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| Chandrakanta: A Street in Srinagar (Zubaan Books, India, Translated by Manisha Chaudhry) |
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| CC Line by Shinjirou / CC BY |
An article in The New York Times brings up an interesting question - is there too much darkness in present-day books for young readers? Well,fairy tales that we've all grown up with had their fair share of dark characters too - remember the witch with the poisoned apple?
Excerpt from the article, "No More Adventures in Wonderland":
".....the traditional villains of children’s books — fabulous monsters with a touch of the absurd.Like Maurice Sendak’s Wild Things and countless others, they walk a fine line between horror and zany eccentricity. They may frighten young readers, but their juvenile antics strip them of any real authority."
Read the entire article by Maria Tatar here. And do send us your comments on what you think young children should be reading.
Image: Illustration by Zainab Tambawalla, for 'Paplu, the Giant' written by Ramendra Kumar, published by Pratham Books.
The book is being published by Goa,1556 and the lively illustrations are by none other than Goa’s popular cartoonist Alexyz . The Foreword is by Writer and editor Victor Rangel-Ribeiro.The event
Pratham Books was created in order to:
- Reach out to ALL children in India with high quality books that are affordable
- Publish children's books in multiple Indian languages so that children in every corner of India can have access to books
Ms. Suzanne Singh, Managing Trustee, Pratham Books says, “There are more than 300 million children in India, and a large percentage of these attend government schools. These children need books that they can relate to and in a language that they can understand. In urban India we are so used to seeing and associating with non-Indian characters that we don’t make much of it but the same reading material in a rural context, and that too in English just does not work. It is this asymmetry in the children's book publishing indisutry, that Pratham Books is hoping to bridge.
"Affordability is another aspect of Pratham Books that is worthy of exploring. Ms. Suzanne further drives home the point by adding, “Our books are reasonably priced, with most books available under Rs. 25. Most people, especially our online urban buyers are very surprised by this.
Another admirable route the organisation is taking is via their treatment of copyright on these books. By all usual methods of operation, the publisher owns the rights to the creative content in books published, but Pratham Books has a very inclusive policy on their content and they use the Creative Common License which isn’t as restrictive.
We queried as to the best way to volunteer and Suzanne insisted that the ideal way to help is to help them spread their content as far and wide as possible. And they’re more than happy if you were to adapt it in the process! For volunteering opportunities and any other queries, write to them at info@prathambooks.org.
Another way to help is via events. Pratham Books’ stronghold is Bangalore and they have a presence in other metros as well. “What we’d like is if people volunteered to run events in parallel with the ones we conduct in Bangalore or elsewhere.”
The longing for a library their kids could bond over, a chit-chat over casual evening walks and putting thoughts to action, have resulted in three friends bringing to Bandra its first public library.
The library, which opened its doors to the public on Friday, September 30, will kick off with the children’s section stocked with over 3,000 books, and eventually expand its facilities to adults.
Forty-seven-year-old Vibha Kamath, a French teacher and a mother of two, was first struck by the idea of opening a library in her neighbourhood after a visit to her sister in the US in 2004. Her nephew, she noticed, was a voracious reader at just six years old. On asking, she was told that the easy availability of children’s literature in the local public library was the reason behind the boy’s reading appetite.
After returning, Kamath scouted for places to start a library, but Mumbai’s ever-increasing real estate prices kept her from realising her dream. In the meantime, Kamath’s day job as a French teacher got busier and her reverie got relegated to the recesses of her priority list.
In 2006, one balmy evening, while Kamath was out on her regular evening walk with a couple of friends, she noticed a huge nondescript space that read Maharashtra Mitra Mandal Library. The almost non-functional municipal library seemed like the perfect conduit to revive Kamath’s desire. She took down the phone number on the nameplate and made a call. But the venture didn’t work out, yet again.
In November 2010, egged on by her mother, Kamath decided that her dream deserved at least another try. She found an enthusiastic friend and supporter in Vaishali Shinde, 41, and the both of them decided to call the committee managing the library, one more time.
Within eight months, they had made their pitch, met with mandal officials and signed up to maintain the library for a period of two years. By July 12 this year, their friend Sonal Bimal, 41, also hopped on board to help manage the library. The trio immediately started work on getting the library up and running and sent out emails to friends and family seeking donations—both, funds and/or books.
Since then, the library has received Rs3 lakh, three thousand books, furniture and furnishings, a computer and software, mattresses, a water filter and even a home theatre system.
Located next to Bandra Gymkhana on the quiet D’Monte Park Road, the library is housed on the ground floor of Princess Building.
Saffron Tree turns five this year. Five. It has a nice ring to it. Mainly because five is an important number in many traditions. There is of course the ancient pentagram or the five pointed star, incidentally, dating back to the Vedas too, as a symbol of man, the five wounds of Christ, the five times a devout Muslim is called to prayer, the five symbols of Sikhism and not so sacred but oh so important, the five fingers on a hand. We at Saffron Tree however, decided to narrow our focus to Aristotle's five classical elements, namely, water, fire, earth, air and ether.As is usual, we bring you a veritable bonanza. Reviews, art and craft, our very popular Crocusword and interviews galore, of arborists, archeologists, environmentalists and more. Even as I type this I wonder if I've given you too much of a peek. Perhaps I have. So I'm going to stop here and leave you thirsting for more. What I will share with you, is our lovely banner, designed by the very talented Lavanya Karthik. Feast your eyes on it, folks and brace yourself for the smorgasbord ahead. As ever, spread the joy, share the beauty of the written word and tell the world that CROCUS 2011, is almost here.
maraa is happy to invite the city of Bangalore to City of Pieces: an urban festival of creative practices as part of the annual October Jam. City of pieces is a nine day festival that interrogates the violence of the everyday transformation of the city from the perspective of creative practice. It travels across different public and semi-public spaces, committed to reclaim dead, found and empty spaces in the city. City of pieces brings artists and creative practitioners to respond to the city we inhabit.
