Tag Archives: children’s literature

India: Bookaroo to come to Delhi for its 6th children’s literature festival

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It is the big outing-of-the-year for the children of Delhi when Bookaroo comes to town. The children’s literature festival is all set for its sixth edition on November 23 and 24.

Organised by the Bookaroo Trust, this year’s edition of the festival moves to a bigger and more central venue. To be held at the Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) on Rajendra Prasad Road, Bookaroo 2013 has a bigger spread of events than before with a special focus on young adult fiction, this time. Read more

India: Literature for children focus at World Book Fair 2014

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Literature for children will be the focus at the upcoming edition of New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF) with Poland being chosen as the Guest of Honour country.

“We are happy to join hands with a country like Poland which has had four Nobel laureates in literature. The association will be fascinating and facilitate rich exchange of literature between two countries,” says A Sethumadhavan, Chairman, National Book Trust (NBT).

He was speaking at the at the launch of the translation of a Polish book titled “Little Chopin” here recently.

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Kolkata celebrates Children’s literature

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The second edition of Kolkata Festival of Children’s Content (KFCC) – the only such event in India – kicked off on a musical note on Monday.

Inaugurated by singer, composer and actor Anindya Chattopadhyay with the signature Boimelar Gaan, the festival has an open-to-all book fair and workshops on publishing and illustration. Students of other schools are free to participate in the celebration of culture and creativity organized by The National Book Trust and Publishers and Booksellers Guild in collaboration with The Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture. Read more

Children’s literature finds new shelf space in India

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Indian writing for children is going places.

Consider this: the book Elephants Never Forget by Anushka Ravishankar has sold 2.52 lakh copies worldwide. Do!, by Gita Wolf, has sold 1.11 lakh copies. These are just the bestsellers. A few other titles published by Tara Books, one of the more recognised names in book publishing abroad, has seen sales cross the 50,000 mark.

The Chennai-based publisher’s books have been translated into 19 languages, including Hebrew, Afrikaans and Castillan. “Our direct sales in North America and the UK in the last few years have gone from strength to strength,” says Maegan Chadwick-Dobson, communications manager at Tara Books.

Tulika Publishers is another publisher that has expanded its base abroad. It publishes in English and nine Indian languages and has sold rights for over 66 titles to foreign publishers, all of whom have registered increased sales. “The books are moving really well,” says Aneesha Vijaykumar, who handles marketing and promotions at Tulika. “People are looking for books for children from India.
They say the books are very Indianised; the culture is of great interest.”

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Workshop: The Duckbill Workshop, Chennai

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Duckbill, in association with the Book Building, is happy to announce the next in their series of workshops on writing for children.

Location: Tara Books Book Building
Plot No. 9, CGE Colony
Off Kuppam Beach Road
Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600 041
India
Phone no: +91 44 42601033
Landmark: Thiruvanmiyur Fish Market

Duration: Friday, August 9 to Sunday, August 11 2013, 9.00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m

Number of participants: Maximum 20

Conducted by: Anushka Ravishankar

Assisted by: Sayoni Basu

Scope of the Workshop: Fiction for children; the target ages can be anything between 7 and 14 years. We are not, therefore, working with picture books or YA books. The workshop is structured to give an overview of contemporary children’s literature, genres and trends, and an understanding of the craft of writing for children. The goal is to enable each participant to explore the kind of stories that they want to tell. The participants have the option of submitting a synopsis and/or a few chapters of a book they want to write. We will give one-on-one feedback on each submission.

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Sharjah to host first IBBY meet on children’s literature

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Under the patronage of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the first conference of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) for the Region of Central Asia and North Africa (CANA), will open on Sunday.

Organised by the UAE Board on Books for Young people (UAEBBY) for the first time in the region, the two-day conference will be held in Sharjah under the theme of “Bringing Books and Children Together,” at the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on April 21-22.

The conference will bring together 40 speakers, including children’s authors, illustrators, publishers, librarians, storytellers, academics, and other experts in the field of children’s literature from the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Canada, France, Sweden, Egypt, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Morocco, and other countries.

The organisers of the conference aims to ensure that every child has the right to become a reader, discuss the current status of the children’s book industry and highlight initiatives that aim to promote reading among children, and in light of the major challenges facing such efforts due to the civil unrest and political events affecting the CANA region.

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Children of a lesser award

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When the Crossword book awards are announced (today, according to the website), there will be no award in the category of children’s writing. Children’s writing has been awarded in the past two editions, but this year the category of awards carries only an ‘honorary shortlist’ comprising five books.

After the announcement of the shortlist last month, the jury issued a statement saying, “Writing for children demands the best and the freshest of a writer’s imagination, backed by a high degree of editorial skill. The listed books are good reads and tackle a variety of themes, but in the meld of originality, ideas, and narrative skill, they fall short. We looked for empathy rather than discrimination, fun rather than instruction, audacity rather than political correctness, wonder rather than world-weary ennui – and came away disappointed. We didn’t find the quality of timelessness that so distinguishes award-winning material. We have listed five books for honourable mention. There is no award this year.”

Paro Anand, author of the recently published Wild Child and Other Stories and part of the jury that awarded the first prize for children’s writing in 2010, finds the gesture to have a honorary shortlist in place of an award condescending. She accepts the organisation’s premise that a prize should not be awarded simply because it has existed in the past, but “it (children’s literature) has been such a dedicated journey by a dedicated few, that to say they didn’t find even one book worthy of a prize is simply unacceptable.”

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