shyamala's world

Writing for kids has been Debashish Majumdar's passion for over two decades. He has written books for kids of all ages.   Mango DC recently released two of his e-books-Tiger Comes Home and The Magical Sunglasses. Debashish shared info on his books  and writing.                    How did you get into the world of writing? As a little boy, I was sent by my parents to live with my maternal grandparents in Shillong. My grandfather had a small library of his own. He encouraged me to read and write stories on my own.   My grandfather was not only a very literary person, but he would also routinely listen to the BBC World Service. So, I too had taken fancy to listen to short stories broadcast over the BBC. Surprisingly, I wrote my first short story at the age of fifteen for the BBC World Service and I received a lot of praise and encouragement from the Broadcasting Director of the BBC. What was your first book a...

Children's author Monica Khanna recently released three books for children.  While Misha Makes a Mark and Of Girls and Cars and Boys and Dolls have  been published by Mango Books as picture books, Munches, Punches and Manya's Hunches, a chapter book, has been published by  Story Mirror Infotech P ltd.  The content of all three books are worthy of discussion between parents and children. Monica shared some thoughts around her recent releases.                               1. In today's times, are we doing enough to empower our girls through books? Enough is a relative term, and I am not sure we are doing 'enough', but we have definitely started a trend to empower girls - and are also looking at changing stereotypes for boys. This is equally important - for you cannot empower girls unless you teach boys to think differently about their own roles. 2.  What pa...

Veteran children's author, Ratna Manucha, is out with a new poetry book titled It's That Time of the year. In this interview, she shares her world of writing . Q1. How did you get into the world of writing? Going down memory lane, I remember the long, lonely days after school, spent poring over Enid Blyton and later, Thomas Hardy and Louisa May Alcott. I cannot pinpoint exactly when I fell in love with the written word, but I do know this, I was well and truly hooked. People eat meals...I ate books, devoured them, in fact! Then marriage happened, and I got an opportunity to write for All India Radio in Assam and West Bengal and Nagaland. In fact, now that I look back, I realise I was always looking for an opportunity to dabble in the written word. Being married to the Olive Greens, I began contributing articles, poems, short stories and limericks to various local papers and magazines in the different places we were posted to. While in Nagpur, I began writing i...

Valentine's day just passed by.  Love is still lingering in the air. Sundari Venkatraman, prolific author and queen of Indian romance novels, shares her thoughts about  writing romance novels and other stuff.                                                           1.Are you ever tempted to explore other genres?        All the time, though there will always be shades of romance in my books. I have written Indian Mythology for children, the first five avatars of the Dashavatar of Vishnu and published them on Amazon Kindle. I will be writing and publishing the other five avatars this year and maybe more books in this genre in 2021. I love Indian Mythology and I also believe there’s a huge quotient of romance and valour in our myths that call out to me....

Published by Mango Books, The Strange Case of Nayantara is a middle-grade book that deals with the importance of consent. This book has been written by Vaishali Shroff, author of picture books - Ari and Raindrops . The Strange Case of Nayantara is Vaishali's first middle-grade book which can be used to deal with the importance of consent, a tricky issue to discuss with kids.                                     Why did you choose to set the story in a village instead of a city? Do you think Nayantara’s parents would have dealt with the issue differently if they were based in the city? Absolutely no! What happened to Nayantara could happen to any child, girl or boy, in any part of this world. This story just happens to be set in a small town/village in Gujarat. 2.     How did you think of creating Silly Baba? It is through his interventi...

What makes me Me ? is a nonfiction picture book by Poorva Agrawal from the house of Tulika. In early 2019  Tulika Books invited ideas from the public for a series of nonfiction picture books.  The creators of selected ideas were asked to attend a workshop in Chennai.  What makes me Me? by Poorva Agarwal was one of the books which emerged out of the workshop which was held in association with the Parag Trust. Big bold and colourful illustrations by Maithili Joshi makes thIs book encourages children to think and discuss what makes them unique from others.  Picture Courtesy : Poorva Agarwal . 1. How much of this book was inspired by your two kids? The book was not inspired by my children at all actually! It was inspired by a curriculum that we were trying to create in a school called Akshara Vidyaashram in Cuddalore, where I used to teach.  The very first verse, however, is totally based on conversations about evolution, wit...