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
#WorldKidLitMonth & #DutchKidLit Wrap-Up – Children’s Book Week 2021 “Be what you want to be!”
It is one of those questions that you often get as a child: do you already know what you want to be when you grow up? Fortunately, you don't have to choose a study or profession until the end of secondary school. Until then, you can fantasize about many professions, for example by reading books about them.-- … Continue reading #WorldKidLitMonth & #DutchKidLit Wrap-Up – Children’s Book Week 2021 “Be what you want to be!”
#DutchKidLit – The Female Gothic and Lampie and the Children of the Sea by Annet Schaap
Like all good fairytales, Lampie and the Children of the Sea starts with things going horribly wrong for a young, vulnerable heroine. Lampie's name is a nickname that reflects her purpose, as she is in charge of lighting the lamp every night at the lighthouse where she lives with her drunken, lame father. She is … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – The Female Gothic and Lampie and the Children of the Sea by Annet Schaap
#DutchKidLit – The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt
"De brief voor de Koning" image via Trouw Post by guest author Aaron Tyo-Dickerson from the International School of The Hague.Dutch author Tonke Dragt was born in 1930 in the city of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (Jakarta, Indonesia today). Only a year younger than Anne Frank, Dragt’s adolescence was also interrupted dramatically by … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt
#DutchKidLit – Virtual Field Trip to the “I Am Frog” and “ABC with the Animals and Me” Exhibits at the Children’s Book Museum
Today's post is a virtual field trip to the Children's Book Museum in The Hague, just a short bicycle ride from my house. This is my second trip to the museum to research #DutchKidLit for this month of posts, with the goal of learning more about the connections between early childhood Dutch books and the … Continue reading #DutchKidLit – Virtual Field Trip to the “I Am Frog” and “ABC with the Animals and Me” Exhibits at the Children’s Book Museum
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 