Tulika Publishers

Tulika's 2011

2011-12-30T13:33:00.001+05:30

THE YEAR IN BOOKS AND EVENTS

JANUARY began with momos, ghos, kiras and the smell of juniper honey in the air and many, many postcards from Ura. Meanwhile, Kabir wove his magic into cyberspace and Tulika’s Panchatantra animals funked themselves out in t-shirts, on mugs and more in the BOOKs+ line.

FEBRUARY came and a little voice called out to a lonely king and queen who rushed to find it with Deepa Balsavar in the Kala Ghoda Festival, Mumbai and Uma Ky and Uma Ki painted the town green with Out of the Way! Out of the Way! We also turned fifteen!

MARCH met Mayil Ganeshan, her Amma, Appa, Thatha, her brother Thamarai and read her diary despite threats from slightly scary looking monsters on the first page. Nina Sabnani’s stitches told a story every bit as visually compelling as her multiple award-winning film.

APRIL belonged to the ladies. Spirited Siri went in search of a smile, mischievous Mala chik-chik-chummed and curious Kunku uncovered The Mystery of Blue. Pippi rocked the NSD stage in their production Socho! Jab Sab Ulta Ho, while Rafiki Workspace in Bangalore adapted The Aditi Adventures for a theatre workshop.

MAY dreamt of magical bowls and giving spirits so Sandhya Rao took Asha Hanley's The Enchanted Saarang to Bookaroo in Kashmir and Nina Sabnani took Home to the Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore. In Mumbai, Gillo Gilehri’s play Kyun-Kyun Ladki brought to life one of Tulika’s favourite girls – Moyna. On Rabindra Jayanti, Tulika launched 11 books in Braille with The Third Eye Charitable Trust. Online – this kweezzz was dinomite.

JUNE said blue was the new green and we took one look at Let’s Plant Trees and couldn’t help but nod. Its tree-loving author planted seeds on World Enviroment Day with lots of kids at Mother Earth, Bangalore. We also dug the blues of Grace, City Auto for Hire No. SD 01 3422 and decided to look for the Blue River.

JULY rained cats and dogs. Miaow! said the black cat with green eyes. Bowwow! said Purple Jojo and bookworms in Goa loved him so much, they baked jojo-shaped cookies. Ken Spillman hit Mumbai’s schools with Advaita the Writer and Husain roamed (barefoot, of course) in Bamboo House, Delhi.

AUGUST flew with Padma to eat star-rock salad from Galaxy Stellar 5689, to the cozy Kitab Khana with Ken to meet Advaita, to Jumpstart 2011, Delhi with Radhika, to Little People Tree, Hyderabad with the magnificent Black Panther. The kaka decided to sit pretty in the Tulika Bookstore, imagine words and puzzle over The World Tour Mystery.

SEPTEMBER travelled all the way from Kutch, Gujarat to Kala Ghoda, Mumbai with Raniben and Meghiben to discuss the craft of Stitching Stories with Nina Sabnani and to Goa to the very first Publishing Next Conference. The Tulika Book Club was launched at Nurture Montessori School in Chennai and Bangalore.

OCTOBER sat up as the chemma chekka world of Oluguti Toluguti came to life. At the Kids Central launch in Chennai, everyone hopped onto the railgaadi and rhymed away! Simultaneously, the ebook with audio went live. Storytruck’s Mohan Rao brought to life the book in its digital avatar. Craig Jenkins tucked a magic feather behind his ear and told Tulika stories to awestruck children at Hutchins High, Pune. Tulika Books USA was at Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin. Nandini Nayar launched My Grandfather’s Stick at Little People Tree, Secunderabad. Saffron Tree's lovely online book festival CROCUS 2011 featured Radhika Chadha and Vayu Naidu. Radhika was at the 8th Festival of Books for Children (29th October - 6th November) in Guwahati.

NOVEMBER knocked itself out with back to back book launches, readings and performances. The Oluguti Toluguti Express went non-stop, Advaita went on a whirlwind tour of schools and NGOs, Jeeva Aunty was on a roll at the Tulika Book Fair in American International School, Chennai. Radhika went to The Hay Festival in Tiruvananthapuram and participated in Damroo, an International Seminar on Creating Content(ment) for Children in IDC, IIT Bombay. Sandhya, Helen and Shweta went to Bookaroo, Delhi, while lots of Tulika Books went to The Hundreds Hands Festival, Bangalore under the capable hands of Rachna. And Dokkhin Rai? He was everywhere. But Bon Bibi kept an eye on him.

DECEMBER is nearly over but we’re not done, not yet. Two gorgeous tree books have made quiet entrances – The Coral Tree and Magnolias. With New Year’s just around the corner, we have lots more in store. We'll be doing a post on forthcoming titles very soon so keep visiting. For regular updates on new books, events and tulika buzz, don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and on our Youtube channel.

Warm wishes for the new year from the entire Tulika team to our authors, illustrators, translators, typesetters, printers, friends, well-wishers, partners, fans and children's book lovers everywhere. Have a great one!

Titles 2011

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Ken's School Sessions: Part 2

2011-12-29T12:08:00.000+05:30

Never have I received so many flowers. Never have I received so many handmade gifts in appreciation of my writing. I received artworks, handmade books, a collection of the pupils’ stories, handwritten notes of welcome. One girl even gave me a book from her own collection. What an honour it was to be in the midst of such people, so generous in their appreciation!

I was scheduled to run two one-hour sessions at Usha Martin School Dankuni, beginning at 11.00, but arrived early and was immediately swept up in the pulsating atmosphere. It was straight to work! I had promised to read stories from Tulika’s great range of picture books to the younger students, and they loved this. I enjoyed using The Magic Feather– such a great introduction to the magical world of books. I narrated Black Panther too, making the kids to use their ownbinoculars to see all the animals it features. It was so very cute to see little handsaround eyes, peering forth... "I see elephants!"

The older students were just as wonderful. Teachers and kids alike had prepared for my visit like no other school in India. Kids were brought to Dankuni from two other Usha Martin campuses, to say that the large groups were attentive would be an understatement. Many had read my book ‘Advaita the Writer’, and classes had been hard at work writing about it – reflecting on its themes, and producing drawings. There were even models of the train Advaita takes from Delhi to Dehradun, and a model of Advaita in herbedroom with her sister nearby, and of course Advaita’s special bookshelf.

I talked and interacted non-stop from 9.30 until 3.30, and by the end my voice was feeling the pinch. There were questions galore! Many were deep and perceptive, and it was obvious to me that many of the kids come from families that attach real value to literature. What struck me most, however, was Usha Martin’s warmth. Hearts and minds were open and engaged – in fact, joyous. More than one child told me that it was the 'greatest day' of their life, a day they would ‘never, ever forget’. To receive the love of readers - what greater reward could there be for a writer?

Ken Spillman

It's Magic!

2011-12-15T12:32:00.000+05:30

Ken Spillman did an animated reading of The Magic Feather to the little ones at Usha Martin School, Kolkata. Notes from his session:

I particularly enjoyed reading this picture book to the children, from lower KG to Grade 2, because it highlights the major theme of my interactions with kids – the magic of books. It was also a pleasure to read because each turning of the page brings transformation of the landscape – the landscape of the imagination.

I read the words slowly and deliberately, with pauses at the end of sentences and pages. ‘Can you see the girl?’ I asked at the end of the first page. ‘Look at her hair!’

When the owl hooted, I hooted too and unfolded my wings. When it dropped a feather, I picked it up carefully from the page and asked the kids to look at it. Then I placed it behind the ear of one of the girls. ‘It looks nice, doesn’t it?’ I asked the kids – and they agreed. By the time we got to the next page-spread, the land of feathers, their eyes were wide with wonder and they were definitely in that land too.

I made a frog sound, then a vanishing sound – whoosh! Then I picked up the lily, and placed it in a boy’s hair. ‘Pretty!’ I said – and of course he laughed. ‘Let’s count the lilies,’ I suggested to the youngest of the groups when we turned the page.

Then I roared – before I even showed the kids the tiger. They liked this surprise, and called out ‘Tiger’ when I opened the book again. I picked up the stone, and placed it in my hair. ‘Oh dear, not enough hair,’ I said, watching the stone drop to the floor. I picked it up again and placed it in the long hair of a girl.

