (Viking, 2003) is one such picture book, set in rural Pakistan, that any child, anywhere, will love.

The author, Rukhsana Khan, was born in Lahore. She immigrated to Canada when she was three. She is the author of the award-winning books “The Roses in My Carpet” and “Dahling, If You Luv Me, Would You Please, Please Smile.”

The spark that flamed Khan’s creativity for “Ruler of the Courtyard” was family trivia -- her sister-in-law had been afraid of chickens in the courtyard and her great-aunt had killed a snake in the bath house. Khan fashions an inspiring tale, for four to eight year olds, by blending those experiences.

Saba is such a likable heroine that it’s hard for a young reader not to be instantly drawn to her plight. She feels tyrannized by the chickens in her family’s plot. We pity her because every time she has to use the bathroom she must leave the safety of the house and walk through the courtyard. The way the chickens react makes Saba think she doesn’t even have the right to use the bathroom. Once she’s inside, she tries to relax. One day she spies something in a corner. “It’s brownish black. Is it moving? Is it HISSING? Is it watching? Waiting till I’m close enough to bite?” Saba ponders over the various courses of action to take. After she bravely traps the coiled thing, she discovers it is her grandmother’s nala, a drawstring. Relieved and emboldened by what she did, she overcomes her fear of the chickens. Finally, she has her revenge on the chickens by chasing them and declaring herself to be the Ruler of the Courtyard.

I chose the book to read to my four-year-old son. Glancing through the pages, I had no idea of the pleasure awaiting us. The writing is lyrical. “Bony beaks, razor claws, with glittery eyes that wonder, wonder as they watch me, how easy it would be to make me scream.” Khan’s prose is a very successful vehicle to make us feel we’re eavesdropping on Saba’s thoughts. She accomplishes this by using incomplete sentences. One would think by dropping the pronoun “I” we would feel detached from the heroine, but it has the opposite effect. “Fill the bucket, find the soap, wash my hair, and lather up. Forget the terrors lingering outside. Rinse well and I am done. Towel dry and dress. Sit upon the bench and comb my hair.” The heroine’s emotions are also conveyed well. “So I swallow up the scream inside and slowly, very slowly, I stand upon my feet.”

The multicultural details can be absorbed by any child without any explanations from adults. The unfamiliar reader learns how a house can be different in Pakistan, when the author says that Saba has to face the chickens every time she needs to go to the toilet. The book doesn’t even have a glossary but there is no need for one. Khan introduces very few foreign words and though in most ethnic tales a smattering of foreign words flavors the story, we feel more would be redundant in “Ruler of the Courtyard.”

By using the golden rule of storytelling, “to show and not tell,” she demonstrates how one child overcomes a great fear that interfered with her daily life. She doesn’t deign to tell the child reader that Saba’s misunderstanding effected the change. Instead we are treated to the tremendous relief that is delivered with waves of words. And we see her reversing the role of tyrant in the courtyard. Though the illustrations are not on par with the excellence of the story, they do depict her emotions very well. The reader can enjoy the range that shuffles through her mind – fear, peace, wonder, terror, amazement, relief, happiness. The illustrator conspires with the author to fool us into believing the grandmother’s drawstring is a snake. We are just as amazed as Saba when we make the discovery.

Every child will appreciate Saba’s mistake. For, young or old, we constantly let our imagination interpret the world around us. But it is a masterful stroke of Khan’s to use Saba’s mistake to allow her to evolve. By letting young readers laugh along with Saba at the end, Khan is showing them fear can be conquered.

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