A Book is a Bee: Review by Myth Aunty

Every once in a happy while we come across something that elevates one of our books (and our hearts) to unexpected heights. We always loved the possibilities that A Book is a Bee held out, but just look at these responses of children in this Facebook post by Library Consultant and Trainer JoAnne Saldanha! And what a wonderful learning for other parents, teachers and educators in how to evoke and encourage creativity – the sky is no limit at all!

Click here to get your copy!

In Myth Aunty’s words… 

 

One of my favourite books to read to children is ‘A Book is a Bee’ by @_lavanyakarthik_ illustrated by Ruchi Shah published by @tulikabooks.

It’s a wonderful way for my students to reflect about what books mean to them. (A side effect is that it serves as a great way to help them practice metaphors and reinforce the difference between simile and metaphors and bring in reasons for the role ‘figures of speech’ play in writing.)  

I use this book often...this time with Grades 2-6, as we continued our celebrations for World Book Day on March 4th!

A spread from the picture book A Book is a Bee

Here are a few the wonderful responses by my students. 

The emphasis is on them expressing themselves and being able to make the connections. In the library they have the freedom to do so, without bothering about their spellings or grammar. 
They were free to draw and express or only share their ideas during our online class. A few needed guidance with framing the sentence into a metaphor. 

* A book is a forest, enter and it’s an adventure.

* A book is like glue, it sticks to you with ideas. (doesn’t it just?!!??)

* A book is a bee, I fly when I read one. 

* A book is a rocket that takes me to another world.

* A book is like a cage, when I start reading I’m trapped. (literally!! literally!!)

* A book is a bottle of water that quenches my thirst. 

* A book is a whale, it is so big and long. (This child obviously had a heavy tome in mind!!)

* A book is Lego, it gives me imagination, makes me smart and playful. I like it.
*A book is a journey that takes you to places you imagine.
* A book is a sausage, I want to gobble it up. (a child after my own heart!!) 

* A book makes you go in a car over an adventurous mountain of words.

* A book is life and logic, it teaches you in many ways. (may I grow up to be this kid!!!)

*A book is a superhero that saves me from boredom. (Ah!! The Marvel/ DC fan, never fails to make his/her presence felt!)

Just a few of the interesting and wonderful responses that made my heart leap with joy. 

I prefer to let my sessions flow with the children’s responses, the next session picking up from the previous one. This allows for the ebbing and flowing of the children’s thoughts and ideas, and we always have so much to learn from them. The library offers this space.

#libraryeducation #schoollibrary #abookisabee #tulikabooks #Lavanyakarthik #Ruchishah #schoollibraryindia #playingwithbooks #mythaunty #libraryconsultant #libraryeducator 

To feel and find, climb and plunge, sail and savour and soar… all from your favourite spot, 

get your copy of 'A Book is a Bee' from www.tulikabooks.com today! 

If There Is a Title, Will the Needle Come Out of the Well? – The Neverending Stories of My Childhood

This is a guest post by Sharanya D.G., editorial intern at Tulika. 

For a child reluctant to fall asleep – like I was – no bedtime story is ever long enough. Children want stories that go on and on – “without an end… neverending…” like the little girl in The Neverending Story asks of her Ajji. If the bedtime story doesn’t end, then the child need not go to sleep, right? They can just listen to the story forever and ever…

The Neverending Story is a picture book published by Tulika in 2006, written by Ashwini Bhat and illustrated by Chinmayie. This book has in it not one, but two neverending stories similar to the folk stories that Ajjis are fond of narrating – the kind of stories that I grew up with. It was a pleasant surprise to see these stories in a book, and to almost read those very words. These are not stories that can be written or read; these are stories that are told, whispered into your ear as you are lightly patted to sleep – stories that morph into dreams as you doze off midway. Yet, Ashwini Bhat’s writing, along with Chinmayie’s illustrations, managed to transfer these words and emotions into a picture book, cleverly using the conversation between a little girl and her Ajji.

What I loved were the loops and repetitions which are an important facet of children’s tales. There is some sort of amusement and comfort we all receive from such loops and repetitions. They prove to be helpful especially when it is time to sleep. Some tend to count sheep, others concentrate on white noise but for a child like me, bedtime stories with repetitions seemed to work wonders — at least according to my parents! One of the deadliest stories they would draw out (yes, much like a weapon) when I was being a handful was the one with the grandmother’s needle in the well – the same grandmother, the same needle, the same well as in The Neverending Story. 