We finger-walked across the land of stones and met a worm. My finger became the worm. ‘Look, maybe it’s a bookworm?’ My finger disappeared into The Magic Feather, peeped out the top. I opened the book with the girl and read the next part in an excited voice, faster. Finding the girl’s friends became a big moment, and could have been the end of the book for some of the youngest. I gestured to indicate that we were the girl’s friends…

But the best was still to come. I paused after each word in the list – kings and queens, animals and gods,palaces and forests, leaping tigers, staring frogs, hooting owls – and also added a few things of the top of my head, including ‘girls and boys like you’.

Finally we would get to ‘and a magic feather’. At that point, I would retrieve the feather from behind my chosen girl’s ear, throw it up in the air, and watch it flutter to the floor.

We would then talk briefly about the magical world of story…

Ken's School Sessions: Part 1

2011-12-14T16:09:00.000+05:30

On his trip to India, author Ken Spillman visited different schools in Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. He shares insights from some school sessions.

An aspect of India that strikes many visitors is the chasm that separates the haves and the have-nots. On my own visits, I’ve been impressed and inspired by the work of many individuals, foundations and NGOs who work to improve the lot of the latter.

In a professional capacity my interactions with Indian schoolkids began in 2008, but as a writer of books in English my contact with economically disadvantaged children was, until quite recently, negligible. In July 2011, through Akshara Foundation, I was able to run sessions with children at community libraries in the poorer neighbourhoods of Bangalore, and I was thrilled to return to one of these in November. In the same month, I connected with Seagull Foundation in Kolkata and had some lovely experiences with kids in the PeaceWorks programme. Between Bangalore and Kolkata, thanks to the initiative of Tulika Books, I was also able to interact with some of Chennai’s disadvantaged kids.

First stop was Olcott School where, I was told, the students are predominantly the children of Chennai’s fisher folk. Immediately apparent was the peace and tranquillity of the school – it’s a large, well-treed place that shuts out much of the city noise, and its bungalow-style buildings are far from institutional. Tulika’s Chrishelle David and I were welcomed very warmly by the principal (and founder), and then escorted to an open-walled shelter where the kids were waiting. They were seated on the floor in straight rows, and I sensed the anticipation that comes hand in hand with rare occurrences. Heads turned and eyes were wide as they scrutinised me, so I began by breaking down the formality of the occasion. It wasn’t hard – kids everywhere want to relax and have fun! Their command of English was less than commanding,with most hesitant to ask questions in English in front of their peers. Nevertheless, by session’s end we were great friends. I was surrounded by kids wanting to tell or ask me something, communicating quite adequately in English, and it was clear that they didn’t want me to leave. I’m sure they understood the messages I take everywhere, that imagination is precious and that books can feed it like little else.

My second experience with disadvantaged children in Chennai was at the Nari Kuravar School for orphans, run by NGO Bhumi. Perhaps the biggest challenge about this school was finding it – and I hate to think how long the kids were waiting for us, upward of a hundred of them seated cheek-by-jowl in a single classroom. We were greeted by Bhumi volunteers, and a cheer went up as we were ushered inside. With age variation, a language barrier and overcrowding, I knew immediately that making our session worthwhile would be challenging. To the best of my ability, I communicated simply, with actions, and with volunteers acting as interpreters when necessary. My focus was not on books – it was on story. Having long been interested in the area of story therapy, it occurred to me that these were kids who should be given voice, kids who would benefit if encouraged to tell their own stories. To assist those children who responded to my invitation to tell a story, I asked them to tell it to a volunteer, who would briefly translate it for me before broadcasting it to the group. This process took time, but it paid dividends because the stories were highly entertaining. It demonstrated to the kids that they too were imaginative storytellers and that they could receive the affirmation – and have fun – through stories. Later I spoke to volunteers about this, encouraging them to work with smaller groups of kids, utilising story to build confidence and as a means of articulating and sublimate anxieties.

I’m grateful to Tulika Books for facilitating these visits. Its publication of great books in Indian languages gives Tulika wide reach, and its commitment to children of all backgrounds is expressed often and in many ways. Taking me to schools where sales of my book Advaita the Writer (published only in English) could not be expected to ensue underlines that commitment. For me, it’s always a privilege to meet kids. What they bring to this world is what I most like to talk about – imagination. There is capacity in each and every child. All I try to do is stretch it.

Visit www.kenspillman.com to know more about Ken and his work.

Tulika at Bookaroo 2011

2011-11-30T16:52:00.000+05:30

Writer and editor Sandhya Rao talks about Indian dinostars, Stone Eggs and the lifelike dino robot that got everyone's attention at Helen Rundgren's session, while writer Swetha Prakash who took Padma to space and to Bookaroo 2011 shares her notes.

Dino Delights

A chip of fossilized dinosaur eggshell, a tiny piece of dino bone, a real – and sharp! – billions of years old tooth still good for a sharp nick … what more could dino lovers and others have asked for? Kids and others got to touch and feel dino ‘items’ and find out all about Indian dinosaurs thanks to Helen Rundgren’s book with Tulika, Stone Eggs: A Story of Indian Dinosaurs at Bookaroo children’s literature festival in Delhi this past week.

And yes, she was there too, having flown down from Stockholm especially to participate in Bookaroo. Armed with bananas, an Afghan melon, and her precious dino treasures… what were the bananas for you ask? Well, said Helen, that’s to show how big the T Rex’s teeth may have been. And the Afghan melon? That’s how big and sort of heavy a dino egg might have been. Not bigger? someone asked. Even an ostrich lays eggs almost this big. No, said Helen, because the bigger the egg, the thicker the shell and the more difficult it would be for the little one to emerge. Hmm, something to think about. Also, she pointed out, the thicker the shell, the less porous it will be…. Little ones survive inside eggs because the porous shell allows them to breathe. Hmm, something else to think about.

Children had plenty to think about and guess at, at both of Helen’s sessions at Bookaroo on November 25^th, and November 27^th, during which it became clear that dinosaurs didn’t just roam somewhere else, but in India as well. In fact, said Helen, we had no dinos in Sweden! But in India there is the Indosuchus raptorius, the Barapasaurus tagorei, the Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis and the king of them all, the Rajasaurus narmadensis… So, feel proud, friends, of your dinosorian past and know that lots of dino egg fossils have been found especially in western, central and south India. Helen threw in a quiz with everyone winning prizes: a lovely poster of the Indian dinostars and tiny dino figurines.

But the star of the sessions was Helen’s nearly real live dino robot pet who completely had everybody mesmerized. Children crowded to watch the dinobot move, blink and pick up stuff from the floor but when they rushed to pet her, she shrank nervously into mama Helen’s dino t-shirt…

Padma Goes to Bookaroo

Writing has its centre in silence and solitude, whereas the festivals are an unabashed celebration of life. Writing festivals are thus very remarkable, very mysterious. Now just make that a children's literary festival…

For children every moment in time is there just for the moment. They will settle down and be tranquil, with a tranquility that cannot be articulated and yet be perfectly lively all the time. Alive, the way we often forget to be.

The young persons, all well-uniformed, are seated evenly in a line. You are reading and asking some questions. Time passes. Are you narrating to them, or are they narrating to you? Is the text they compose with their innocent and often absurd responses, serene self-command, and joyous disinterest (we are here because our teacher/parent is also here) so much more intelligent and sophisticated than anything you could come up with?

So, in the end, you’re sort of stuck with being— less speech, more child. Thank you Tulika, thank you Sandhya, thank you Jo, thank you Swati, thank you Shreya and thank you all for providing this amazing text and context.

It's Monumental!

2011-11-23T15:57:00.000+05:30

In her latest offering The World Tour Mystery, Manjula returns to exploring identity creatively with her trademark humour and pizazz. The book takes readers on a twelve stop trip to monuments, sites and wonders of the world with a lively family of six! Bu that's not all. There's some detective work to be done. On each double-spread, there's a clue waiting to be discovered, which helps you guess where the family has just been - and no, the answer is not on the previous double-spread!

Needless to say, her illustrations are simply fantabulous and so here's something for all you Manjula fans - a sooperdooper slider puzzle!

Make a game | Monumental | Free games | Pictogame

It's All Advaita

2011-11-19T11:50:00.000+05:30

There are some things you should know about Advaita.

She devours books and has quite a way with words herself.

She prefers hockey to cricket.

She can shrink herself to the size of a finger and learn geckospeak from a lizard.

If you vant to know about the vide vonderful vorld of Velcro, you can count on her to tell you the story. (If you vant to know vhy ve are spelling vide, vonderful and vorld with a 'v' or if you vant to become a writer, she's the girl to talk to.)

