shyamala's world

Duckbill sprung an early surprise this summer by announcing their entry into the world of nonfiction books. Sayoni Basu, editor of Duckbill , shares  more details about their new titles. 1.Duckbill is about to add nonfiction titles to its list. Was it a long planned move? Or will you be testing the market to see the response from the market? We have always considered the idea of doing narrative non-fiction, but the challenge was to find a format which was distinctive and quirky, and which we liked. The idea for the 10s evolved somewhat organically, and we commissioned several books in the series. We are publishing four this year (which may not be a large number but does in fact constitute a quarter of our list for 2019-20) and we have six other books signed up for the next few years, and some more under discussion. So it is not really testing the market as such, as we are committed to the series. 2.       Were all the four nonfiction titles ...

Shabnam Minwalla's early chapter book,  When Jiya Met Urmila , is one of the best books released from Duckbill's stable this year. The entertaining book is centred around friendship cutting across classes.   This book is also a great tool for parents and teachers to highlight and address many other neglected issues children need to be aware of. There are three reasons why every library needs to stock this book:                                                             1) This well written book is an ideal resource book for all the kids who spout their creative  writing lessons about  "inciting action" and "climax" but don't know how to execute it.  Minwalla's book follows all the elements of storytelling in the right measures.  2)It is a wonderful tool ...

                                                           Alone By A. Coven Cover design by Kaveri Gopalakrishnan The first book in the Hill School Girls series meant for Middle Readers Published by Duckbill books and Publications Pvt. Ltd. Price: Rs. 225 “Alone” is the story of Elizabeth who is nervous about returning to school for a fresh term because there are so many impending changes. Her once familiar Hill School has changed hands and is now the “Hill School for Holistic Learning” which promises to be totally different, with a new principal, new curricula and a new approach to learning. To crown it all, Elizabeth has to face it alone because her best friend Pallavi has left. Elizabeth’s parents feel that she is going to enjoy the change and their new principal sounds really smart. Elizabeth, who is in Cl...

1.       You have managed to capture and put the spotlight on the challenges faced by a wheel chair bound kid. How much of research did you do to get to know your protagonist? To be honest, I did very minimal research. First, I formed Akriti and her personality in my head, and eventually I knew her well enough to put together how she would react to the huge change in her life. Any little details or facts, I usually just researched when it came up during writing the book and not beforehand. It’s quite easy to imagine the countless difficulties faced by anyone disabled; I focussed on the emotional ones, rather than the physical and medical ones. 2.       What made you to make the protagonist a mean, bullying and stone hearted instead of playing safe with a lovable, sweet, confident and academically successful character? Although that would be the ideal reaction; Akriti is only human after all, and deals with it in her ...

(This interview is a piece from the November, 2016 issue of Kahani Takbak, a newsletter written by authors for children authors.  To subscribe to the newsletter click here  ) 1.What has prompted Duckbill to start this initiative now? Does the excellent performance by our sport stars in the recent Para Olympics have anything to do with it? At Duckbill, we believe in doing fun books which kids will want to read for pleasure, but we also like it if these books talk about dilemmas or problems that kids face. We believe that literature is one of the primary means through which we learn empathy and how to deal with the challenges that the world holds. So we have books where the themes, for example, of single parenthood, class, sexuality, bullying etc are also present. So, kids with special needs or problems was something else we are interested in. We published two books which feature protagonists with special needs--Zainab Sulaiman's  Simply Nanju-- or some kind...