shyamala's world

Writing Young Adult (YA) Books: Insights and Challenges (Guest Blog By Nalini Ramachandran) Jumpstart, ‘India’s only annual congress for children’s content creators’—which is organised by German Book Office—celebrated its 10th year in November 2018 through a two-day event at the Goethe Institut in Mumbai. ‘A Brave New World’, a panel discussion at the event, delved into the need for and contents of young adult (YA) books. The panel comprised Australian children’s books author Meredith Costain, Marathi children’s books author Madhuri Purandare, novelist and poet Sampurna Chattarji, and young author Zuni Chopra. Children’s books author Sowmya Rajendran, who moderated the session, touched upon five key aspects which throw light on the evolution of this genre. For authors who wish to dabble in writing for this readership, here’s an overview: YA books act as a bridge The emotional journey of young adults is distinct from that of children and adults, hen...

Children’s Literature:  A Curious Case was the title of the two day symposium held by the Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai . Ingratubun Gudrun, was the first speaker of the day.   She spoke about Topics and Aesthetics of German Children’s and Youth Literature by adults and children. Mumbai based children's author Katie Bagli shares her notes from the session. Germany publishes around 8000 titles of children’s literature in a year.  What kind of subject are they portraying?  Kids want something more than reality.  Something beyond mythology and preaching. The focus is on intercultural topics so that children get to know about other countries.  One of their titles on this aspect is the recently published ‘Frau Bengali’.   Also, many of their books bring out the lives of refugees. For the very young, there are picture books that encourage children to come up with their own stories.  As an example a page from a picture book containing ...