She folds her ideas into kites and lets them fly...way up high.

Itching to read the book? Here's a little peek.

If you want to meet the author Ken Spillman and get your copy of Advaita the Writer signed, here's your chance - SAVE THE DATE!

Tulika Publishers and Spring and Zoom (a centre for literary arts) are pleased to invite you to a special session with Ken Spillman, author of Tulika's Advaita the Writer.

Date: Monday, 21st November 2011

Time: 6:15

Venue: Zoom Kids, 61-A R.K Shanmugham Salai, K.K Nagar, Chennai

For enquiries, mail us at tulikabooks@gmail.com.

Have you met...

2011-11-15T19:04:00.000+05:30

...Gagan and Chikki?

Gagan is from a town in Punjab, in northern India.He and his friend, Chikki the cat, love to play and to listen to stories.One day, Avneet Aunty comes to their house. She talks and talks on her mobile phone, kyonkyon kyankyan, kyonkyon kyankyan...

Avneet Aunty's Mobile Phone

by Kavita Singh Khale

Bilingual Picture Book

Age 3+

Have you met Lobsang?

The 'roof of the world'. Tibet, north of India. So high up in the Himalaya mountains that your head sticks into the clouds! That’s where Lobsang comes from. Why did she have to leave her parents there and come away to a city far away in India?

The Snow King's Daughter

Story by Sowmya Rajendran

Pictures by Proiti Roy

Picture Book

Age 6+

Have you met Norbu?

Norbu lives in Sikkim in northeastern India, a place of high mountains, rhodendron flowers, Buddhist monasteries...and many friendly monkeys, one of whom runs off with Norbu’s new yellow shoes!

Norbu's New Shoes
by Chewang Dorji Bhutia

Bilingual Picture Book

Age 3+

Have you met Malli?

Malli is from a little village in Tamilnadu in southern India, where there are lots of coconut trees and the people speak Tamil. Malli goes everywhere with her goat. She also has many other friends, who give her fresh sweet milk, mangoes, a freshly laid egg, a rose...

Malli

Story by Jeeva Raghunath

Pictures by Nancy Raj

Bilingual Picture Book

Age 3+

Have you met Mukand?

Mukand lived in Karachi and his best friend was Riaz. They would go to school together, play cricket, eat biscuits from their favourite bakery... Than came Partition and Mukand had to go away, leaving Riaz behind. But he never forgot his friend.

Mukand and Riaz

Story and Pictures by Nina Sabnani

Picture Book

Age 5+

Have you met Shirvi?

Shirvi is a Warli girl from Maharashtra in western India. The Warlis live in the forests and are known for their dramatic paintings — stick-like figures drawn in white on the reddish mud walls of their homes. Are the people in the paintings really the silvery moon creatures Shirvi meets one night?

Dancing on Walls

Story by Shamim Padamsee

Pictures by Uma Krishnaswamy

Picture Book

Age 4+

In Bon Bibi's Forest

2011-11-12T12:49:00.000+05:30


In Bon Bibi's Forest

In Bon Bibi’s Forest is the third book in the series Our Myths that seeks to re-visit well-known and less known stories that have come down to us over the ages. In the process of passing from mouth to ear, they have travelled far away from the circumstances in which they were born, and have acquired new and different meanings. Some have even been catapulted into the realm of ‘unquestionable truths’ fiercely protected by diehard fans. Hence, the furore over the idea of ‘300 Ramayanas’.

But we know that it is the nature of stories to change as people change, society changes, and the ways in which human beings tell or listen to stories in order to make sense of their lives, change. Hanuman’s Ramayana gently shifts the focus from heroic action to humane understanding, Vyasa’s Mahabharata humourously suggests that writing down this massive epic must have involved some moves and countermoves.

While these first Our Myths titles reach into the two established epics of India, In Bon Bibi’s Forest dips into the ocean of people’s stories. It has an actual and still pristinely preserved setting: Sundarban spread across a vast delta that spills into the Bay of Bengal and across India and Bangladesh. The forests there are different, and the habitat difficult to negotiate, for both humans and animals. This is the home of the Royal Bengal Tiger. It is also the home of many families who live spread out over some of the inhabited mudflats and islands that are crisscrossed by river waters swelling and ebbing as the sea rushes in and out every night and day. These mangroves are some of the most biodiverse regions in the world and the least impacted by human development activities.

Bon Bibi, the 'Lady of the Forest'

Naturally, therefore, stories grew around the tiger as human beings discovered they were powerless before its might. This is how the story of Bon Bibi was born. And although she is today considered a goddess, she really doesn’t have any religious affiliation herself and those who worship her do so because she speaks to them of things that matter to their lives.

Painting by six-year old Patachitrakar Sonal

As with all myths and hoary stories, this one too twists and turns with different elements. In Bon Bibi’s Forest focuses on the tiger of Sundarban which is smaller in size, researchers tell us, than the other tigers of India. It is also more aggressive, although researchers don’t quite know why. The people of Sundarban live in its shadow, but they also somehow feel protected by it. They regularly re-enact the story of Bon Bibi and Dokkhin Rai to renew an old promise to use the forest with a pure heart. This retelling reminds readers that if the tiger is healthy, the ecosystem will be healthy.

Gift a rhyme

2011-10-31T18:08:00.001+05:30

If you thought our inaugural offer of Rs 100 off on Oluguti Toluguti (online or instore) was absolutely chemma chekka, we now bring you the

Big Blast of Baby Olu

10 Oluguti Toluguti books (worth Rs 3850) for Rs 2500 – postage free! Perfect for birthday party return gifts? Yes!

And there’s more – a limited period offer of 25% off on the Oluguti Toluguti ebook with audio that’s available at Storytruck.

WHAT can you do with Oluguti Toluguti?

You can

Read rhymes old and new

Repeat after

Recite it in your own special way

Listen to different sounds and voices

Enact, clap, sing, dance

Record in your own voice or your child's

Return the gift

WHO can read Oluguti Toluguti?

Everyone. Parents, grandparents, teachers, tiny-tinier-tiniest, big-bigger-biggest-biggestest. (You get the point.)

WHAT can you do with a Big Blast of Baby Olu?

Spread the joy of reciting 54 rhymes in 18 languages to lots of children and give them a rich, multilingual reading experience.

Any questions? Write to us at tulikabooks@gmail.com.

Hop on the Oluguti Toluguti Express!

2011-10-27T19:36:00.000+05:30

There was a chuk chuk train going ruk ruk which left Kids Central station at 4 last Saturday and went thadak dhadak to Dharampur-Karampur, Khandwa-Mandwa, Raipur-Jaipur, Vellore-Nellore and round and round and round till Sandhya Rao said,

“Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!”

They were ammas and abbus, there were thathas and paatis and they all had an equally chemma chekka time. With Indrani Krishnaiyer they followed the cheeky mekuri who went prowling from one house to another eating up all the rice and fish, and met the irresistible Haatima Tim Tim. With V.R Devika they grew long trunks and became the Aanay who came to town to simply eat some bananas. With Sudhir Ahuja they played out in the rain which fell cham cham and watched their umbrellas fly up in the air as they fell down. With Praba Ram they scampered after the anil that quickly climbed up the guava tree.

And with Sandhya Rao they discovered the complete experience of Oluguti Toluguti: reading, reciting, listening, repeating, clapping, enacting and much more. Bangla, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Konkani, Asamiya, Kannada, Malayalam... with all those rhymes and voices ringing in the air; it was a Tulika evening you didn’t want to miss. Illustrator Kshitiz Sharma who came down for the event found himself entirely occupied after the event as he signed books that flew off the shelves.

For those of who weren’t there, we have action replays coming your way, (because we’re that cool – you would be too if you were friends with Mir Salot who drinks soda water all day). And that is not all, there’s a special offer on Oluguti Toluguti: Rs.100 off if you order online through our website or purchase at our store. AND... there is a 25% discount for a limited period on the Oluguti Toluguti ebook with audio available at Storytruck. Preview it now on Youtube or read a review of the event.

Kukre kuk and thanks, Kids Central for having us!

Know Oluguti Toluguti!

2011-10-25T19:13:00.000+05:30

WHAT: Oluguti Toluguti is a book of Indian rhymes to read and recite. It has 54 rhymes in 18 different languages. Each page features the rhyme in the original language and script, in a fun English adaptation, and English and Hindi transliterations. Oluguti translates as “baby potato.” (There, now you know!)