This story is about an old woman with a single sari that needs to be mended. Unfortunately, the only needle she has falls into the well. At this point in the story, the narrator waits for the listener to respond. No matter what the listener says, the narrator retorts by repeating everything the listener just said, asking if the needle would come out of the well, if those words were said. This goes on and on, and the story never ends as the conflict is never resolved — the old woman and needle are never reunited. There is nothing the listener can do about it, and nothing the narrator will do about it.

This naturally became my parents' go-to story when I was in the mood to blabber on and on, refusing to go to sleep. It was the only way they could get me to shut up. The only way I could stop them from repeating the same question over and over again was to keep quiet, close my eyes and stay that way until I fell asleep.

Predictably, I soon began to dread this story. It stopped being fun. I might even go to the extent of saying that this story would have been the first (sort of) existential crisis I remember having. What was the point of anything if the needle did not come out of the well? Nothing I could do or say would make the needle come out of the well.

But I refused to let such stories defeat my purposes – of not falling asleep and of irritating my parents. So I had a list of ways to try and outsmart the story when drawn out.

I told my parents to go help the old woman out if they cared so much, but being older and wiser, they threw that statement right back at me (quite coldly, I might add)!

I called them names that I was sure they wouldn’t repeat.

I even gave them smart alecky suggestions (like using a strong magnet to pull the needle out).

But they were passively repeated too. The story seemed resolution-proof. There is nothing the listener can do about it, and nothing the narrator will do about it.

I had almost given up trying to win this tug of war when I realised that my parents weren’t doing anything to help the needle come out of the well. So I turned the tables on them, “If you say ‘if you say so and so will the needle come out of the well?’ will the needle come out of the well?” I asked them one fine night. That was the last time I heard them tell the story so smugly.

However fifteen years later, nostalgia hit me unexpectedly as I read The Neverending Story at the Tulika Bookstore. It was the same feeling one gets while reading an old diary. Each word being read carries with it a trunk full of memories. As children, we listen to a lot of stories that are passed down through generations in our cultures. By making these stories into books, not only is the story endemic to that culture that is documented, but also the feelings these stories carry — the feelings of home, of love, of belonging and of familiarity. It is the same kind of comfort one finds in repetition. One naturally wants their child to grow up with the stories that shaped them during their own childhood. One wants to express their love to their child in ways familiar to them, like narrating the stories that they have heard from their own parents and grandparents. 

And for me, this feeling of familiarity and comfort was validated when I held The Neverending Story – a published book that accurately encapsulates the story so close to my heart. Now that such tales from various cultures are being written and published, these neverending stories will, in fact, never end.

Sharanya D. G. is an editorial intern at Tulika and was so moved by finding her childhood story on the Tulika bookshelves that she wrote about it.

Montessori Book List

Over the years we’ve seen that many of our books dot bookshelves in Montessori schools. The top two criteria that teachers are looking for are the content (no talking animals, simple story lines and familiar settings) and the illustrations (clear and bright).

Recently, teachers from a Chennai-based Montessori school picked up some books from their favourite bookshop – the Tulika Bookstore! We thought it might be helpful to share this list so you could build your own Montessori library. So here it is -- mast must Montessori reads!

My Mother's Sari by Sandhya Rao; illustrated by Nina Sabnani

Balu's Basket by Chitra Sounder; illustrated by Uttara Sivadas

Neelu's Big Box by Nandini Nayar; illustrated by Shreya Sen

Work written and illustrated by Shreya Sen

Where Shall I Paint? by Nandini Nayar; illustrated by Anupama Iyer

I'm Going To The Zoo! by Narendra Jain; illustrated by Alankrita Amaya

I Will Save My Land by Rinchin; illustrated by Sagar Kolwankar

I Planted A Seed by Avanti Mehta; illustrated by Manjari Chakravarti

Salim Mamoo And Me by Zai Whitaker; illustrated by Prabha Mallya

The Secret God In The Forest by Anuradha Kumar; illustrated by Piyush Verma

Not Yet! by Nandana Dev Sen; illustrated by Niloufer Wadia

Barefoot Husain by Anjali Raghbeer; illustrated by Soumya Menon

The Veena Player by Anjali Raghbeer; illustrated by Soumya Menon

The House That Sonabai Built by Vishakha Chanchani; photographed by Stephen Huyler

