The curious case of children’s literature
Why
don’t international book lists really get Indian kid-lit? A question I have
often pondered, and am sure others in the industry have as well.
Two
years ago, The Guardian, which
has excellent recommendation for kid-lit and YA Books, published an article
titled, “What are the best children’s books about India?” The list included
some outstanding books, but most weren’t really representative of the country’s
diverse kid-lit. Especially if you’re looking for slice-of-life stories. Two of
the selections, for instance, were folk tales. Another pick, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, isn’t
really the best example, when there’s an entire fleet of publishers creating
some fantastic new children’s literature in English in our country. The more
updated list actually comes from Duckbill’s Sayoni Basu in the comments section
of the piece.
Where are the books?
More
recently, website Book Riot did a list of “Young Adult/Crossover Titles from
India”. The writer bemoans how hard is it “to find the casual inclusion of
LGBTQIA+ characters in YA”. But then the list doesn’t even include Slightly Burnt by Payal
Dhar or Talking of Muskaan by
Himanjali Sankar, two tremendous examples of LGBT books for young adults.
Let’s
accept it — international writers aren’t really culpable here. The fact is that
it’s hard for even Indian children, teens, and parents to find good literature
— and that’s not because it isn’t being published. Children’s publishing in
India is evolving in leaps and bounds — we are seeing an upsurge of powerful
storytelling, writers breaking traditional moulds, and publishers bashing
stereotypes. And when done right, those books are fun and fabulous.
By
now many of our writers should have become household names, much like J.K.
Rowling, Rick Riordan or Enid Blyton. Yet, we still haven’t seen the kind of
national or international recognition that they deserve. Of course, Tara Books,
as well as Tulika Books and Karadi Tales have an international presence and as
does the Pratham Books StoryWeaver platform (disclosure: I consult with Pratham
Books). In fact, Maria Popova of Brain Pickings often features Tara Books in
her list of must-read books, giving realms of virtual space to their gorgeous
illustrations.
The
year 2017 is turning out to be promising for children’s publishing in India.
Bookaroo, India’s own festival of children’s literature, aptly won the Literary
Festival of the Year award at the London Book Fair International Excellence
Award. Young Zubaan’s Eat
the Sky, Drink the Ocean, a feminist anthology, edited by Payal
Dhar and Anita Roy from India and Kirsty Murray from Australia, was published
in the U.S.
Discovering fresh talent
But
it’s really “discovery” that continues to be a big problem. How do you find out
that these books are in the market? Bestselling lists are packed with
international books, mythology and folk tales. That is when you can find a
physical bookstore. When you do, Ruskin Bond, Abdul Kalam, Rudyard Kipling
dominate bookshelves, and few publishing houses flex their marketing muscle for
other books.
If
then, you’re buying books online, how do you know which titles to buy? Stories
about children’s books and their authors are few and far between in the media.
Websites like Good Books or Saffron Tree are excellent resources for book
reviews, but we need to find other ways of sending traffic their way.
Bookstores such as Trilogy by the Eternal Library and Kitab Khana in Mumbai or
Lightroom in Bengaluru are incredibly rare and precious. Once you step into
them, a veritable trove of kid-lit is in front of you. Then there’s Reading
Raccoons on Facebook, which has interesting discussions on children’s books
fuelled by parents, educators, editors and authors.
Making a start
Last
year, I started BAM Books on Instagram with a friend, Maegan Dobson Sippy, to
create a visual space to talk about diverse books, and the response has been
phenomenal. We are finding interesting books, having some fantastic
conversations, and learning so much about our classic and contemporary stories.
To
add to the first question, what if you were looking for a list of must-read YA
books from the U.S. or say, the best children’s books about the U.K.? Imagine a
list that mostly included YA books such as Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer or The
Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot? Or was dominated by Enid Blyton and
Richmal Crompton? It wouldn’t ring true, would it? We feel the same.
Source | The Hindu | 5 April 2017
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Upcoming Event | MANLIBNET 17th Annual
International Conference on 15-16 September 2017 at Jaipuria, Noida, India
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