WHO: Oluguti Toluguti is the brainchild of Radhika Menon and Sandhya Rao but it took the whole editorial team – and Kshitiz Sharma’s pictures – to make it the delightful book it is.

HOW: These poems have been compiled over the years with the help of friends, acquaintances and an online community that has been alive and kicking; many rhymes came through blogathons and some of our contributors lent their voices in recording the rhymes which can be heard in the ebook now on Storytruck.

Watch this space and follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter for more news and lots more.

Happy Deepavali from the Tulika team... and here's a wallpaper for our aficionados!


1024 * 768


1484 * 900

Of star-rock salads and green-eyed pups

2011-10-13T15:38:00.000+05:30

Writer Swetha Prakash shares the story behind the story of Padma Goes to Space.

It was a point of blissful dissolution, a forgetfulness of mindful writing. The first draft of Padma Goes to Space was written spontaneously in creative writing workshop that was a part of the Scottish Universities International Summer School at the University of Edinburgh. I was attending this programme on a Charles Wallace India Trust Award grant.

To me then, Edinburgh was a place from a book, a beautiful imagined thing come to life. My consciousness, in that city of festivals, was that of a child - playful and joyous. My creative writing workshop was lead by Allyson Stack, who was remarkably brilliant and encouraging. She set us an assignment, one morning, to spend 10 minutes describing something that had a lifelike feel to it. I wrote 'The Rhino', as the story was then called instantly, without thinking about anything, word after word, sentence after sentence. There was no thought, no structure, no plan, just one word following another. I now know this to be a yogic state - when the conscious mind is simply suspended and innate being takes over. The class instantly responded to the piece and it was published in Northern Light, the SUISS anthology.

Later, I sent the text to Tulika. They were very positive about the story and asked me if it could be rewritten with a science fiction / fantasy element built in. This lovely suggestion changed the entire texture and flavour of the book. In the original story, Padma had been reading Enid Blyton and wanted to visit the places the Famous Five went to and eat muffins. Instead, she went to space!

Puzzle Dazzle: The World Tour Mystery

2011-09-30T15:13:00.000+05:30

Manjula Padmanabhan's much loved I am Different and whacky Same and Different explores identity creatively and uniquely. Through fun and games, the books suggest multiple ways of looking at the familiar and the unfamiliar as they celebrate plurality through form, shape and perspective. Manjula writes about her latest offering, The World Tour Mystery.

This book took shape in my mind mainly because of a party game we used to play when I was little. It was called The Around-the-World game. There was no game-board, player tokens or pictures of places and countries. Instead the names of cities were scattered through the house and the players were told to figure out the correct sequence of places on an (imaginary) world tour. Playing the game involved a great deal of running up and down and all around the rooms of the house, with much excited screaming and calling out of cities. The first person to get the whole sequence correct was the winner.

I enjoyed this game so much that I thought it might be possible to make it into a book. BUT … dearie me! It really wasn't easy. In my typical way, I started with the thing I wanted to do most: which is, to make drawings of some of my favorite monuments from around the world. Having done that, I thought, it would be quite simple to force the drawings to become a game! And also a book!

Of course, I was wrong.

Fortunately, Tulika's editors are both very kind and also very patient. I actually completed one version of the book with big colored drawings of my favourite monuments. In the end, however, we all agreed that it just wasn't working as a book. So it didn't get published. We all felt there was something nice about the idea if only it could be worked out in some other way.

Well, five years passed. During that time, I worked on Same and Different, a sequel to I am Different!. Both books explore the ways in which sameness and differences are interesting subjects to think about. As the idea of the Monuments book continued to twitch and grow inside my mind, I and Tulika began to see that difference/sameness are a really important part of traveling too. After all, people in other countries look different and have unique local costumes, yet -- as we see in the book -- tourists look the same wherever they go! When we line up to board an aircraft, we see hundreds of people, some young, some old, some funny, some strange: yet for all the differences, we can also see so much that's the same: we all drink water, for instance; little babies of all nationalities scream in the same language; everyone looks grumpy if there's a long queue for the toilet.

The first big improvement was to create a puzzle based on the game but not really like it at all. You've still got to figure out the correct sequence of places on the tour, but by finding clues embedded in the pictures rather than by running around a house.The next improvement was to imagine a family going on a trip – and then to think up names and faces and personalities for the members of that family. Finally, the family became the focus of the book and the monuments got fitted into the background. That's how the world looks to us when we go on a real sight-seeing trip: a lot of people in holiday clothes, with strange or interesting-looking structures in the distance.

So what we have now is a puzzle-book called The World Tour Mystery with lots to look at and amusing facts to read, as Mum, Dad, Aunt Mimi, Kooks, Bunny and Bobo travel around the world. I hope you enjoy it as much I enjoyed putting it together! And maybe some day you'll go on a world tour just like it.

Happy Birthday, Barefoot Husain!

2011-09-17T13:35:00.000+05:30

On the occasion of his 96^th birthday, editor Deeya Nayar on the one and only
Barefoot Husain.

Barefoot Husain. The catchy title of the manuscript had the right effect – it caught our eye. And what delight to discover that the story that followed fitted right into a project we’d been raring to push! We grabbed the manuscript and asked the author, Anjali Raghbeer, to write three more stories about three more contemporary artists from other parts of India.

The stories around the artists were charming in themselves, but we had to go the extra mile – and make things more difficult for ourselves. We wanted children to actually ‘look at art’. Did we know what we were in for? Trying to explain styles and techniques of great masters to children perhaps 10 and up?! Reading reams about these artists and distilling the information, looking closely at their art ourselves, trying to understand, trying to translate simply without being simplistic… Would we get it right?

We had done it once before, of course, for the first book in our Looking at Art series, Paritosh Sen’s A Tree in my Village in its reissued avatar. The renowned painter had held our hand through that one. What now? We tentatively approached Najma Husain, M. F. Husain’s daughter-in-law, hoping for help but quite unprepared for the extent of warm support she gave us. From sourcing the right paintings, gamely changing them when we got more and more specific, to approving the text, she was with us all the way. Even so, when she said she would show the pdfs of Barefoot Husain to ‘Father’ himself, we held our breath. What if…?

It was then that we had our own close brush with the joie de vivre of one of the greatest contemporary artists of our time. Husain laughed delightedly while reading the story, Najma told us. He made a couple of corrections to ‘Looking at M. F. Husain’s paintings’ and suggested we actually name his sister in the story – Zubeida!

It is sad that the next correction in the book will have to be in the note about him, changing to past tense the bit about his continuing enthusiastic spirit. “They can put me in a jungle. Still, I can create,” he once said, and showed to the world that he could. He painted hoardings perched high on scaffolding, created a huge poster overnight by spreading the canvas across a Mumbai road after the last tram went by, covered wide walls with his famous long brush, painted on stage to the tune of music…

We’re glad we published the book in time for him to see it and enjoy it. It is our small tribute to not just a great artist, but a big-hearted man who lived life larger than his largest canvas.

Deeya Nayar

Think again, Georgie Porgie. . .

2011-09-16T11:58:00.001+05:30

. . .would you really have that pudding and pie over scrumptious rice cakes
and chutney?

Tuaan and his sister Tueen,

Made some rice cakes and
some chutney.
Look, there's Tiger mama coming,
What to do, said Tuaan to Tueen.

Come in, come in,
said Tueen smiling,
Come and eat rice cakes
and chutney.

Originally in Oriya

And then what do you think Tiger mama did? You will have to ask him or wait for a certain baby potato (or shotato).

Move over, Humpty Dumpty. . .

2011-09-13T13:08:00.000+05:30

. . .here comes Hattima tim tim!

                                                     Hattima tim tim,
                                                     They have horns on their heads,
                                                     They lay eggs on the ground,
                                                     Oh these hattima tim tim.

Originally in Bangla

Dam Padam Pappadam!

2011-09-09T16:54:00.000+05:30

Dam padam pappadam

Padam padam pappadam

This side, that side

Same kind of pappadam!

Originally in Malayalam

Dig this singing pappadam?

Rap it. Beatbox it, even.

                                                     We're listening.

Imagine Words

2011-09-08T13:52:00.000+05:30

Today is International Literacy Day. And what better way to celebrate it, we thought, than with our series Imagine Words.

This series of bilingual books encourages children to ‘imagine words’ and build vocabulary with the aid of pictures in a storytelling setting. By providing words in two languages simultaneously, the books create a platform for children to build their own narratives.

