Thambi takes a piece of paper, tears it into a square, pastes two sticks on it, ties a string and then flies it high in the sky. It's a kite! This beginner reader is part of the Thumb Thumb Books series, created around the common thumbprint and featuring Thumb Thumb Thangi and Thumb Thumb Thambi. Short sentences, bold type and vibrant visuals make entry...
Shh, Thangi is sleeping. The caterpillar crawls, the cat yawns... then a plate clatters to the ground. Thangi wakes up. Oh no! This beginner reader is part of the Thumb Thumb Books series, created around the common thumbprint and featuring Thumb Thumb Thangi and Thumb Thumb Thambi. Short sentences, bold type and vibrant visuals make entry into reading...
Mannu, Chandu, Anna and Akka are fed up of Hutoxi the horse — she snorts and scolds and spoils their fun. And then suddenly one day, Hutoxi disappears. Where has she gone? Will she never come back? The bossy-horsy fifth story in the ever popular series about Bahadur the baby elephant!
One naughty little cat with an orange tail and pointy ears is lost! Minnie goes looking for her Pooni, and steps onto a busy city street filled with people to talk to and things to look at. Writer-artist-cartoonist Manjula Padmanabhan’s humour-filled pictures with delightful details invite us to join in the search – for the cat who is always just one step...
After a school trip to the zoo, Amma is surprised that Meera has seen no animals – not a monkey, a lion, or even a giraffe... But why did Meera see no animals there? Her lively mother forgets to ask! Zestful pictures capture the hilarious inversion of role play.
The tiger, a popular character in Korean art and folktales, is a villain in this origin tale which has illustrations inspired by kamishibai, Japanese paper theatre. Having gobbled up the rice cake-seller and all her rice cakes, the tiger chases her two small children. But they escape. And the tiger? Although in the traditional ending the tiger too dies,...
The sage Vyasa enlists Ganesha's help to write the Mahabharata — at a price! This is the well-known story about the writing down of the long and multi-layered epic that is the Mahabharata. Presented with lively humour and great affection, it shows the very recognisable human dilemmas faced by Vyasa and Ganesha. Delightful pictures enable a new generation...
Valmiki has barely put down his pen after completing his magnificent creation, the epic Ramayan, when he realises he has competition. The sage Narad tells him that there is a better Ramayan, written by Hanuman. Valmiki is devastated! As the story of Hanuman's Ramayan unfolds, humorously and gently, so does the idea that there is no one version of the...
Keshav's favourite game is to hide in a rolled up mat and pretend he is travelling to all the places he has marked in his atlas. And he is delighted when he discovers that his friend, Lobsang, is really from a place that he has marked in his map – Tibet! A charmingly imagined story that explores the reality of exile and the longing for home. Charm and...
Ali did not know how to really see until he looked closely at a spider's web through his father's camera... The nature of relationships in the human and natural world are subtly presented through warm illustrations and revealing photographs.
Sabri draws wherever she can. On the floor of the hut with rough chalk, or with her one and only pencil on paper from old notebooks. She draws her world – the sun coming up from behind the hills, the chicken, the goats... Then one day in school she sees long colour pencils, and paint that comes out of bottles. After that it isn't enough for her to draw –...
Ju’s mother brings her hand-me-downs from the homes in which she works and Ju welcomes them like new friends. She especially loves the well-used textbooks and the treasures sometimes hidden among their pages: pressed flowers, poems, even a dead butterfly. Then one day Ju discovers a sealed envelope in a maths book, which has a stamp but no address... In...
This unusual, interactive stand-up book adapts a traditional Indian storytelling style. The Kaavad is a portable wooden shrine used by Rajasthani storytellers. Its many-hinged panels display vibrantly painted scenes from local myths and folktales. The Kaavadiya Bhat narrates the stories, opening up panels, pointing with a peacock feather. In much the same...
When Paytu the pig goes on a sugarcane walk with Amma the elephant and Hutoxi the horse, she asks Anna and Akka to look after her babies. But the two elephant teenagers get busy in a game of coconut-football... and the piglets disappear! The muddy-buddy fourth story in the ever popular series about Bahadur the baby elephant!
The great Mor Khan is coming from the city to choose actors for his new film. The birds of the jungle are in a flutter. How do they bag a role? The smart city crow steps in to help – and also settle scores with Vulture. In this zippy take on filmdom, the bird-loving author cleverly casts actual bird species and builds the story around their looks. Rich...
When living happily together becomes difficult, the creatures of the world decide that the largest group among them should rule the world. In the race for numbers, it looks as though one shy creature is going to make the difference. Based loosely on an Australian Aboriginal tale and with elements of Indian and Aboriginal art, this story demonstrates a...
When he takes his sheep and goats to the mountains, Gulla is always careful – of bears and leopards, the terrible Banbudhiya, and the men with guns. But one day, rushing to save a little hangul from wild dogs, he goes deep into the forest. This story from Kashmir, where the hangul is a protected animal, carries many shades of the region – the quiet life...
Where is Crocodile? This warm story explores the thoughts, feelings and imagined fears shared by friends when one of them suddenly goes missing. Delicate and complex emotions are handled with simplicity, while the pictures capture mood, motion and confusion with a light touch and a lot of heart. The book came out of a workshop in which writers and...
A warm afternoon, a fruit-laden tamarind tree, four boys in search of something to do… Join them as they pick the fruit and climb the tree. Loving attention to little details about the self, other and environment make magical a child's experience of the everyday. A dynamic tranquility pervades the story, drawing the reading child into a contemplative...
Kapila Aunty is teaching the little chameleons how to change colour, one at a time. But Kamini gets excited and goes red, purple, green, yellow . . . she just can’t stop! The flashy-splashy third story in the ever popular series about Bahadur the baby elephant!
The sari Mother wears every day is sometimes a train, sometimes a river, or a swing, or a hiding place… Children have a way of seeing things differently! The pictures too break away from conventional depictions of both saris and children, combining photographs and acrylic in dramatic, original ways, with spare text that weaves and winds. 2007:...
When the clouds begin to rumble, out tumbles the naughty wind Jhakkad. Oooo... he blows looking for mischief. The rich, evocative illustrations sweep the reader through this one stormy night.
How did the Warlis first begin to paint their walls with shining, white images? The paintings of the Warli people of Maharashtra are famous worldwide for their simplicity as much as liveliness. Beginning with the story of little Shirvi who wants to give her parents a happy surprise, author Shamim Padamsee takes a whimsical journey into how the art may...
With great imagination, Brahma the creator has fashioned all things on earth, even the greedy caterpillar. One day, however, it chomps its way through his colourful garden and Brahma gets very angry. But then, it was Brahma himself who gave the caterpillar its huge hunger, wasn’t it? So what was the caterpillar to do? And now, what will Brahma do? An...
Wordless Picture Books 
Wordbird Books 
Our Myths 
Illustrated Classics 
First Look Science 
Thumb Thumb Books 
Baby Bahadur 
In Verse 
Under the Banyan 