Elephant, boat, duck... all upside down? The author plays with a creative concept, and a twist in the tale, to bring the lush ambience of rural Kerala to young children.
Three days to go before a killer asteroid will end life on Earth! Everyone is in a panic. Everyone, that is, but Vanita, who has things to do. Such as saving the planet. She has a plan drawn up to the minutest detail. All pure science. With just a little help from fridge magnets, a little puppy – and a special ‘shrinking’ gift that she has. Manjula...
There are strange stories about the big forest at the edge of Arun’s house, and he has been told never to go there. But of course he MUST! So he slips away one day. It is like another world there, strange and beautiful. All is well until he breaks a “rule”… and has to face the fierce King Yaksha, spirit guardian of the forest, who gives him a very unusual...
This timely collection retells stories from mythology and folklore to focus on the need to protect, conserve and value water. Together with interesting facts and a timeline from earliest times, it makes a creative plea to readers of all ages to treat water, and, by extension, all life, with respect. Well-known writers draw upon the oral traditions of the...
Not everyone has two grandfathers quite like Amol’s! From the way they look to the way they speak, the food they eat and the way they think, they couldn’t be more different. But both are “interested in everything, afraid of nothing and capable of anything”. And they dote on Amol. This comes with perks, but it also means that Amol has to indulge them their...
Santosh travels alone from Mumbai, where he lives with his mother, to Kolkata, on holiday. He has secret plans to look for his father, whom he barely remembers. The train ride brings him into contact with people outside his sheltered world – a prelude to another, deeper, journey. With a light and honest touch, this book explores the emotional dilemma of a...
Meet Mayil Ganeshan, 12 going on spirited 13, who finally has her chance to say all she wants – in her diary. But this is also an important step towards becoming 'Mayilwriter', to make up for all the stories she hasn't completed and the novel that didn't know where it was going. What she gives is a spontaneous, sensitive, honest, intimate and often...
Every time GRACE – City Auto for Hire No. SD 013422 hears the Blue River tune, she gets a funny feeling. What is the Blue River? Why does it affect her so deeply? What lies beyond it? One day Grace revs up her engine and sets out to find out. Encountering new worlds, creatures, ways of life, and languages, it is a journey with experiences that range from...
Aren’t sex and gender the same thing? Either male or female, right? Of course men and women are equal – but who calls the shots at home? Does what you wear ‘invite trouble’? Do women need to be ‘controlled for their own good’? Why is being different from the majority such a problem? With gender issues hitting news hotspots, there are more and more...
Based on real accounts, this is an imagined story of a boy in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that hit several countries. It could also be the story of any child whose life is closely linked with nature. The narrative follows the feelings of the boy as he tries to comprehend the horror and bewilderment of the experience. Photographs, not of the...
Superhero action carved on rocks... A headless statue... Royal inscriptions on pillars... Glass fragments from a lost city... These may sound like clips from a fantasy thriller, but are in fact objects unearthed at archaeological sites — and the stories they throw up are just as exciting! This visually vibrant book has an interdisciplinary approach that...
From oppressive loneliness, Sonabai Rajawar 'makes' her way into a world of beauty and joy! This sensitive telling of her story follows her artistic journey from her first creations in clay, experiments with colours and light, play with pattern and design, to being embraced by the art world. Rich photographs make for a fascinating introduction to the life...
“What will happen if I add up all the numbers in the world?” “Is there a last number?” A toddler captivated by patterns... A little boy filling his slate with numbers, rubbing them out with his elbow and starting again... A teenager solving complex maths problems... A young man matching the best minds in Cambridge... Bringing the story of brilliant...
Whose colour is GREEN? asked the little boy.“It’s mine!” preened the parrot. “It’s mine! It’s mine!” babbled the bitter gourd.Whose colour is RED, YELLOW, BLUE…? The little boy doesn’t stop, and award-winning illustrator Nancy Raj creates for little readers a wild, whimsical world of colours! As bright hues jump and dance across the pages in this little...
This powerful film-to-novel sits deep in the clash between adivasis, naxalites, the CRPF and a rapacious mining company. But at the heart is little Oonga. Desperate to see a performance of ‘Sitaharan’, he goes on an epic journey to the big city – to return as the blue adivasi prince of the forest, Rama himself! And, Rama-like, he takes on the gun-wielding...
Zai’s uncle is the famous 'birdman of India' Salim Ali, everyone in her family is a birding expert, and she herself can’t so much as identify the pipit sitting right under her nose. In this delightful portrait of childhood, Zai Whitaker recounts her early birding woes and how she winged it. Prabha Mallya’s pictures pick up the humour, and are an arresting...
Gulab’s classmates call her ‘Stinky Gulab’, and it’s not because she smells. Her father is a manual scavenger, made to clean drains and gutters with his bare hands, even today! “Why do you do it?!” asks Gulab angrily. With determination and a little help from science, she takes the first bold step towards change. Addressing a deep-rooted social evil, the...
An Uncle From Far Away shows little Amiya’s class a storybook with beautiful pictures. Now they must build a library, he says. But how? “In Gurez, there are no storybooks. Only lots and lots of snow!” Well, Amiya knows that her Deidi has many stories in her old-old eyes. And over steaming cups of pink noon chai, Deidi begins, Amiya writes, her sister...
Teeny-tiny ANTs Are busy Always working Never dizzy! Then there are flitty-witty Bats, inky-winky Crows, heehaw Donkeys and a sprightly animal-rhyme for every letter. With bright-bold cutout pictures, this is just the sort of exciting alphabet book to start off teeny-tiny readers, while older ones relish its rhythms! 2022: Tata Trust's Parag Honour List
“What colour shall I be?” wonders the baby bird. And as her feathered friends hop forward one by one to claim their own colour as best, they pick out hues from across the country. Pink like Kutch flamingos, purple like fiery Naga chillies, red like the Satpura’s palash, black like Bhadra panthers… Vibrant palettes take us on a visual journey across India,...
Where is Baba? Why is he not back yet? Jhupli is restless as evening sets in. Her father has gone into the dense jungle to gather honey and she is afraid. Because there are tigers in the forest. Because people sometimes go inside and never come out. Must Baba go in danger every day? Jhupli has an idea – honey boxes!Mood-filled pictures and text weave...
Bumoni’s big backyard, just outside the Kaziranga National Park, is bursting with banana trees. Then one night a herd of wild elephants crosses the river, discovers the trees, and gorges on them. Bumoni’s family is very upset – how do they keep the elephants away? Bumoni has an idea! But then, what will the elephants eat now? Spare but dramatic pictures...
design Nina Sabnani We are tall tumbling treesWe are berries in the breezeWe are tigers, we are haresWe are rumbling rolling bears… The rhythm of the verse draws us beat by beat into a forest, lush and alive. But who are the ‘we’, so steeped in every part of it? Words and pictures sing together in this light and glorious ode to nature and...
One day, when Prime Minister Nehru opened his overstuffed mail bag, out tumbled hundreds of colourfully decorated letters — from children in Japan! “We have never seen a live elephant,” they said. “Could you kindly send us one from India?” This exuberant picture book takes readers across land and sea to tell how Indira, Ambika, Murugan and others became...