This helps them use words creatively, and remember them. The unconventional pictures offer clues to words in a familiar language and to their translation in an unfamiliar one. Children can string together the words to tell a story, any story. A list at the end of the book helps to remember new words.

Hot off the press is our latest, Work, charmingly illustrated by intern Shreya Sen, who has also done the rib-tickling pictures for the zany Padma Goes to Space. A little boy dreams away. . . and becomes a dancer, a potter, a fisherman, a shopkeeper, a cook. . . just about anything he wants to be.

Like all our picture books, this hugely popular series, used by several schools and NGOs, has English paired with Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati and Bangla and have been specially designed to enable an empowering reading experience.

Buy all 3 titles (worth Rs.405) in the language of your choice for Rs.300.
Write to tulikabooks@gmail.com

Happy reading!

Please note:

Pond is currently out of stock in English-Gujarati and English-Kannada. Blackboard is out of stock in English-Kannada. Work is currently available in English-Hindi, English-Tamil, English-Marathi, Eng-Gujarati,and English-Bangla. It will shortly be available in Eng-Malayalam, Eng-Kannada and English-Telugu. To pre-order in these languages, write to us at tulikabooks@gmail.com

Ighoror mekuri

2011-09-06T13:08:00.000+05:30

The cat goes prowling

That house to this.

It eats up the soaked rice,

And all the fish.

Originally in Assamese

Do you like your meen as much as your macchli?

Bookstore Round the Corner!

2011-08-31T20:04:00.006+05:30

Now, we know your idea of a cozy afternoon is to curl up with a Tulika book and bite into a hot bonda, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside (look at us getting carried away).

Well, imagine if we said you could sit in a room full of Tulika books all day long and devour each one. Read all your favourites, picture books and paperbacks, nonfiction and resource books and gaze at our gorgeous books+ products all in one place...

No, don't pinch yourself. It's true. It's here. The Tulika Bookstore. So catch a bus or a train or a parachute or a plane and get here. If you're a Chennaiite, hurrah! - we're just around the corner...

24/1 Ganapathy Colony Third Street in Teynampet

....to be precise! We're open from Monday - Friday between 10 am - 6 pm and on Saturday between 10 am and 5 pm.

Vyasa's Mahabharatha and Ismat's Eid

2011-08-31T18:33:00.001+05:30

Two special festivals fall on September 1st: Vinayaka Chathurthi and Eid, and we have books to celebrate both! - Vyasa's Mahabharatha and Ismat's Eid. Sandhya Rao, who edited Fawzia's delightful tale, and Chitra Krishnan, author of Vyasa's Mahabharatha,give us insider takes.

Tulika’s Ismat’s Eid is Marshall Cavendish’s Nabeel’s New Pants. Author Fawzia Gilani-Williams who is currently relocating to the UAE, lives in the US, but grew up in UK in the 1960s and 70s. So when she recently got a chance to go ‘home’, she was excited about the possibility of taking Ismat aka Nabeel to kids there. But she found herself on a rather sticky wicket of a sartorial kind… because, you see, when we say ‘pants’ in UK, they see the piece of innerwear that Superman made outerly famous! So how could she, in all seriousness, talk about Nabeel’s pants, forget the fact that he had bought them for Eid???!!! Luckily she happened to have taken Ismat along on that trip!

It’s only words, you might argue. But some words conjure pictures that need no imagination…

But back in the US and Canada, Nabeel reigns supreme, while Ismat steals hearts in Tulika’s world, thanks also to Proiti Roy’s marvellous illustrations.

When Tulika first commissioned Proiti to do the pictures, she came up with not one, not two, not three, but eight different styles, each more delicious that the other. And each rendered with care and affection. Proiti used Indian ink and gouache water based paint to render the pictures. Take a look at the book: you will fall in love with the girls in Ismat aka Nabeel’s family: Habiba, Yasmeen, and Mahjabeen. No wonder he bought them each something special for the festival. Eid Mubarak!

Sandhya Rao

Vyasa’s Mahabharatha? Just utter the name and I puff up with pride like a cockerel ready to crow at first light! (this includes wobbly chins and crest - read grey hair- standing on end!!)

I am inordinately proud of this slim, colorful volume that set me on the first step of realizing my dream… to fill the blank space next to profession in my passport with the letters A-U-T-H-O-R.

A first small step in terms of literary achievement but a giant leap forward in terms of moral and mental attainment of goals … the degrees of separation between dreams and reality just got a whole lot smaller!

In any case, it was all quite fairy tale-ishly simple. Once upon a recent time, I walked into Radhika Menon’s (Tulika) office and while chatting, narrated the famous story of the origins of the Mahabharatha. It happens to be my husband’s favorite story, one that I have been subjected to ‘n’ times…Being a sucker for a good tale it was never a trying experience. However I digress. Back to Radhika’s office where she is casually suggesting I put it down, as Our Myths, a new series, was in the Tulika pipeline.

I floated down the narrow stairs and back home as I had just been officially commissioned to write a story! Casual maybe …but let us not split hairs here! Don’t get me wrong, I do have academic tomes to my credit, seen my name in print on ponderous volumes! Never before have I been commissioned to write a piece of fiction! I refused to float down from my own private cloud 9.9 despite my daughter’s dire warnings that I should take a huge big reality bite…No one was allowed to rain on my private parade with Mr Cockerel in the lead…

Of course as sure as night follows day, months of agonizing followed! My natural tendency is to write serious, humourless, researched pieces complete with footnotes et al … I am after all a dyed-in-the-wool academic … it took Sandy’s (Sandya Rao - Tulika editor) frequent and well placed editorial kicks to get me to reach into my inner child and the eternal spring of innocent laughter so that the tone and words were finally just right!

And then came the day when they (Tulika) showed me the illustrations! What to me was an ordinary single layered narrative was transformed into a masterpiece of multilayered hues and proportions by the illustrations!

And then came two very important days in my literary career…because now I can only talk in such majestic terms of my life after Vyasa’s Mahabharatha… (i) When the book was released and I was asked to autograph it in public (ii) When I received my very first cheque as royalty… forget the dearth of zeros…no Midas could have been happier, no Ali Baba’s cavern could hold more riches! This was proof that I had arrived… everywhere I looked or turned, I simply presumed people were whispering beneath their breath Vyasa’s Mahabharatha … My own private cockerel of course continues to send out clarion cries of “here comes the writer” and I slumber on content with a beatific smile on my lips… I may not be Anna but I certainly am Vyasa’s Mahabharatha!

Chitra Krishnan

It Adhu But Aanal What Enna Meaning Artham?

2011-08-31T13:38:00.001+05:30

Before we get into what this intriguing title means, have you availed our Madras Day offer yet? 3 bilinguals for Rs.275 and 5 picture books (Tamil) for Rs.450! Quickly send your order to tulikabooks@gmail.com and then come back and read this post with your kaapi and kozhukattais.

As part of Madras Week celebrations, Tulika conducted a Madras kweezzz on Twitter (you don’t know what a kweezzz is? Tells us you haven’t been following our blog closely! Pffftttt.) A pioneer in bringing out bilingual picture books for children in India, Tulika has always delighted in the aviyal of cultures that makes up our country. Our bilingual titles are in English paired with one other regional language- Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Bangla. Our single language titles too are published in all nine languages. While we ensure that in translation the meanings and connotations are accurate, we are open to different ‘styles’ of language and not just what is ‘correct’ and accepted as ‘right’ in children’s books. Colloquial usages that children hear all around them appear in the text with no apology. Using as many common and conversational words helps the reader enter the new world with confidence. To put it in Madras bashai, this is no place to put scene, even if the purists do feel-pannufy!

So for Madras Day, in keeping with the spirit of Tulika's multilingual tradition, we decided to celebrate all things Madras, including its beloved dialect. Here's a sample!

Q. In case you miss the bus, there’s always ________________ service.(Fill up with the most appropriate Madras bashai)

A: Nataraja

If you are not from Madras, you will probably require an explanation. The word 'Nataraja' here has nothing to do with the God of Dance. It's simply a fundoo way to say 'nada' (which means 'to walk')! Bewildering? It wasn't for the bunch of enthu cutlet Madrasis who tweeted away with great gusto! Those away from their home city went on a nostalgic trip and started dreaming of Buhari Otel Biryani even! Feelings, pa.

