Bondas, Birds and More:Shamim Padamsee at Bookaroo 2012

Writer and educationist Shamim Padamsee has published many books with Tulika. Her first, Dancing on Walls, a fantasy story on how Warli art may have been born, is hugely popular as is A Silly Story of Bondapalli. Birdywood Buzz: The Vulture Returns, a zippy take on filmdom, and its sequel, The Great Birdywood Games, a cool take on the Olympic Games, are together a wonderful introduction to birdlife. 

Keenly interested in early childhood education, the environment and wildlife, Shamim pursues all her passions with equal zeal and started Young India Books, a website which reviews and promotes Indian children's books.

Here is Shamim in action at Bookaroo 2012!

"Alongside evocative illustrations by Soumya Menon, Padamsee has woven nuggets of information into the narrative"

Time Out

"The book not only has an entertainment, but an educational value as well. Characteristics of the birds are subtly woven with the story, which only one with a good understanding of birds can write."

Udaipur Times

"The imagery is delightful and it keeps you hovering right above in the sky as each bird makes its entry... The text is plain and lucid, but each bird attribute researched by the author will definitely make the reader want to find out more about each bird she/he encounters."

Donna Reen

"....cleverly encompasses the issue of self esteem! A perfect edutainment book."

Buzzing Books on Birdywood Buzz

"Bondapalli celebrates being round and fat and happy...Awesome illustrations, low word count, cheerful narratives endeared these tales to my five year old."

Saffron Tree

"Reading A Silly Story of Bondapalli is a delight precisely because the teller of this story is not standing on a high pedestal and teaching the readers any moral lessons."

The Book Review


"Shamim Padamsee's 'The Silly Story of Bondapalli', published by Tulika, is a wonderful story not only for children but also for adults, who want to have a good laugh after a stressful day. Simply 'Bondastic'!"

Blogger Hema  

"Children wills enjoy the bouncy rhythm of the story and cheer at the slapstick war that culminates at the end of the tale."

Ruhi Gurjar

Have you met...

...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+

Reading 'Dancing on Walls' in Minnesota

In December ’09, I was invited to the Groveland Elementary School in St. Paul Minnesota, USA, to read to the children of the kindergarden.

I was introduced to the group by my 6 year old grand daughter.  I read Dancing on Walls to them.

The kids were fascinated with the squiggly figures of the Warli Art form and the illustrations.  ‘COOL!’ was the unanimous opinion.
They were full of questions.  They wanted to know what inspired me to write the story.  How long it took me to write it. They also wanted to know the process from concept to the final product – the book!

The discussion then veered towards how creativity stems from ‘imagination’.  The children wanted to share their flights of fantasy. In fact, the story session stirred up some pretty interesting insights for them as well as for me!

They wanted me to read some more stories about India. Unfortunately, I was not carrying any other book.  I promised them that the next time I visited I would come  with an armful of them.

- Shamim Padamsee

Psst! You can find a most excellent review of 'Dancing on Walls' on the Saffron Tree blog by Poppin's Mom

Tulika in schools

Tulika Books are being used in several schools in many ways.


It's a welcome trend to see our Hindi picture books being used for language learning.


Abacus uses Aditi & the Thames Dragon by Suniti Namjoshi as a supplementary text for Class Five students.

Kangaroo Kids/Billabong International use Busy Busy Grand Ant in Hindi.

Vel's International, Delhi, uses Brahma's Butterfly, Dancing Bees, Colour Colour Kamini, Dancing on Walls and Busy Busy Grand Ant in Hindi.

Sorry, Best Friend and One World have been favourites for value education classes. They are being used in Sishya School and Vel's International, among others.

How do you use Tulika's books? Do you know of others who use Tulika's books in innovative ways? Leave a comment below. We would love to feature our readers in this space.