shyamala's world

         These are exciting times for the authors and illustrators of children books. New publishers have come into existence. The existing publishers have branched into new categories.  The visibility and availability of children books have always remained a big challenge.   The creators of Writer's Bug have a new offering for lovers of children books- GetLitt !It is a new e-library which fulfils the needs of all parents who want their children to grow on Indian content but are unable to find them in their neighbourhood bookstores. All you need is an internet connection. With GetLitt! children will have access to great content in a reader friendly environment. The out of print books will  remain  in circulation and earn royalties for  authors and publishers. Though a couple of publishers are yet to join the bandwagon, brand new titles are missing from the collection and the number of books are currently lim...

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...

Veteran children's author and poet, Santhini Govindan , recently received a fellowship from the Government of India. In this interview she shares  details about her fellowship and latest books.                                                        1. This is the third time that you have been awarded a fellowship. What makes a fellowship so appealing to you? I was awarded my first fellowship (a Junior Fellowship in Literature for two years) in August 1996 by the Department of Culture, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, to write h istorical fiction for children in the short story form. I am greatly interested in history, so I really enjoyed researching and writing these stories. The next fellowship I got (a two year Senior Fellowship) was in 2002. This was for a completely different subject. The fellows...

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 ...

Scholastic India's  Puu has created a buzz even before its release.   Puu is the work of author  C.G. Salamader and  artist Samidha Gunjal.  The pink on the cover  is highly deceptive. Puu  is  the  tamil word for flowers.   However there is nothing  flowery about the book's theme.   Puu is India's first  children's book on manual scavenging. T his dehumanising practice  continues to exist all across  India e ven though it  was outlawed over two decades ago.                                                     There are many stages to solving any problem- awareness, finding optimal solutions  and their successful implementation . This book creates awareness about manual scavenging. Salamander's text and  Samidha's visuals work in ...

Habib Ali is the illustrator of the award winning picture book, Neel on Wheels .   Written by  Lavanya Karthik and published by Duckbill , this book  was a winner in the Children First competition organised by Parag Trust and Duckbill. A riot of imagination, this rhyming book is a visual delight.   Habib Ali tells us more about his recent releases. How did this book come about? My alma mater, Riyaaz Academy, had set up a stall at the World Book Fair in 2017. My illustrator friends and I  had exhibited our artworks. I met Ms Sayoni Basu(editor of Duckbill books). She liked my artwork. A few weeks later, I received an email from Duckbill inviting me to work on a book. How difficult was it to create  images for this book?In every spread,the wheelchair arrives in a new avatar. Did the manuscript come with illustration notes? It was indeed challenging to create layouts for the book. Several of my final artworks had be abandoned. It...