The senti responses show how much a dialect can mean to people- it's not just about speech but about memories, places, and incidents. Every language in India comes with so many dialects that even if you are a master at one, you may still be left clueless when listening to another! Languages borrow generously from others and even turn the word on its head to mean something else altogether.It is this rich, sometimes even comic, diversity that makes it so much fun for us to explore them. In future, we plan to do many more dhool bilingual kweezzzes in many more languages. Watch this space and brush up your bashai!

And really, if you don't have a Twitter handle by now, you are a maha wasteu!

Jumpstart 2011

2011-08-30T19:06:00.000+05:30

Briefly, here is what Radhika Menon had to say at Jumpstart 2011 in Delhi, August 24^th and 25^th.

Over the last two years there has been a lot of interest in the boom in the children's books market. The reports, however, are restricted to the feedback and sales figures of English language books in the bookstore chains which are by and large from the big publishing houses and distributors. What this means is that if the books are not seen in the large bookstores they don’t exist in reports or ratings. Nevertheless books by smaller, independent publishers do exist well and find their own space thanks to the efforts of the publishers themselves.

Other reports have to do with the huge disparity between the English and the Indian language children's book markets. English books certainly have the advantage in the urban markets. But the sales figures of books in some of the regional languages far exceed those of English books. There are the mass-produced, low-priced books of course, often of poor quality, which have a monopoly over government orders in the various states. Their sales run into lakhs every year.

However there are Indian language publishers who have sell their low-priced books in quantities that the English language publishers can only dream of. They sell successfully through direct marketing and distribution, school and community book fairs, small bookstores and mobile bookstores, catering to the specific needs of their buyers.

On the other hand, the chain bookstores, which have as many as 50 to 75 bookstores each across the country, stick to tried and tested strategies - a one-size-fits-all-approach. This obviously cannot adequately meet the diverse and growing demands of children's book publishing in India today. According to media reports the children's sections in these stores make up to 30% of their total sales. The books sold are the imported books that flood the market and Indian books published by the large publishing houses.

In this scenario, an independent multilingual publisher like Tulika, trying to straddle both the urban English book markets and the regional language book markets, has to find strategies for building an alternate distribution network. It’s the only way. It remains to be seen if the rapidly opening up online space offers a more Ievel playing field.

Namma Kweezzzu

2011-08-25T08:44:00.000+05:30

Chennai is a special ooru and
Tamil is a special mozhi - versatile, extensive, and growing every day, posing challenges for translators and editors. How do we bridge the gap between the spoken and the written, the formal and the informal? How can we communicate simply to children, while retaining the integrity of the language, staying true to its rhythm and syntax, and capture its sounds and moods? We're constantly trying to find creative ways of meeting these challenges, not only in our Tamil picture books but also in our bilingual books which have English paired with Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati and Bangla.

Don't miss the Namma Kweezzzu on Friday, 26th August 2011, 3.30-4.30 PM as part of Madras Week celebrations.

How to play:

1. If you don't have a Twitter id yet, GET ONE quick gun murugan!
2. Log in, search, and follow kweezzz this very second.
3. Log in at 3.30 PM on 26th August, Friday, and watch out for the questions appearing from kweezzz in your Timeline.
4. To answer, type @kweezzz (your answer) in the What's Happening box. If you don't type @kweezzz, we will not be able to see your answer. Goyya only then!
5. Please answer a question within 2 minutes of it appearing on the Timeline. Late-ah vandha inga latesta vara mudiyadhu.
6. The answer to a question will be revealed at the end of the said 2 minutes. A total of 10 questions will be asked.
7. The final winner will be decided by Tulika and s/he will get a free copy of any bilingual picture book or picture book in Tamil of his/her choice.
8. Don't forget to follow tulikabooks on Twitter to hear all our tweets! Let the kondattams or bondattams (as the prince of Bondapalli would have it) begin!

There are semma offers, too! Buy any 3 bilingual picture books for Rs.275! Buy any 5 picture books in Tamil for Rs 450! Offer valid till September 7, 2011 wonly!

Look who's 1!

2011-08-17T18:20:00.000+05:30

Young India Books, a site dedicated to promoting Indian books for children, turned a year old recently.The site features reviews of children’s books - from picture books to young adult fiction. Aside from being a rich resource for children’s book buffs, the site is equally informative for parents, educators and researchers. The simple, user-friendly interface allows users to search according to age, book title, theme, genre, authors, illustrators, and also features articles related to books and reading. Experts contributing write-ups and reviews include historian and environmentalist Nanditha Krishna, award-winning children's writer Lisa Bullard and art-historian and writer Pheroza Godrej.

Founder Shamim Padamsee is also a Tulika author. Her Birdywood Buzz: The Vulture Returns is a zany take on filmdom, the deliciously whacky A Silly Story of Bondapalli has delighted readers of all ages. Her first with Tulika, Dancing on Walls, an imaginative story on the possible origin of Warli paintings, is a much-loved picture book. Her love for children's books is reflected in her own thoughtful reviews for the YIB site.

Happy Birthday, Young India Books! Here's to books, reviews and lots more!

2011-08-12T13:31:00.000+05:30

Tulika bookworms

2011-07-25T11:45:00.001+05:30

Click those pictures and draw up your wishlists, because we are extending our Parent's Day offer to the end of the month: 25% off on any 3 Tulika titles of your choice and 30% off on any 5 books. Here are some Tulika bookworms who shared some special moments with us.

Arundathi Venkatesh's little son is currently obsessed with Stone Eggs, she says, drawing dinos, dino eggs and even dino poop! Arundathi shares, "Little P enjoys all Tulikas, recognises the publisher by the logo and often asks me specifically to read aloud a Tulika book. The thumb-thumb books are "magic books" that he reads by himself. "We work at the speed of light" he declares as he gets ready to go out, giggles uncontrollably at Muchu snoring and his son asking question after question, loves Hutoxi and loves her naughty friends even more, and adores Sunu-Sunu. Norbu and the monkeys provided hours of entertainment, and we had to go out for jalebis after a reading of Jalebi Curls!"

The lovely Artnavy, author of the delightful Mister Muthu series and Saffron Tree reviewer, shared this picture of her daughter Anushka and her grandmother reading Vaalumeenu!

Arthi says on her blog:

"I just could not get over this. My paati reading a Tamil Tulika book to Anushka...Both completely absorbed."

Nandini Nayar, author of the much-loved What Shall I Make and other Tulika favourites, sent us this photo of her son Pranav reading the book in her kitchen!

Thanks Arundathi, Arthi and Nandini!

We love to hear from our readers and bloggers, so if you'd like to share your Tulika experience, write to tulikabooks@gmail.com.

Let the celebrations begin!

2011-07-14T17:27:00.002+05:30

Attention, Tulika bookworms!

It’s Parents’ Day on July 24^th and the swell parents (Norbu’s dad and Kiran's mum to name a few) told us this was cause for celebration. So, we’re calling all you mummies and pappas, aayees and bapas, mas and babas and nainas and ammas to make videos of you and/or your little ones reading a Tulika book! Upload videos on Youtube and share the link with us.

Those of you want to send photographs instead, please send them to tulikabooks@gmail.com with the subject: Tulika Bookworm. Write-ups on your Tulika book experience are also welcome.These shall be put up on the Tulika blog along with your photo on Monday, July 25th.

Reading together and reading aloud are very special ways of discovering and enjoying stories. (Read Anita Balasubramaniam's lovely note which we put up in a post sometime back.) Where is Amma? and Where's that cat? and The Lonely King and Queen can be told and played through hide-and-seek games. Little Fingers, What Shall I Make and Priya's Day can transform a lazy Sunday into an busy and fun day of do-it-yourself. Dancing on Walls, Basava and the dots of fire, Sunu-Sunu Snail and I'm so sleepy make for cozy bedtime reading. What did you see? and Power Cut are for those who love role-play and making shapes. Thakitta Tharikitta Bouncing Ball and Gadagadagudu brings parents and children back on their toes, while Thambi and Thangi make for much thumbprint fun. And as each parent and child knows, their reading experience belongs only to them.

So send us your films and photos soon soon SOON, because we have a super-duper offer for our participants from the 14th to the 25th of this month:

Buy any 3 Tulika titles and get 25% off!
Buy any 5 Tulika titles and get 30% off!

To see the list of titles, visit our website or view our catalogue.

Stories from Kashmir

2011-07-11T18:42:00.000+05:30

Asha Hanley’s The Enchanted Saarang, released at the Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival earlier this year, is inspired by real people and true events. For us at Tulika, this makes the experience of reading the book even more exciting and we are happy to share it with you, our readers.

