Vatsala SperlingIllustrated by Sandeep Johari

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Karna

When Princess Kunti is twelve years old she tries reciting a secret mantra for inviting the gods into her life. She gets more than she bargained for when the Sun, himself, swoops down out of the sky in a golden chariot and presents her with a baby. “Take him back,” she cries. “I'm not ready to be a mother!” But it's too late; the Sun says the baby is her responsibility now. However, he points out the child's golden earrings and the golden shield upon his chest and tells Kunti that as long he wears them, the child will be protected. Kunti tearfully puts the baby in a basket and sets him afloat on the river, where Adhiratha and Radha, a poor and childless couple, find him and take him in. KARNA: THE GREATEST ARCHER IN THE WORLD introduces the reader to the heroic but humanly flawed character of Karna, who grapples with issues of right and wrong, truth and lies, loyalty and abandonment. It tells how Radha helps her adoptive son, Karna, solve the mystery of his birth; how she and her husband give Karna the courage to follow his heart in the study of archery; how Karna faces his birth mother in the final days of his brief but brilliant life; and how his loyalty to a friend and his unparalleled generosity and sense of honour ultimately cause him to give his own life so that good may triumph over evil.