Children’s Literature …

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-mumbai/alphabet-soup/article8730537.ece

Ever asked a toddler to recite the alphabet, or for that matter even an adult? Chances are they will rattle it back to you in a breathless singsong manner, while bouncing on the balls of their feet. Learning the alphabet is usually presented to children in a simple manner, where A is for apple with an illustration of a glossy red apple, B is for ball, Z is for Zebra and so on. For toddlers, books are designed to teach them the letters: the phonetics, their shapes, and basic word associations.

One of the most iconic alphabet books was Rabindranath Tagore’s Sahaj Path , which introduced toddlers to Bengali as a beautiful picture book way back in 1930. The two-part series was accompanied by lino-cut illustrations by Nandalal Bose. The first part centered around the structure of the Bengali alphabet and its pronunciation, and the second used them in sentences and couplets. Then there’s the exquisitely created ABC: Touch and See (Karadi Tales) by Shobha Vishwanath, which is part of their Dreaming Fingers series. The handcrafted pictures are created with a collage of materials and textures, and the printed text goes along side Braille letters to make a tactile book. But ABC books are not just meant for toddlers. Alphabet books for older children, and even adults, are a great starting point to introduce novel ideas and concepts, and they also make for fun reading.

Prabha Mallya’s The Alphabet of Animals and Birds (Red Turtle) is a lovely way of getting children to learn about the collective nouns for animal and birds. The gorgeous illustrations show groups of animals with their collective names: A is for a shrewdness of apes, who are poring over a swarm of ants, while F is for a stand of flamingos, as they, well, stand among a skulk of foxes.

More recently, Duckbill published legendary naturalist, wildlife photographer and writer, M. Krishnan’s Book of Beasts: An A to Z Rhyming Bestiary . The alphabets lead the readers on a global jungle safari where they can meet some unusual animals. B, for instance, is for binturong, which the writer fears “may not be there for very long.” With its cat-like face, long body and prehensile tail, the curious looking animal, the reader finds out, “is very wild and very strong”. M. Krishnan wrote some of these animal verses for his granddaughter Asha Harikrishnan’s birthday, gifting the first set to her in 1990. The quirky poetry and facts are a lesson in conservation, at the same time, they point out the adverse impacts humans have on the natural world.

Alphabet books can be enchanting, irreverent or fabulously dark. Neil Gaiman and Gris Grimly’s The Dangerous Alphabet (Harper) is a subversive “piratical ghost story” where two children embark on a journey in a B for boat which pushes off in the dark in a R which is a river “that flows like a dream”, where E is for the “evil that lures and entices”. Ominous and riveting. Written by Jerry Pinto and illustrated by Sayan Mukherjee, Hey! That’s an A! (Tulika Books) is a delightful romp where the letters race around the page, accompanied by clever puns and verse.

Oliver Jeffers’ Once Upon an Alphabet goes beyond the alphabet. Each letter has its own story, rendered imaginatively, in the characteristic lucid yet dreamy form of Jeffers’ illustrations. And in his classic way, he explores themes in a few words – his verses are tinged with whimsy, fear, sadness, cleverness, and friendship.

Adults will love ABC3D (Tara Books) by French artist Marion Bataille, a book that takes the concept of pop-ups to another dimension, integrating design, architecture and movement. As you open the book, the letter C folds over to form a D, while the lower bar of the letter E retracts to become an F, and the letter V’s reflection becomes a W. The letters, which are rendered in black, white and red, move three-dimensionally across time and space, making the book a delight.

One of the most unlikely alphabet books was recommended to me by an American friend who works in sustainable fashion. He said both his daughter and he love A is for Activist (Triangle Square) by Innosanto Nagara. The board book teaches words that are important, but are not often found in picture books. ““A is for activist. Advocate. Abolitionist. Ally. Actively answering a call to action. Are you an activist?” writes Nagara. His warm and vivid illustrations are the perfect backdrop for his equally bold text. “Equal rights,” he writes, “black, brown, or white. Clean and healthy is a right. Every place we live and play environmental justice is the way!” Feminist, indigenous, immigrant, justice, LGBTQ, are not just words here. Nagara gives them meaning.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/instabites-of-knowledge/article8675766.ece

Guess what this is?” asked wildlife photographer and filmmaker Kalyan Varma on his Instagram feed (@kalyanvarma). At first glance, the image looked like a radiating collage of Chiclets, the white chewing gum we were all addicted to as kids. Teeth, I wondered, looking at the hashtags #texture and #wildlife for clues. Finally, Varma answered, “It’s the underside of a Croc called Gharial.” This question was part of a short quiz series where Varma put up close-up shots of animals. What a wonderful idea!

Lately, I have been finding that Instagram can be a wonderful educational tool for children. There are environmental groups talking about the impact of climate change, forums to explore space, art and science, and ideas for the next dreaded craft project. Varma, for instance, posts about his travels in forests in India and different parts of the globe. His photographs inspire awe for the natural world: a shy baby stump-tailed macaque glances at his camera; a plump rare bird, resplendent in sunset colours, from the eastern Himalayas looks askance ‘ a spider hides between spores of a fern in the Western Ghats.

