Anu Kumar's Wonder Kids 100 Children Who Grew Up To Be Champions of Change
Author Aditi Kay aka Anu Kumar has been known for her children's books on Indian history. How the Harappans say Hello and other Mysteries of History,Across the Seven Seas: Traveller Tales From India, and Girls From India: A Chola Adventure are some of her books. She shares info about her new book from Hachette.
How did this project come about?
I’ve worked with Vatsala, editorial director at Hachette children’s publishing, on quite a few books, and so when she had the idea for this one, I happily agreed, and worked out a list. A hundred names that she vetted and then I went on to do the research, write it all out.
How long did you take to write the book?
I had to work on a few other things so I daresay it took a bit longer than I envisaged. I’d say around 2-3 months.
What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?
Getting all the hundred names! Its relatively easy getting together 20-30 names of people who braved
challenges, did heroic, unusual stuff as young people, but to get these many names, and to ensure they were evenly spread out – in terms of gender, and where they came from- one did have to work that one out carefully. For as you might have noticed, there’s just so much bias in how we pick our heroes – they are mainly from the west, and it’s a kind of bias that’s so subliminal, and yet it exists.
What was your selection criteria for choosing kids in the book?
We looked for young people (that is, kids, pre-teens, teens – for there had to be a cut-off for a book
like this) who did inspiring, unusual stuff, things that lasted, are remembered even today. There were
those who set out to do difficult things, and others who braved intensely difficult situations to do
what they did. In fact, this latter bit mattered the most – wonderkids who thrived despite all the
odds in their way.
Who is your favourite personality from the book? Why? This is a tough question! I don’t have just one. In fact, I like all of them. Charlie Chaplin who came
from a poor, extremely dysfunctional family and navigated life with his amazing humour.
Malavath Poorna, the girl from Telengana, who is the youngest Indian and the youngest girl to
summit the Everest. Yusra Mardini, the refugee girl from Syria who is a champion swimmer.
Shakuntala Devi, Allauddin Khan, Akira Kurosawa, Dhyan Chand, I could really go on.
Writing historical books is your forte. What made you step out of your comfort zone and work on this nonfiction book?
I was very happy doing this book; anything to do with research is something I love. And in
that sense, this was something right up my street.
As a parent what do you think is the biggest challenge in grooming children to excel at an early age?
I’d guess it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that academic success is the only thing that matters.
But I think this too is changing. It's hard to find the right mentor, and parents sometimes really don’t have all the answers. I empathise with this, for obvious reasons! It's tough to balance – encouraging one’s child to take the path less travelled, and then fearing that your child doesn’t fit in as a result. That’s a universal fear, I daresay.
Almost all your books have needed extensive research. Which are your favourite online sites and offline libraries?
The US university system allows you access via worldcat.org to almost every book, every journal article you might need. So that’s a blessing, for my college affiliation allows me this. I love looking up old newspapers (digitized since the 1750s) on newspapers.com – though this has mainly papers from the US, UK, Canada and Australia. And I like the New York Public Library, its main branch near Bryant Park, that I visit occasionally.
How was your experience of working with Vatsala Kaul Bannerjee, one of the senior editors in the industry?
I first worked with Vatsala when she said yes to my work of historical fiction, Atisa and the Seven Wonders (Puffin, 2008). And then when she moved to Hachette, where she still is, we did five more books together, and then this one. There’s one on kings and queens to follow. I think Vatsala’s a wonderful editor, she’s helped me learn a lot, helped me evolve. I was sort of a late starter in this world of writing, wondering if I’d ever get anywhere. I was also quite desperate after a sort of disastrous corporate career, and Vatsala’s had amazing patience, helped me learn through my mistakes, and besides being a great editor, I think she’s a very kind person. I’ve been lucky to have her as my editor, and am sure other writers think so too.
To buy a copy of Anu Kumar's latest book, click here.
