Tulika at SAWNET

The South Asian Women's Network describes itself as a forum for and about women from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The rest of the world has had so much to say about SAWNET that they had to put up a whole page with links to SAWNET mentions.
What they also have on their site is a valuable collection of resources for women. Tulika is delighted to find it's books featured in its South Asian children's books section which has book lists sorted by age and genre.

Tulika has also been listed among resources and distributors for children's books.
And land was born, Ekki Dokki, Eecha Poocha, and Who will be Ningthou?  have been listed in the Traditional Tales Retold page.

There are several reviews of Tulika titles:

Srividya Natarajan wonders if her expectations of child protagonists are being shaped by norms of Western literature for children in this thoughtful review of That Summer in Kalagarh.


"For children of South-Asian origin the books may have added appeal because the writer, Suniti Namjoshi, depicts characters that they can identify with; characters with ethnic names are placed in circumstances and locales in mainstream Indian or British life," says Shabnam Arora Afsah about the Aditi series.

The Forbidden Temple will "go far towards increasing appreciation for history and good writing" says Susan Chacko here.

Sonia Desai reviews Kali and the Rat Snake. Indira N has reviewed Kolaba by Sandhya Rao here and Look the Moon by Sandhya Rao here.

You can find all titles that have been reviewed here.

Reading to little ones at Project Why's school

August 28 was a special day. That was the day I met some truly lovely children and their teachers at Project Why’s school in Govindpuri, New Delhi. But then, all kids are lovely (especially if they’re other people’s! Or grandchildren!). And the 40-50 well-scrubbed, two-, three- and four-year-olds looking up at me with eager faces, eyes shining with excitement and, in some cases, tears… they stole my heart.

Here, a confession. I knew I would be meeting little ones to share some of my picture books with them – a promise made to the dynamic and caring Anouradha Bakshi on my last visit to Delhi. Anou is the founder and spirit and inspiration behind Project Why that works among and with children in the Govindpuri neighbourhood and also runs a centre for special needs (among other things). So I knew they would be little, but so little – hmmm!

So, from my bag of books I pulled out Ekki Dokki, the very first book I wrote for Tulika that's now a firm family favourite. As we went through the adventures of Ekki and then Dokki in the dark and deep jungle, the excitement built up with much hand flapping and waving… One hand waving in the air meant Ekki, the girl with one hair. Two hands, and it was Dokki. We cupped water in our hands and watered the mehendi bush, we pulled out grass and fed the cow, and… and… all in Hindi with a lot of help from the children! One little girl for whom it was just her second day, came in howling, real tears rolling steadily down her cheeks. But the moment the storytelling began, not a cry escaped her lips!

Then we all turned around, first to face the wall with the large poster of Hello, Deepa Balsavar’s delightful story about Thumb Thumb Thambi (see Thumb Thumb Books). Then we did an about turn to count with Niveditha Subramaniam’s 9 to 1. By then the children were ready to do some thumbprint drawings themselves and they happily waved goodbye with their paint-splattered hands!

- Sandhya Rao