Nina Sabnani is an illustrator, animator and film-maker, currently a Professor at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. Until recently she taught at NID, Ahmedabad, and served as the coordinator of the Animation and New Media disciplines for several years. Mukund and Riaz, both as an animated film and illustrated book published by Tulika, won critical acclaim internationally. Deux Amis, its French edition, was launched by Syros at the Paris Book fair in March 2007. This simple, endearing story of two friends dealing with Partition has also been published in Pakistan by Oxford University Press. Nina has illustrated and created several books for Tulika, such as Best Friends and Home, which is an innovative and contemporary adaptation of the craft and art of the kaavad, a storytelling medium from Rajasthan. Of these, My Mother's Sari was selected as an Outstanding International Book for 2007 in the U.S.A. Stitching Stories, her latest book, is based on her award-winning documentary Tanko Bole Chhe (The Stiches Speak). She has also designed the award winning My Gandhi Story.
There isn't a drop of water in the village. The desperate people set off to find a badwa who can ask the gods to send rain. And what does he tell them to do? Go home and paint! An origin story about Bhil art with stunning illustrations in the traditional pithora style.
Everyone has their own story of Gandhi — and in this book a Warli artist, a storyteller and an animation filmmaker come together in a unique collaboration to bring a very visual story of Gandhi to children.
Brilliantly adapted from a traditional storytelling form, the kaavad, this unusual stand-up book offers a contemporary, interactive look at ideas of identity and belonging.
A child's imagination transforms a sari into a train, a river, a swing... and many things magical. The unconventional pictures combine photographs and acrylics in dramatic, original ways.
Friendship knows no partition or barbed wire fencing, and all children feel the loss of friends. A moving reading experience with strong visuals using the art of appliqué work common to India and Pakistan.
A popular idea is re-presented in a new, appealing way to show how everyone is connected. The strong illustrations are a visual journey of expanding horizons, from house to universe.
Based on a real friendship between a child and a tree, this gentle story is warmed by dramatic pictures in rich colours.
A small boy loves colour and so he paints and paints. Repetition makes language learning easy, and dramatic pictures draw children into a world of colour.
A fictional take based on research on how zero came to be used in mathematical calculations. Was it Muchu the merchant's idea? Illustrations have bright earthy colours and textures.
What do ancient fragments of cloth found in Egypt have to do with modern-day Gujarat? The answer starts with A — and sets us off through the alphabet, building with blocks of a very different kind! A for Ajrakh, B for Bagh, C for Chhipa… Each letter sparks off an aspect of block printing on textile, so that by Z for Zafran what we get is a fascinating...
Based on the award-winning documentary Tanko Bole Chhe (The Stitches Speak), this gorgeously visual book looks at the evolution of narrative art through stitches.
Storytellers Pappuram and Kojaram have their own stories about why Ganesha is worshipped first. They open their kaavads, the storytelling boxes, and begin — and finally realise that the stories may be different, but they're essentially still the same! A comment on the nature of myths.
