Class and communal differences fade into the background as a shared passion for sport steps into the spotlight in this picture book. Girls on Wheels, in author Srividhya Venkat’s words, is “a work of fiction inspired by the skateboarding revolution in India.”

The story is centered around 3 girls—Damini, Sana, and Anila—who are all headed to the skate park. Damini steps out the door of her home—an unassuming concrete house with an asbestos roof and a makeshift door—and whizzes down the road on her skateboard, as the shops in her locality open and vendors move from door to door hawking their wares.

Sana steps out with a helmet snugly fitted on her hijab, wearing a kurta and leggings, along with her elbow and knee pads, as she stops to feed the stray dogs en route to the skate park—fully comfortable with who she is, and where she is headed.

Anila is seen approaching the skate park, riding in the back of a car, her mood apprehensive as she’s just recovering from a fall and a broken bone. 

When the girls meet, they are excited to be together again. Disregarding the taunts from the boys at the scene, it is her friends whom Anila turns to when she feels a pang of fear at the thought of being hurt. The three gravitate towards each other for encouragement when they stumble. Kate Wadsworth’s empathic illustrations help bring alive their jubilation as well as their trepidation, the highs and the lows, as Damini, Sana, and Anila zoom across the page on their illustrated skateboards.

With a hat tip to Indian skateboarders such as Kamali Moorthy and Atita Verghese from southern India, as well as Asha Gond from central India, this book sets out to help girls see themselves as being able to be exactly who they want to be, to feel exuberant and free.

Girls On Wheels
Written by Srividhya Venkat
Illustrated by Kate Wadsworth
ISBN: 9780593529287
Kokila, 2023

You can buy a copy here* or find it at a library.

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Karthika Gopalakrishnan is the Head of Reading at Neev Academy, Bangalore, and the Director of the Neev Literature Festival. In the past, she has worked as a children’s book writer, editor, and content curator at Multistory Learning which ran a reading program for schools across south India. Prior to this, Karthika was a full-time print journalist with two national dailies. Her Twitter handle is g_karthika.