(PS: I am an affiliate of Amazon. When you buy the book through the above hyperlink, I will receive a small percentage of sales which helps me run Kahani Takbak, a platform to promote Indian books, author and illustrators.)
How did this project come about?
I’ve worked with Vatsala, editorial director at Hachette children’s publishing, on quite a few books, and so when she had the idea for this one, I happily agreed, and worked out a list. A hundred names that she vetted and then I went on to do the research, write it all out.
How long did you take to write the book?
I had to work on a few other things so I daresay it took a bit longer than I envisaged. I’d say around 2-3 months.
What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?
Getting all the hundred names! Its relatively easy getting together 20-30 names of people who braved
challenges, did heroic, unusual stuff as young people, but to get these many names, and to ensure they were evenly spread out – in terms of gender, and where they came from- one did have to work that one out carefully. For as you might have noticed, there’s just so much bias in how we pick our heroes – they are mainly from the west, and it’s a kind of bias that’s so subliminal, and yet it exists.
What was your selection criteria for choosing kids in the book?
We looked for young people (that is, kids, pre-teens, teens – for there had to be a cut-off for a book
like this) who did inspiring, unusual stuff, things that lasted, are remembered even today. There were
those who set out to do difficult things, and others who braved intensely difficult situations to do
what they did. In fact, this latter bit mattered the most – wonderkids who thrived despite all the
odds in their way.
Who is your favourite personality from the book? Why? This is a tough question! I don’t have just one. In fact, I like all of them. Charlie Chaplin who came
from a poor, extremely dysfunctional family and navigated life with his amazing humour.
Malavath Poorna, the girl from Telengana, who is the youngest Indian and the youngest girl to
summit the Everest. Yusra Mardini, the refugee girl from Syria who is a champion swimmer.
Shakuntala Devi, Allauddin Khan, Akira Kurosawa, Dhyan Chand, I could really go on.
Writing historical books is your forte. What made you step out of your comfort zone and work on this nonfiction book?
I was very happy doing this book; anything to do with research is something I love. And in
that sense, this was something right up my street.
As a parent what do you think is the biggest challenge in grooming children to excel at an early age?
I’d guess it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that academic success is the only thing that matters.
But I think this too is changing. It's hard to find the right mentor, and parents sometimes really don’t have all the answers. I empathise with this, for obvious reasons! It's tough to balance – encouraging one’s child to take the path less travelled, and then fearing that your child doesn’t fit in as a result. That’s a universal fear, I daresay.
Almost all your books have needed extensive research. Which are your favourite online sites and offline libraries?
The US university system allows you access via worldcat.org to almost every book, every journal article you might need. So that’s a blessing, for my college affiliation allows me this. I love looking up old newspapers (digitized since the 1750s) on newspapers.com – though this has mainly papers from the US, UK, Canada and Australia. And I like the New York Public Library, its main branch near Bryant Park, that I visit occasionally.
How was your experience of working with Vatsala Kaul Bannerjee, one of the senior editors in the industry?
I first worked with Vatsala when she said yes to my work of historical fiction, Atisa and the Seven Wonders (Puffin, 2008). And then when she moved to Hachette, where she still is, we did five more books together, and then this one. There’s one on kings and queens to follow. I think Vatsala’s a wonderful editor, she’s helped me learn a lot, helped me evolve. I was sort of a late starter in this world of writing, wondering if I’d ever get anywhere. I was also quite desperate after a sort of disastrous corporate career, and Vatsala’s had amazing patience, helped me learn through my mistakes, and besides being a great editor, I think she’s a very kind person. I’ve been lucky to have her as my editor, and am sure other writers think so too.
To buy a copy of Anu Kumar's latest book, click here.
(PS: I am an affiliate of Amazon. When you buy the book through the above hyperlink, I will receive a small percentage of sales which helps me run Kahani Takbak, a platform to promote Indian books, author and illustrators.)
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