Granny and Pouchu – Book in Conversation
Pouchu was gazing out of the window.
A space rocket had just been launched and was travelling higher and higher into the sky, leaving behind a long, smoky tail as it made its way towards Space.
Pouchu watched until it disappeared into the distance.
Pouchu turned around excitedly.
Pouchu: “Granny! Can we read a book about Space and Galaxy?”
Pouchu hopped closer to Granny. The little Pouch was shaking with excitement.
Granny patted the Pouch.
Granny: “You are excited too, Pouchu!”
Pouchu: “Granny, do you have any story about Space?”
Granny: “Hmmm…” Granny looked thoughtful. “There must be a book here about Space and Galaxy.”
She gently rummaged through the Story Pouch.
One book came out.
Granny: “No, not this one.”
Another.
Granny: “Not this either.”
Pouchu waited patiently.
Granny continued searching.
Then suddenly—
Granny: “Ah! Here it is!”
Pouchu hopped closer.
Pouchu: “What is it, Granny?”
Granny held up the book.
Granny: “Padma Goes to Space.”
Pouchu: “Padma goes to Space?” Pouchu’s eyes grew wide. “Does she go in a rocket?”
Granny smiled.
Granny: “Let’s open the book and find out.”
They settled down together.
Padma is reading about the Amazing Eight, who travel through galaxies in butterfly-shaped time machines.
Pouchu: “Butterfly-shaped time machines?”
Granny: “Yes!”
Pouchu: “Can I have one?”
Granny laughed.
Granny: “Perhaps you will have to imagine one.”
Pouchu immediately began imagining.
Granny: “Where would you go?”
Pouchu: “Everywhere!”
Granny: “That’s a very big place.”
Pouchu: “I’ll start with the Galaxy!”
And Padma’s imagination seems to do exactly that.
Her journey takes her through wonderfully impossible worlds. There is Star-rock Salad, a giant tortoise called Fra-Gra carrying the universe on her back, and the dreammakers of Galaxy Cresto who send chocolate dreams.
Pouchu’s eyes became bigger and bigger.
Pouchu: “Chocolate dreams?”
Granny: “Yes.”
Pouchu: “Granny, I like this Galaxy!”
Granny smiled.
Granny: “But Padma has something else to think about.”
Pouchu: “What?”
Granny: “Amma is calling her to come for lunch.”
Pouchu became very quiet.
Pouchu: “Uh-oh.”
Padma is deep inside her imaginary world and doesn’t want to stop playing.
Pouchu: “Does she go for lunch?”
Granny looked at Pouchu.
Granny: “What do you think?”
Pouchu: “No!”
Granny: “Why not?”
Pouchu: “Because she is in Space!”
Granny laughed.
Granny: “But Amma is not in Space. Amma is right there, calling her.”
Pouchu thought about this.
Pouchu: “Can you hear Amma when you are imagining things?”
Granny: “Sometimes. But sometimes imagination can become so big that the rest of the world seems very far away.”
Padma tries not to move. She even holds her breath.
Pouchu was now sitting very still.
Pouchu: “Shhh…”
Granny raised an eyebrow.
Granny: “What are you doing?”
Pouchu: “I’m helping Padma!”
Just then, something unexpected happens.
Glazza, one of the Amazing Eight, lands on Padma.
Pouchu jumped.
Pouchu: “Granny!”
Granny closed the book.
Granny: “What happens next?”
Pouchu stared at the closed book.
Pouchu: “You can’t stop there!”
Granny smiled.
Granny: “Can I?”
Pouchu: “No!”
Granny: “Then perhaps we should read the book again.”
Pouchu nodded enthusiastically.
Pouchu: “After lunch?”
Granny smiled.
Granny: “After lunch.”
Peek Into the Book
Padma Goes to Space takes us into the wonderfully imaginative world of a child who can turn an ordinary moment into an adventure across galaxies.
Padma’s imagination transforms everything around her into something extraordinary. She travels with the Amazing Eight through fantastic galaxies, encounters impossible creatures and discovers worlds filled with unusual foods, chocolate dreams and enormous wonders.
But there is one very real thing that keeps trying to bring her back to Earth—Amma calling her for lunch!
The story gently captures something very familiar about childhood: once imagination takes hold, an ordinary room can become a galaxy, a book can become a spacecraft, and stopping for lunch can feel like the biggest interruption in the universe.
With its playful space adventures and larger-than-life imagined worlds, the book celebrates the sheer freedom and joy of childhood imagination.
Library Calling Card
| Detail | Information |
| Book | Padma Goes to Space |
| Author | Swetha Prakash |
| Illustrator | Shreya Sen |
| Publisher | Tulika Publishers |
| First Published | 2011 |
| Edition | 2019, 2023 |
| ISBN | 978-93-5046-024-5 |
| Language | English |
| Format | Paperback |
| Pages | 32 |
| Genre | Picture Book / Children’s Book |
| Theme | Space Travel; Imagination; Make-believe World; Dreamscapes |
| Reading Level | Beginner |
Granny’s Notes
What I enjoyed most about Padma Goes to Space is the way it understands the enormousness of a child’s imagination.
Padma does not need a real spaceship to travel through galaxies. Her imagination takes familiar things—food, stories, play and the world around her—and stretches them into something wonderfully enormous.
There is something particularly delightful about the contrast between Padma’s grand adventures and Amma’s very ordinary call for lunch.
For Padma, galaxies are waiting to be explored.
For Amma, lunch is waiting to be eaten.
And perhaps that is childhood in a nutshell—one foot in the everyday world and another somewhere wonderfully impossible.
The illustrations add to this sense of joyful exaggeration, bringing Padma’s imagined worlds to life with colourful watercolour cartoon images. The enormous creatures, fantastic food and dreamlike space adventures give visual form to the kind of imagination that refuses to stay small.
And then there is that ending.
We are left wondering what happens when Padma’s imaginary world suddenly lands right in front of her.
Perhaps that is a fitting place to leave the story.
After all, imagination does not always close the book when we do.
