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The King Of The Canal
Hardcover
Publisher: Lavanya Bommareddy
Published: Sep 13 2026
Pages: 36
Weight: 0.71
Height: 0.25 Width: 8.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Shreya thinks shrimp are just small, forgettable things from the freezer aisle, tiny commas curled up in plastic bags at the Chandler Superstore. Her Amma disagrees. Back in their family's village of Lakkavaram, in West Godavari, India, a far grander creature rules the water: the King of the Canal.
Weeks later, Shreya trades the Arizona desert for her grandparents' courtyard, where jasmine spills over the porch and the canal winds through fields of neon green paddy. Her Thatha takes her out in a small wooden boat, casts a wide net, and pulls up something extraordinary: a giant prawn, straight-spined and armored, nothing like the curled, ordinary shapes Shreya knew from home. This, her grandfather tells her, is Royya, King of the Canal.
Back in Ammamma's kitchen, the prawns become Royyalu Iguru, a bold, spice-ground curry eaten by hand off banana leaves, tasting of chili, jasmine, and something Shreya can only describe as love. When she returns to her sunny Arizona classroom, she brings the story back with her, and shows her class that two things can look almost the same and still come from completely different worlds.
A warm, sensory picture book about food, family, and the two homes many children carry inside them, with a glossary of Telugu words and an author's note on passing down a specific, regional culture rather than a flattened idea of it.
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