What is unmissable about the book is how the landscape and its people are evoked with warmth and a deep sense of awe. On the one hand, these stories feature ordinary people; shepherds, their families and children going about their little lives. Then, there is a sudden touch of magic; wishing bowls, caves filled with treasure and wondrous saarangs.

From The Enchanted Saarang

In The Enchanted Saarang, the title story, one pluck of the saarang’s string gives the young shepherd Sona the ability to change shape! What is as exciting as the fast-paced action and Sona’s transformations is what one learns about Kashmir’s creatures – the real and the mythical: gunas, the legendary poisonous snake; jogi badshah, a rare poisonous plant found on Kashmir’s slopes; the flock of sheep who know when it is time to go home. The story, Asha shares, is set at Dudal, above Praslun in the region.

From Drin

Drin features a Kashmiri marmot curious to explore the mountainside and valley on his own. Drin does not want to work like the other marmots and so he sets off, unaware of the dangers before him. . . The story was imagined at Tuliyan lake, inspired by the shy creatures, which, Asha says, are interestingly not found on all alpine meadows.

The story Horse Thieves takes place on the way to Sekwas, before the climb up the narrow ridge known as Yamher – the Ladder of Death. The cold streams, the icy mountain slope and the river curving along it, the possibility of an avalanche – all heighten the desperation of the boy Karim as he tries to rescue his horse Lallo from the horse thieves. Something as everyday as the lighting of a fire is evoked with atmosphere.

Gulaal, the horse who bravely attacks a leopard threatening to kill her child, was based on a true incident. When Asha rode Gulaal eight years later, she says, the scars from the battle remained! Others in the collection like The Power of the Snake are inspired by stories she heard from different sources.

From The Secret of Traamkhazaan

What makes this story collection unusual is that it sensitively portrays the culture, beliefs and daily lives of people, equally celebrating its diverse flora and fauna, while drawing attention to its vulnerability; as a place where men, women and children who are proud guardians of their natural heritage also often live on the edge. Yoking myth and folklore with real stories, Asha Hanley recreates a world little known to many.

To view a presentation with Proiti Roy’s gorgeous visuals and excerpts from the stories, look here.

Automatic charm

2011-07-04T18:38:00.000+05:30

Writer Mariam Karim-Ahlawat on why Tulika's latest paperback fantasy, Beyond the Blue River, made her sit up.

In the tradition of many great books for children and young people that kindle the seeking spirit in the reader, here’s a tender, innocent tale of Grace…no, not a young girl , as you might imagine, but Grace, Auto for Hire…yes, an autoricksha who ‘runs away’ driverless, in search of the mystic Blue River.

Reminiscent of all wonderful children’s books ranging from Gulliver’s Travels, to Alice in Wonderland to Lord of the Rings, to Harry Potter, to Thomas the Tank Engine, B.Vinayan’s imaginative story brings a fresh approach by its warmth and humour and its effortless weaving of philosophy and childlike wonderment. The symbolism of hope is present throughout the novel, even in the darker parts of the battles between the Good and Evil Forces.

The characters are unforgettable, from Zrooh the king of Winds to Husha the day breeze, in the beginning, to This and That of the village of Itsy, the Yagars and Yamins of Mandra Rukh the enchanted forest, the Mountain of the Phantas Sea…and much, much more.

The original and engaging ideas of the ‘language of the spheres’ which allows everyone to understand everyone, the possibilities of transformation of selves, and travel between worlds, sets Vinayan apart from other writers.

The style is natural and uncomplicated, interspersed with charming inspirational songs. What I really liked about the book is that it is not in the least contrived, does not seem to look towards a particular audience, or present a particular cultural point of view, as many books today do...it’s just a story simply told, by a person who likes to tell stories, a raconteur par excellence.

Mariam Karim-Ahlawat

More love for the kaka

2011-07-02T14:33:00.000+05:30

Which colour is Kunku making today?

"The book has brilliant big visuals which can keep a young child interested in the book too. When I read this book to my son I could see him getting curious about various things, asking more questions on how and why of colors, later I saw him taking a reddish leaf that had fallen down and rubbing to see if it will make red color. . . next morning he brought the book to me and said mumma lets see which color is Kunku making today."

Read Bookrack reviewer Monika on The Mystery of Blue here.

More Mayilspeak

"The book definitely takes you back to your childhood... I loved the way she (Mayil) expresses minute things in the everyday life. Wish I too had a diary when I was 12. It would have been such fun to reread it."

Read Swati's review of Mayil Will Not Be Quiet! here.

Blue + Black is Green

"Let’s Plant Trees is a book that’s meant to make you smile. Filled with simple illustrations, it’s a visual delight that concerns itself with the various roles a tree has to play in our daily lives."

Read Time Out's review of Let's Plant Trees and Black Panther here. (Our green offer has been extended by popular demand.)

A special note

Anita Balasubramaniam wrote in to say how much her daughter, Nidhi, loves our books. Thank you, Anita, for sharing this. It made our day!

"When my daughter Nidhi came into our lives, it was quite natural that I stocked up on Tulika books for her. She has been growing up listening to these books being read to her since she was about a year old. [These books are contributing a great deal to Nidhi's learning in these early years] We never read with the intention of "teaching her something from the book." It is for the sheer joy of reading that we read. Nidhi now picks up books on her own, looks at them, talks to him and enjoy them for what opportunities they offer to her to make sense of life.

Often we are just reading a simple story for her - either while eating, at bed time, while traveling and so on. At other times we are looking at the details in the visuals - details which we often find in our daily lives - the stool that kiran drags to the fridge and sits on in where is amma, the flower pots in minnie's house (where is pooni), the lizard in grandma's eyes, and so on - all these are around in our lives and in the visuals waiting to be discovered - so once every few readings we will notice something new :). Sometimes we are discussing the story while we are traveling or experiencing something new - making connections with what we have already ready. So she knows when someone is singing I would ask her how thangi sings and she would say aaa, aaa, aaa in her baby language. When we see a dog, crow, cat, or cow, we make connections with where is pooni. Thakitta Tharitkitta is another favotire - we have sung it in the car, on the beach, at home a gazillion times and even created our own story based on the visuals which she loves! Every book has been read and re-read hundreds of times. . .

One thing that has emerged in this "repeated reading" of tulika books with my daughter is that in addition to the story the visuals in these books provide a very rich opportunity to connect experiences in our every day lives in India with what we are reading. The context of life in India is present in the visuals waiting to be experienced, discovered and made connections to :) A big round of applause for all the illustrators :) I must also say that the books being paperback is wonderful - we can carry many of them with us whenever we are traveling :)

Keep those books coming! We love them."

Bag it!

2011-07-02T12:00:00.003+05:30

The Tulika paper bags

It's International Plastic Bag-Free Day tomorrow. Those of you who've visited our office would have seen these, but for Tulika fans not in Chennai, here they are -
our lovely paper bags designed by talented Tulika intern Aparajita Barai. Needless to say, the kaka sits pretty on them.

More green goodies

And here are the latest Books+ products from Mother Earth and Tulika - a lovely cloth bag and badge inspired by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer's Let's Plant Trees. Available at the Mother Earth store in Domlur, Bangalore.Visit planttrees.tulikabooks.com for green updates and more LPT buzz. Also, take a look at Vinod's must-see website http://lessplasticmorelife.org, which offers simple and creative solutions for individuals, organizations and retailers who wish to make changes in their lives.

NEW-AUTO-ON-THE-BLOCK

2011-06-29T12:02:00.002+05:30

The girl has sweetness, spunk and knows her moves. If you go down to the city of Sadram, you can get a ride, and who knows, she’ll take you to the movies and if you’re lucky, even sing you a song – a Blue River tune. Editor Niveditha Subramaniam talks to B.Vinayan, author of Beyond the Blue River, and Grace, its heroine.

Grace – City Auto For Hire No. SD 01 3422 didn’t always have a number or a nameplate. She first made her entrance in a nameless tale (made up for the benefit of Vinayan’s nephews who insisted upon a story at bath-time) as a bored little auto who was tired of carrying passengers, just as they tired of homework.

When Rosalind Wilson, editor of the popular children’s magazine Target, asked him to write a story for its annual issue, Grace turned up again. “I wrote this one about an auto setting off driverless for a day in the city and having a whale of a time. Even as I was writing it, I sensed the possibilities of a bigger story within it – the auto seemed to be finding the city limits too confining!” says Vinayan.