Why Are You Afraid To Hold My Hand written and illustrated by Sheila Dhir

Boodabim written and illustrated by Alankrita Jain

Mala's Silver Anklets by Annie Besant; illustrated by Nancy Raj

Minu And Her Hair written and illustrated by Gayathri Bashi

Nabiya by Chatura Rao; illustrated by Ruchi Mhasane

Stitching Stories: The Art of Embroidery in Gujarat by Nina Sabnani

The Magic Feather written and illustrated by Roma Singh

Kanna Panna by Zai Whitaker; illustrated by Niloufer Wadia

Ismat's Eid by Fawzia Gilani Williams; illustrated by Proiti Roy

Bulbuli's Bamboo by Mita Bordoloi; illustrated by Proiti Roy

Gone Grandmother by Chatura Rao; illustrated by Krishna Bala Shenoi

Let's Go! by Anthara Mohan; illustrated by Rajiv Eipe

Maharani The Cow by Christy Shoba Sudhir; illustrated by Nancy Raj

Let's Catch The Rain! written and illustrated by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer

Let's Plant Trees! written and illustrated by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer

Ten written and illustrated by Shefalee Jain

Pooni At The Taj Mahal written and illustrated by Manjula Padmanabhan

***

The Adventures of a First Time Editor

Read all about the unintentionally humourous side of a Tulika editor’s first experience of sending a book to press, in her own words.

After a couple of ‘settling-in’ weeks at Tulika, I was told that I would be taking over the editing process of a bilingual picture book. I was excited and mildly anxious but still didn’t know exactly what that meant. I had some idea but what I wasn’t prepared for was the multilingual factor because Tulika publishes in nine languages, so a bilingual book has English with Hindi or Tamil or Bengali… basically eight times over. Let me give you a peep into it.

Before I begin, I have to say this: I got clear directions from experienced editors and everyone has been the most helpful, kind and generous. As they say in the foreword, all the mistakes are mine.

The whole process started off quietly. I had gone through the all-important editorial workflow guide but I needed practical experience.

 

The bilingual book layout

The text, which had already gone through a few rounds of edits and was paginated, was ready for the layout. Here’s what our bilingual books look like. 

The position of the text in each language has to be the same and has to be visually accurate since line lengths differ across languages. Any change in English, like a small edit in the illustrator’s bio, has to be reflected in the translations — all EIGHT of them! I came across this delightful fact exactly when tensions were rising.

Translation challenges

Since this was a picture book, the words were few but those that were there had to be accurate, free of biases and easily translatable. This fine-tuning is an ongoing process. Even the day before the book went to press, we (the editors) were debating on a word in Tamil, its connotations and denotations. With layers of meaning, a word had to be carefully considered till we were sure of the word. For example, in this particular book, the word in the Hindi original was ‘kurta’. For many languages including English, ‘kurta’ was used as it is. However, ‘kurta’ is not a Tamil word. The equivalent that was chosen, ‘chattai’, translates as ‘shirt’ as well as ‘an upper body garment’. However, one of our reviewers pointed out that chattai is a short garment whereas a kurta isn’t. We discussed this point with the translator. She explained that she used ‘chattai’ instead of ‘kurta’ since in rural areas ‘kurta’ is only associated with women whereas, in this case, the visual was of a boy so ‘kurta’ couldn’t be used. So ‘chattai’ it was!

Cover story

Next were the covers. Juggling the front cover, the back cover, inside covers and the title page was like playing football with four balls. I never knew which one was headed for me and which one could be tackled with a foot or the head. I wished I could just step aside and let the footballs go right past me. That was clearly not an option.

Typography

So by the penultimate day everything including fonts and type sizes was final. It needed one more round to iron out any problems — such as if a font was too fussy or too heavy or too small. You see, being perfectionists nothing was passed even if it was something that only we would notice. The cover, title page and inside pages of each translation had been printed out earlier and compared to check that their look matched across languages. However, it was done again now for a final time.

The Going-To-Press day

The next morning as GTP (Going To Press) day rolled along, I felt lost. In fact, I was told that "I am lost" was my constant refrain through the day.

The fine-tuning was still being done. Translations were all done, but done is not really done, I was finding out. If one thing was changed in one translation, it had a domino effect on all others.

Then came the fine art of replacing those pages that had minor tweaks: this I could handle of course but… all translations were merging into one. No, this is not a metaphor. I found some pages of different languages mixed up.

After sorting it out and putting all the items that the printer needs in an envelope, I could see that the process was coming to a close.

Wrapping up!

As I heaved a sigh of relief, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I had just babysat eight babies (read books) who were crawling away from me in different directions. As soon as I got control of one baby, another slipped away. Controlling all eight of them was a Herculean task. Or so it seemed at that time. But as the wise say, this too shall pass. So it did.

