by Rasil Kaur Ahuja Sikhs are ostensibly the most visible minority in the world, yet we remain near invisible in the books children read. Famous Sikh Gurus (Guru Nanak, Guru Arjan, Guru Har Gobind, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh) - Amar Chitra Katha comics - edited by Anant Pai Growing up in the India … Continue reading #INDIAKIDLIT – The Invisible Visibles – Sikh Representation in Children’s Literature
#INDIAKIDLIT – Strong, little known Indian women in history brought alive in contemporary literature
by Deepa Agarwal “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” - Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1751) The poet’s words are telling—they can apply to many women achievers in Indian history whose outstanding deeds have remained buried in the sands of time. … Continue reading #INDIAKIDLIT – Strong, little known Indian women in history brought alive in contemporary literature
#INDIAKIDLIT – Stories as a Brilliant Disguise
by Devashish Makhija When Ali Became Bajrangbali - by Devashish Makhija, illustrated. by Priya Kuriyan (Tulika Books, 2011) - available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, and Gujarati In ‘When Ali Became Bajrangbali’, a monkey is portrayed as being a god on the one hand while on the other hand, a monkey … Continue reading #INDIAKIDLIT – Stories as a Brilliant Disguise
#INDIAKIDLIT – Does India need its own Literary Canon?
by Maya Thiagarajan Here’s a question for you: What percentage of recent American college graduates have read the following American classics? To Kill A Mockingbird The Great Gatsby To be honest, I don’t have an accurate answer for you, but I’m willing to guess that the percentage would be quite high. These are books that … Continue reading #INDIAKIDLIT – Does India need its own Literary Canon?
#INDIAKIDLIT – Why why? And other questions for Indian children’s books
by Shalini Srinivasan Unlike a lot of my own readers, my reading journey was – and continues to be – fairly uneven. I read Are You My Mother? at the recommended age (4ish, if you’re wondering) and met Enid Blyton and then Moby Dick (much abridged and with false editorializing from my father) and proceeded … Continue reading #INDIAKIDLIT – Why why? And other questions for Indian children’s books
#INDIAKIDLIT – Why I retell old Indian stories for the young
by Roopa Pai The Vedas and Upanishads for Children - by Roopa Pai (2019) / The Gita for Children - by Roopa Pai (2015) Some stories stand the test of time. The core themes of Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, are recognizable tropes in modern film and theatre across the world, and his words have passed … Continue reading #INDIAKIDLIT – Why I retell old Indian stories for the young
#WORLDKIDLITMONTH – September 2022 – Slices of Indian Children’s Literature Served Up Over Time – #INDIAKIDLIT
by Karthika Gopalakrishnan India is a country of multitudes, made up of over a billion lives that intersect across lines of class, culture, language, and tradition, to coalesce into a thriving, proud, and fascinatingly curious whole. Composed of individual states, some of which are more populous than Brazil while others have roughly the same population … Continue reading #WORLDKIDLITMONTH – September 2022 – Slices of Indian Children’s Literature Served Up Over Time – #INDIAKIDLIT
#INTLYALITMONTH: Year of the Weeds by Siddhartha Sarma and Oonga by Devashish Makhija
Review by Katie Day Year of the Weeds by Siddhartha Sarma Oonga by Devashish Makhija I’m cheating a bit by insisting on reviewing two books today. But both are fictions based on an on-going political and environmental struggle over indigenous people’s lands and rights in India – and both deserve to be better known and … Continue reading #INTLYALITMONTH: Year of the Weeds by Siddhartha Sarma and Oonga by Devashish Makhija
#INTLYALITMONTH: The Secret Life of Debbie G. by Vibha Batra, illustrated by Kalyani Ganapathy
Review by Chris Fazenbaker The Secret Life of Debbie G. by Vibha Batra The Secret Life of Debbie G. revolves around the life of 16-year old Arya as she encounters and navigates major life changes. With her divorced mother remarrying, she struggles to adjust to her new blended family that includes classmates who are not … Continue reading #INTLYALITMONTH: The Secret Life of Debbie G. by Vibha Batra, illustrated by Kalyani Ganapathy
#INTLYALITMONTH: The Murderer’s Ape by Jakob Wegelius
Review by: Jason Roach The Murderer's Ape by Jakob Wegelius Sally Jones is a steamship engineer, but whether the broken machinery is an accordion, typewriter or airplane, she can put it right. Her bigger challenge over the course of Jakob Wegelius' wonderful The Murderer's Ape is to put right the lives of the humans in … Continue reading #INTLYALITMONTH: The Murderer’s Ape by Jakob Wegelius
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 