Maine story telling session ghar par hi 24.09.11 ki sham ko kiya. Main Burari me rahati hoon. Yeh North Delhi ka ek village hai. Vaise main pehle school mein padhati hoon aur bachcho ko kahani sunana mujhe bahut pasand hai. Is session mein mere saath mohalle ke 14-15 bachche jude. Age group 3-10 years tha. Mere pass printout to tha nahi isliye maine kahani 2-3 bar achchi tarah padh li thi. Sabse pahale maine unse International Girl Child Day ke baare me baat ki .Unhe hairani hui ki children's day,teacher's day ki tarah ye din bhi manaya jata hai. Uske baad maine unhe Neeche Se Upar kahani sunai. Unhe aur kahaniyan sunne ka man kar raha tha. Mere pass CBT ki Nirali Poshak aur Pratham Books ki Anootha Asia books thi. Maine in kitabon mein se unhe kahani sunai.
" Pratham Books Champion mein volunteer maine isliye kiya kyonki mujhe bachhon ke saath kaam karna pasand hai."
"Mere aas pass ka mahol aisa hai kikahani padhne sunne ko bekar ka kaam samjha jaata hai. Yaha kisi ke pass Champak, Nandan ke alava kuch aur nahi mil sakta. Aur Champak, Nandan bhi ginne chune log hi jaante hain. Khair, is activity ke kaaran bachchon ne meri kitabein dekhi aur tab se lagbhag har saptah main unhe koi na koi kahani suna deti hoon. Kahani sunte samay unke chehre dekhne layak hote hain aur uske bad kitab ke sath ve kafi der tak apas me kahani ki bate karte rahate hain."
Most of us living in urban spaces have traded our local sabji mandis for chain supermarkets. While supermarkets have the benefit of offering a better shopping experience in terms of a clean, organised and efficient environment; a farmers market or sabji mandi has many benefits as well. You are more or less assured fresh produce as anything that is not will give its self away by its appearance, smell and texture. Nothing is pre-peeled or cut and wrapped in cellophane. You’re also assured produce in their prime seasonally. No watermelons in December or strawberries in May.
This Diwali touch the lives of the little children in hospitals in a meaningful way, your simple diwali gift could range from a small box of sweets or a packet of crayons and colour books.
There are a number of children who spend Diwali in hospitals as they are suffering from various illnesses and who may not have anything to look forward to this Diwali. However, you can bring a difference to their life. Sometimes, all it takes is a little love and care so when you are busy in exchanging gifts with near and dear ones, just give a thought to bring little happiness to these kids. Join our volunteers to celebrate Diwali with kids in hospitals or just drop some gifts and sweets if you can’t make it.Click here to read about how you can donate or volunteer for this cause.
But as the saying goes that most good things do not come easy, books reaching out to one of the most important segment of the population seemed like a dream that was far fetched. Although only at first. The fact that there was a necessity to break this barrier began to take shape in a room when like-minded individuals brainstormed on the way forward. Getting books to go to where the children are was an idea that needed to be executed. For Rohini Nilekani, the task at hand was enormous considering the sheer numbers when it came to children who had no access to reading material. But she relentlessly pursued the idea, to the extent that she made a decision to let Pratham Books become an independent entity that can aggressively attack the insufficiency of accessibility an availability of books.
“I remember the discussion some of us were having about the issue and we were grappling with finding ways to beat it. That’s when I realised that if we needed to work this out, it had to be an institution by itself. That was the magnitude of the work required and I decided that I needed to shift my focus on this entirely. That’s how Pratham Books was initiated seven years ago,” stated the philanthropist and chairperson of Pratham Books.
And today, Pratham Books being one of the largest in the children’s publishing sector, it has reached out to many million children with over eight million books and nine million story cards shipped out across the nation to libraries, schools and other centres.
According to her, among the many reasons, one of missing puzzles was availability. She further added, “There was not much for children to read in general in the market and child-friendly books were very few. This lack of reading material can affect the entire ecosystem of reading. Especially in today’s time of textbook and knowledge based society and learning. It was imperative that children experience the joy of reading and what better way to inculcate this than with books that can appeal to the likes and understanding of a child? And that is how books published by us are designed. It had to be simple with good graphics with the visual complementing the text.”
The idea and effort, while started off with one person’s vision, had to be collaborated with various stakeholders to ensure sustainability. And Ms Nilekani was clear that bringing authors, illustrators and producers of books together to build a reading country while also relying on markets, philanthropists and the state who is responsible for its’ children, was of utmost importance for the goal to be accomplished.
It’s been a seven-year journey and Pratham Books continues to gear itself further towards more growth to be able to reach the 160 million kids in every nook and corner of the country, stated Ms Nilekani.
“It is about geography and technology. In the coming years, India’s broadband will be more widespread. We should also be poised for that technological milestone and while making technology more ubiquitous, make reading too synonymous with it. It is our hope that some day soon every child will be reading well,” she added.
Via Tulika Books
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