A little boy runs excitedly in the darkness, lit only by the light of a bright, bright moon. He is going with his mother and baby brother to the millet fields. As his mother works, he tries to make the most of the moonlit night with his newfound friend, a stray dog, while his brother sleeps... It takes an exceptional writer like Perumal Murugan to...
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...
Jokhu is the biggest, scariest, championest jokhini in the bamboo grove. She sits in a tree and makes everyone who goes by, from babies to bullies, shriek with fear. But one day, she meets a little girl whom she simply cannot scare. What will Jokhu do now? If she can’t be scary, then what can she be?Bold, dramatic pictures make the many demons from...
“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,...
A thunderbolt, a dog, a yawning lion, even a snake! Young ones can turn into all these and more in this playful, early introduction to yoga, a practice to keep body and mind healthy and happy. As one pose flows into another through lively verse and pictures, children get a feel of what their bodies can do, comfortably and joyfully. A perfect little bait...
translation Devashish Makhija 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...
“You shouldn’t trouble black ants, Kuhu. They are god’s little ants,” says Kuhu’s mother, as she stops her from catching a plump, wiggly black ant. If this really is god’s little ant, Kuhu thinks, then it should lead her to where god lives? And so begins little Kuhu’s sprightly search for the answer, as she starts to tail the ant to the most unlikely of...
Murali is being chased… by a parrot! Like all parrots this one keeps repeating what he says, but also keeps copying what he DOES. What kind of a bothersome bird is this that has Murali in a flap? Find out in this charming caper of a story! Adding whimsy to the chase is the fun-filled use of different languages. Playful pictures capture what it means to be...
Mannu the monkey has been waiting for this day – when the purply-shurply jamun are pulpy-shulpy ripe. But why isn’t there a single berry on or around the tree? Who could have eaten up all the jamun? Mannu swings into action to hunt for the jamun thief and… yes, someone’s trunk is definitely looking purple! The sixth juicy-shoocy story in the popular Baby...
When she sets her plastic bottle boat to bob from stream to sea, Ammu doesn’t know what danger she has set adrift – that it might end up in the belly of a whale. The light verse that follows the journey of the bottle boat evokes the casual carelessness with which we destroy the natural world, while illustrations underline that horror with a clever spin on...
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...
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...
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...
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
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...
Squiggles and swirls, loops and curls, diamonds and dots... and a small surprise! The little girl watches as her mother traces the cool, moist patterns on her palm. Then comes the waiting. The henna must dry, nothing must touch it – and she can be patient no longer! The art of drawing with henna takes on a little girl’s infectious thrill as decorative...
KALICHA KULICHA… Gajapati Kulapati dances in the mud. KALICHAKLOOOOCHA… he rolls in the mud. But when it’s time for a bath, he runs away…! With new sounds, familiar folk and zingy pictures, this is yet another laugh-out-loud read-aloud featuring the adorable elephant of the runaway hit series. 2020: Honor Book, Toka Box Top South Asian Book Award
The very first words Zakir hears from his famous father, Allarakha, are bols — rhythms played out on tablas! From then on, bols sing and dance in his head, on Amma’s cheeks, on the pots and pans in the kitchen… Sandhya Rao follows these beats, stringing together little vignettes from his life. From a childhood around music to the highs of a performer who...
“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...
Ammi weaves the most beautiful sarees, but never gets to wear any of them. Her two little daughters decide to do something about it – break their piggy bank! But is there enough in it to buy Ammi her very own saree? This gentle story goes into the home of a weaver’s family, and lets warmth and affection add colour to their lives. Engaging visual details...
Your family, the shape of your nose, what you love to eat, the words you use, what makes you happy or sad, the keepsakes you collect... Lots of little things come together to make you YOU, and me ME. This little picture book distills big ideas of evolution, biology, psychology and more for young minds. It conveys how each unique ME adds up to a diverse...
Something's fluttering around! It settles on a shoulder here, on a nose there… What is it? Where did it come from? And where is it going? Follow the splash of orange to find out! Lively illustrations with a vivid pop of colour put you on the trail of a story that needs no words.
Dhum Dhum Dhum… dhup dhup dhup… Dungi dances to a dhinchak beat in this foot-tapping story that will make young readers move and groove, clap and tap! Big sheep, small sheep, bored sheep, happy sheep… eye-catching visuals bring to life the dance and drama in a woolly world. 2018: Best of Indian Children's Writing: Contemporary
Wordless Picture Books 
Wordbird Books 
Our Myths 
Illustrated Classics 
First Look Science 
Thumb Thumb Books 
Baby Bahadur 
In Verse 
Under the Banyan 