Every time Grace hears the Blue River tune, she gets a “funny feeling.” Sometimes, she can hear it even before it is hummed! But what is the Blue River? One day, Grace decides to hit the road in search of it. . .

Cut to Grace, who’s on a different planet, not listening to a word we’re saying. This isn’t unusual at all, given that she’s been through enchanted forests and worlds within worlds, of course. Even less surprising when Vinayan confesses he was “rather dreamy as a child, sitting on the back step or porch of the house and staring away into empty space – I still do that now!"

There is a constant, often dizzying pre-occupation with space and time in BTBR, which keeps readers on their toes, transforming what begins as a deceptively simple story of an auto who dreams big into a gripping, gritty mystery – where myth and science meet, taking turns to pose riddles.

Vinayan sees no obvious references to mythology. The only myths he knows, he confesses, are his grandmother’s tales “tucked away in his subconscious” but from science, yes. “But even there it was entirely an unconscious process, growing more out of the needs of the story than anything else. In fact, it was when I saw the scientific parallels in the story – as with the extremely tiny creatures – that I started reading books on science (a subject I had intensely disliked and did very poorly at in school).” Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics, he says, first introduced him to the world of new physics. Stephen Hawking, Paul Davies, Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins are some other writers he enjoys reading.

“Did someone say extremely-tiny-creature?” asks Grace, suddenly joining in the conversation.

Extremely tiny creatures aka e-t-cs are among the colourful cast Grace meets on her journey. When asked to pick a favourite, Vinayan simply can’t. “They’re all very close to me, for various reasons. Writing about the tractor and the Mountain of the Phantas Sea was easy, fun and more spontaneous. These two were like the children that every parent would like to have – obedient and untroublesome. This-That the Itsians and Barumi the yagin, in spite of being more conventional characters, proved to be quite a handful and needed more working over than the others. . . The e-t-cs, especially the Everlanders, are less conventional and I’m pretty curious and excited about what they’ll get up to later in the story.”

Perhaps Grace has a favourite. We turn to her but. . .

GRACE?!?!

Spinning tops and wheels! There’s only one half of her. GR. Where’s ACE, then? That, ladies and gentleman, is what the Blue River does. Bamboozles you, just when you think you know it.

Understood? No?

Wear the old kurta, and read the new Tulika book.

Green Kweezzzes!

2011-06-24T12:04:00.002+05:30

Yes, the monsoon is here and you have bhajjis and bondas in your head. We understand. We have them too.

Which is why, this is the perfect time for you to stop working so hard and come kweezzz with us on Twitter! We'll even give you a noble reason for doing this: you will be saving the planet!

It's time for the Tulika Kweezzz, people, and this time, we're going to have not one, not two, but TWO kweezzes! Yes, just as two bhajjis are better than one, two kweezzzes are better than one. We know you agree.

The first week of July is celebrated as Vanamahotsava Week. Moreover, July 3rd is International Plastic Free Day. We, at Tulika, thought it was a great time to host our green kweezzes- one on July 1st and the other on July 8th- to mark the importance of this week. We were happy to discover how many of our books across our series raise questions in subtle and simple ways about our relationship with the environment and the need to preserve our natural heritage. Through different perspectives, they share a common respect for communities who embrace sustainable ways of living. (Greenhorns who haven't seen them yet, look here right now.)

Green Kweezzz on Trees
Date: 1st July, Friday, 2011 Time: 4.00- 5.00 PM IST

1. If you don't have a Twitter id yet, GET ONE asap.
2. Log in, search, and follow kweezzz this very second.
3. Log in at 4 PM on 1st July, Friday, and watch out for the questions appearing from kweezzz in your Timeline
4. To answer, type @kweezzz (your answer) in the What's Happening box. If you don't type @kweezzz, we will not be able to see your answer.
5. Please answer a question within 2 minutes of it appearing on the Timeline.
6. The answer to a question will be revealed at the end of the said 2 minutes. A total of 10 questions will be asked.
7. The final winner will be decided by Tulika and s/he will get a free copy of Let's Plant Trees by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer
8. Don't forget to follow tulikabooks on Twitter to hear all our tweets!

Green Kweezzz on Wildlife
Date: 8th July, Friday, 2011 Time: 4.00- 5.00 PM IST

1. Follow the same steps as above.
2. Make sure you log in on the right day and at the right time though :)
3. The final winner will be decided by Tulika and s/he will get a free copy of any one of the books listed here (except Water Stories).

Only the first three correct responses for both the kweezzzes will be scored.

Got it, beloved bonda-eating brethren? Nope? Leave us a comment and we'll explain more!

P.S: If you really didn't understand ANY of this and you really don't want to participate in all this but just really want the books, you may be pleased to know that we're extending the deadline for our June offer to the 8th of July. Really. Mail us at tulikabooks@gmail.com and be at peace.

P.P.S: We really wish you'd kweezzz though. Bye bye.

The A - Z of Tulika Books on the Environment

2011-06-16T17:13:00.001+05:30

Over the years, Tulika has worked with some of the finest writers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers, activists, educators and storytellers to create sensitive, engaging books on the environment. They cut across several of our own series – ranging from our Bilinguals and Wordbird books to Paperback fiction and Looking at art.

Black Panther and Let's Plant Trees, two 2011 releases, were part of a reading in Hippocampus, Chennai earlier this month and the latter was launched in Mother Earth to celebrate World Environment Day. (For our fans who didn’t catch the action there, Tulika folks have left that building, but ME has our books and some exciting merchandise based on LPT, not to be missed.)

So here’s our A – Z. Are they in your Tulika Book Bucket List?!

Andamans Boy
A Tree in my Village
Baby Beboo Bear
Best Friends
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Black Panther
Dinaben and the Lions of Gir
Gulla and the Hangul
Lai-Lai the Baby Elephant
Let’s Plant Trees
One World
Out of the Way! Out of the Way!
Putul and the Dolphins
Read + Colour River Stories
Riddle of the Ridley
Takdir the Tiger Cub

The King and the Kiang
The Seed
The Spider’s Web
The Tamarind Tree
Water Stories From Around The World
Who will be Ningthou?

Who Will Rule?

We've also got two smashing offers. First, our gorgeous hardbound story collection Water Stories From Around The World (Rs.385) is available at a special price of Rs.285. And. . .and. . .and second, you can have any 5 of the above (excluding Water Stories) for Rs. 450/- + free shipping. All through this June, so make that wishlist and mail it to us at tulikabooks@gmail.com.

It's raining reviews!

2011-06-16T16:16:00.000+05:30

We've had some lovely reviews pouring in this month. First off, we have the pithy, insightful Kirkus review on I am Different:

"An informational picture book presenting diverse languages to child readers, this offering from Indian novelist, playwright and cartoonist Padmanabhan and the Global Fund for Children is a tour de force. . . A substantive, engaging title for multilingual education. Bravo!"

There’s warm praise for My Grandfather Aajoba in this Papertigers review:

“. . .after reading My Grandfather, Aajoba young readers set about creating their own grandparent storybooks: for not only does this delightful book draw readers into the solid reality of the relationship portrayed, but it also provides space for those readers’ own imaginations to come into play.”

Meanwhile, Mayil has tickled this blogger’s funny bone and touched an emotional chord:“I think some serious issues have been addressed in extremely clever ways and they drive home the points beautifully. I am very glad topics as diverse as eunuchs, periods, sex and sexist attitudes have all been touched.”And Babylovesbooks says of the story Who Owns the Water from our story collection, Water Stories From Around The World, “It’s amazing how a simple children’s story can shine light on one of the world’s burning issues.”

We leave you with this special review of Postcards from Ura from seven-year-old Ishan Chatterjee:

"I liked the book because there were a lot of interesting pictures with writing under them. Pictures are pictures, but the writing tells you more details. I liked the bullet points because they tell stuff without putting it on another page – it saves paper.

I got to know a lot about Bhutan – about Ura and Bhutan’s capital city. I liked it when Dorji showed everybody that he could stand on his head. I liked his dog Domchu. It sounds like a funny name. Domchu looks very cute. I liked the Tiger’s Nest in Paro.

I wish I stayed near Bhutan and the mountains because it would be so cold and we wouldn’t feel so hot all the time. There would also be a great view. There might be different dragon designs. There would be lots of fresh vegetables and fruits because there would be lots of trees and other stuff.

The book was fun to read."