Making books for children

Chintan Girish Modi

When Indian teachers and parents complain about the dearth of locally produced books for children in English, I wonder if they have been living under a rock. The flurry of activity on the Indian children’s publishing scene has been quite remarkable with Pratham Books, Tulika Books, Tara Books, Karadi Tales, Duckbill Books, Eklavya, Jugnoo Prakashan, Young Zubaan, Kalpavriksh, Red Panda, Perky Parrot, Talking Cub, PickleYolk, Daffodil Lane, and many other publishers bringing out thoughtfully written and beautifully illustrated books.

The bitter truth is that most of them have tight budgets and a small staff, so they struggle with distribution and marketing. As a result, their reach is limited. They have a loyal readership thanks to independent bookshops, school fairs, and children’s literature festivals, but it is tough to find and cultivate new readers especially as shelf space in physical bookstores is hogged by international titles and navigating algorithms on e-commerce sites is a pain.

Discoverability is a problem not only for sellers but also buyers. Thankfully, we now have Children’s Books: An Indian Story, an excellent new anthology capturing voices and perspectives from this vibrant industry, so that adults have a better understanding of what is available for children.

Developed with support from the Parag initiative of Tata Trusts, it is edited by Shailaja Menon and Sandhya Rao. The former is a language educator who leads the Centre of Excellence in Early Literacy and is facilitating the founding of the Early Learning Network of India at Tata Trusts. The latter is a journalist, book editor, and author of children’s books.

This book offers an enriching experience for readers because it draws on the collective knowledge and wisdom of people who live and breathe children’s literature. It has been jointly written by authors, illustrators, editors, translators, publishers, librarians, and educators. It is divided into four sections: 1. Understanding the Terrain: Children’s Literature in India 2. The Moving Landscape: Looking at Books 3. Uneven Ground: Issues in Children’s Literature 4. As You Sow: Using Books with Children. Each section has multiple essays.

While the volume that runs into more than 400 pages merits careful reading from cover to cover, readers have fleeting attention spans thanks to the profusion of digital media. Some elements are, therefore, worth highlighting. Foremost among these is the introduction titled “Seasons of Change” by the editors who state, “Children’s literature, like all cultural artifacts, is produced at the intersection of historical, political, social, and economic influences.”

This book focuses on post-liberalization India since it was the opening up of the economy in the 1990s that “a market was discovered for selling books to urban, middle-class children, and their well-educated, informed parents and schools.” Readers who prefer numerical data rather than qualitative, impressionistic accounts will also have their needs met by this book.

Radhika Menon, author of the essay “Trends in the Publishing Domain” details how the sector has grown from the early National Book Trust and Children’s Book Trust publications that “generally featured village-based stories and characters with Gandhian values”. While the emphasis on building a national identity and instilling pride in Hindu culture through retelling of mythology has not waned, there is a surge of interest in contemporary stories.

In an essay titled “A Publisher Speaks”, Sayoni Basu writes, “There are books on subjects which would not have been written 10 years back: disability, divorce, homosexuality, gender fluidity, foeticide, war, abuse, mental health – it is almost as if no subject is taboo.” At the same time, she also acknowledges that Indian parents are known for wanting their children to read the same books that they enjoyed when they were children. Also, parents want children to learn something “of educational, grammatical, moral or behavioural value”. Reading for pleasure is frowned upon and there is a widespread reluctance to spend money on it.

Thejaswi Shivanand’s essay “More than Lions, Rabbits, Jesters and Elephants: Morals and Humour in Fiction, Poetry and Plays” encourages us to reflect on the tension between books that take on a pedagogical role and provide moral instruction versus books that “invite children in to consider values, and arrive at morals in a more egalitarian and reasoned manner”. It can be argued, however, that regardless of the approach, adults involved in book production and book buying operate with a vision of what children must grow up to be like.

The introduction categorically states that a lot of children’s literature published in India today “presumes the middle-class, urban child as its reader” even though there is a push towards diversity, equity, and inclusion. Children from marginalized sections of society are included mostly as protagonists in stories, not as readers of the books. This may have to do with the composition of the children’s publishing industry itself and where they source their stories from.

This concern pops up again in an essay titled “Representing Diverse Childhoods” written by Tultul Biswas, who asks, “Who are the children who find a mention in contemporary children’s books? Who appear to be the intended audience or readers for these books? Who are the creators – authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers of these books?” These questions are important to engage with if we want all children to feel welcome and valued.

There are numerous Indian children’s books featuring children with disabilities as protagonists but the development of books for children with print disabilities has not received much attention, as we learn from Namita Jacob and Teresa Antony’s essay “Books for Children with Special Needs”. They make concrete and useful recommendations on how publishers can adopt inclusive design to make their books accessible to excluded children.

Another insightful essay titled “Thinking Out of the Box: Innovations and Approaches in Indian Children’s Literature in English”, written by V. Geetha and Divya Vijayakumar, talks about the sensitivities involved in working with indigenous artists who illustrate for children’s books. “Artists, many of whom are not formally literate, feel cherished on account of their work being in a book,” they say, while also cautioning that it is vital to “retain the integrity and distinctiveness of the art style while bringing it into the pages of the book”.

Deepa Kiran, Manjula Padmanabhan, Deepa Balsavar, Sowmya Rajendran, Niveditha Subramaniam, Devika Rangachari, Jerry Pinto, Manisha Chaudhary, Arunava Sinha, Sreya Rakshit, Karthika Vijayamani, Sujata Noronha, Keethi Mukunda, Mridula Koshy, and Usha Mukunda are some of the other contributors whose pieces are crucial additions to this book.

In a nutshell, this tome would be a treat for anybody who is curious about the state of Indian children’s literature in English. It does not claim to be the last word on the subject. It is acutely aware of the fact that Indian children read in multiple languages, but hopefully this study will encourage and inspire other researchers to give us a more nuanced picture.

The reviewer has an M.Phil. in English Language Education. He has worked with the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, the Kabir Project, Shishuvan, Muktangan, and the Prajnya Trust’s Education for Peace Initiative. He can be reached at chintan.writing@gmail.com.