Today, while I wait for the book to get back from press, and have got some distance between me and that day, I feel that it’s not so bad, I can survive this.

If you thought editing for children’s books was easy, think again!

***

To buy our bilingual picture books, head to:
http://www.tulikabooks.com/bilingual-books/general-bilingual-picture-books/

Creative Non-fiction

Non-fiction = information books = general knowledge = better marks. This is how the genre has usually been seen with regard to children, and this is a reason why it is much in demand among parents and teachers dealing with a marks-centred education system.

Information, certainly, but in creative ways – this was the challenge Tulika took upon itself 20 years ago with its very first non-fiction titles.

Since then, its strong non-fiction list for ages 2 to 16 has done a fine balancing act of information, stories, graphics, illustrations and photographs to give the reader a lot more than just facts, covering many issues green and gender as well as people, places and events, and in a rich variety of formats…

Read and Colour Stories offers a hands-on way for young children to understand and explore information. The four Freedom and four River stories are told along with well-researched line drawings so that children absorb visual details as they colour the pictures and read the story-like texts. 

Looking at Art is a unique series that leads children into the world and sensibilities of some of India’s best known artists – contemporary, traditional and folk. Through story, memoir and biography, children look at art and understand aesthetics. The books give young readers a wider and more inclusive idea of art.

The books in the series are on the art of painters M. F. Husain, Ravi Varma, Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy, K. G. Subramanyan and Paritosh Sen, and clay artist Sonabai. Stitching Stories, based on an animation film, is a striking visual narrative through applique and embroidery. Cave Art unfolds the story of art with photographs of the ancient paintings at the Bhimbetka Caves in Madhya Pradesh alongside creative reproductions of rock art. In A for Ajrakh: The A to Z of Block Printing, each letter sparks off an aspect of block printing on textile, so that by Z for Zafran what we get is a fascinating patchwork of the styles, the motifs, the blocks, the dyes, and the skilled people who sustain and invigorate a centuries-old intricate craft.

First Look Science has five books that are perfect for a child’s first introduction to science, because they were born as pictures. In a classroom project with The Srishti School of Design, Bengaluru, students were asked to visualise five sets of scientific facts on different topics. They did this through the fantasy adventures of Bhoomi, Boondi, Dhooli, Gitti and Beeji, bringing in basic concepts about space, water, air, earth and the earth’s surface. The stunning illustrations convey the beauty, vastness and mystery of nature, enriching the storytelling experience. The science is summed up at the end of each book. 

My Gandhi Story by Nina Sabnani and Ankit Chadha, illustrated by Rajesh Chaitya Vangad, came out of four large paintings displayed in an exhibition on Gandhi. In a unique collaboration, this brought together a Warli tribal artist, an animation filmmaker and a storyteller. While the artist was inspired to paint Gandhi's life simply because “he was like us”, the curating of the visuals was inspired by the delightful details in the paintings, picked and highlighted with care. Telling the story in three distinct voices – of a questioning child, a narrator who responds, and Bapu himself – lends intimate subjectivity to a much-published subject.

Gender Talk: Big Hero Size Zero ‘talks’ directly to teens about a complex subject with empathy and in a language they would understand. Uncovering truths, untruths, semi-truths and myths, using everyday examples as well as references to popular media, and with a humorous cartoon commentary running alongside, the book explores what it means socially and culturally to belong to a certain gender.

Fact+Fiction is the series with the winning combination of both!

Other non-fiction titles:

India at the Olympic Games

India’s Olympic Story

Picture Gandhi

My Gandhi Scrapbook

Bhopal Gas Tragedy

My Friend, the Sea

Bijoy and the Big River

The Coral Tree

Riddle of the Ridley

Fact + Fiction series

Stone Eggs: A story about Indian dinosaurs

The Shining Stones

Jagadish and the Talking Plant: Pioneering scientist J.C. Bose

Little Indians: Stories from across the country

Mathematwist: Number tales from around the world

Non Fiction Picture Books 

Lai-Lai the Baby Elephant

Takdir the Tiger Cub

Baby Beboo Bear

Dinaben and the Lions of Gir
Carry Me, Mama!

Watch Out!

Dancing Bees
My Facebook Friends

Let’s Plant Trees
Let’s Catch the Rain!
Why the Sky is Blue
Ira, the Little Dolphin
Sultan's Forest
Spider's Web
Wings to Fly
Bhimrao Ambedkar: The Boy Who Asked Why

Coming up: In the next post, we will look at our latest non-fiction title India Through Archaeology: Excavating History.