For teens looking for more such information, National Geographic (@natgeo) and Discovery (@discoverychannel) are packed with stunning photographs of the natural world: animals, strange flora, and remote worlds.

The magazine Time for Kids also has its @timeforkidsmagazine handle and it’s full of fascinating trivia. From learning what is lightning to why is Friday the 13th considered unlucky and interviews with filmmakers to sports, it’s all in there. Right now, there’s a call out for their Kids Reporter programme, which sounds very exciting.

Then there’s NASA’s Instagram account (@nasa), which is a wonderful way to “explore the universe and discover our home planet.” Kids can learn about the Hubble Space Telescope, the moons of different planets, and discover geography through satellite images. The photographs are stunning. Mars, for instance, looks like a covetable shiny marble, with its frosty polar caps shining bright among its “rust-coloured landscape.”

In another post, the Nili Fossae region of Mars is similar to a rugged denim-covered outcrop. There are videos of solar flares, images of aurora from space, and solar eclipses. It’s quite a journey into the universe, one told by the experts.

Art projects can do with some inspiration. Get ready to be awestruck by Colossal (@colossal). The six-year-old award-winning blog explores art and visual culture. Photography, animation, installations, drawings, street art are just some of the gorgeous stuff on their feed. As the website says, “Colossal is also a great place to learn about the intersection of art and science as well as the beauty of the natural world.” Then check out Kids Crafts (@produmamka) and Craft Ideas Magazine (@craftideasmag) for more practical inspiration: reusing plastic glasses for art work, making your own paper and creating mini cacti pincushions. Then there’s Emma Mitchell (@silverpebble2), a writer, designer and naturalist. Her Instagram feed is full of beautiful flowers, some fresh and others flattened as part of sketchbooks. It’s a wonderful way to get acquainted with diverse flora. Don’t be surprised if your child’s interest in craft projects suddenly goes up.

Techno-savvy children can check out littleBits (@littlebits), who say they are on a “mission to unleash creativity by empowering everyone to create inventions, large & small, with out platform of electronic building blocks.” On April Fool’s Day, they put up a video of a motion-triggered confetti machine, which looks like the ultimate prank. Then there’s a DIY grand piano for young engineers as well as animatronic animals and characters. Their Instagram handle is only a showcase place: you have to visit the website to understand how to create projects.

For those looking for real time updates, Everyday Climate Change (@everyday climatechange) brings together a group of photographers from five continents who document climate change. Their feed shows how the changing climate is impacting people and landscapes across the world. Don’t miss photographer and writer Arati Kumar-Rao’s (@aratikumarrao) images on Bangladesh and India on the feed.

So, tap away. But cyber safety, of course, is important; note that children below the age of 13 are not allowed to have accounts. Having a private account is also a good idea, so you can control who views the photos.

Summer vacation means the kids get to curl up with a book, a plate of sliced mangoes, and drift off to Storyville. There’s plenty of exciting stuff happening in the world of books this summer. The new Rick Riordan is just out – The Hidden Oracle: The Trials of Apollo I, and then in July, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – The Rehearsal Edition will be published in the muggle world. Here’s a list of books to add to the reading list this summer.

For Young Adults

Asmara’s Summer by Andaleeb Wajid: A spunky story about Asmara, a hip and popular teen who finds herself relegated to her grandparents’ decidedly not-so-posh place on Tannery Road in Bangalore for the summer. Asmara’s shorts are the cause of horror to her Nani, there’s that stuffy neighbor aunty to contend with, and worse, there’s no Wi-Fi! Asmara decides not to tell her friends about this one-month interlude in her life, so she’s pretty much friendless in the area, apart from Rukhsana who’s about her age. Things start looking up when Asmara discovers that Rukhsana has a gorgeous brother. While Asmara entertains herself by starting an Instagram account to poke fun at the fashion disaster of a neighbourhood, she also discovers that there’s more to life than the way people dress and talk. A breezy read, Asmara’s Summer is also warm and has moments that are wonderfully poignant.

Hedon by Priyanka Mookerjee: Hedon is the story of the millenials. Tara Mullick meets Jay Dhillon at a wedding when she’s a teenager. An awkward, plump teen, that too. Soon she heads off to the USA to study, but she keeps in touch with Jay over texts and quick phone calls. Priyanka Mookerjee writes the story of the privileged – Tara goes to a posh school in Kolkata and then to a US college. She’s surrounded by money and yet it all feels pointless to her. Hedon is a story of debauchery, of existential questions, and of pop-culture. But it also talks about that feeling of alienation, the lusciousness of poetry, and just life as it unravels.

Tanya Tania by Antara Ganguly: An epistolary novel by Antara Ganguly, parts of Tanya Tania are set in the early ’90s. Letters fly between Tanya in Pakistan and Tania in Bombay, talking about their lives, school, home, friends and boyfriends. In many ways, the two pen-friends are self-involved, writing more to share, rather than listen. But ultimately, finding comfort in words. And slowly, the letters begin to reflect the political and social tensions in both countries. A coming-of-age book, Tanya Tania is about aspirations, sexuality, class differences, political ideologies and how they impact everyday people, gender differences, and of course, friendships. A heart-wrenching read, Tanya Tania is also a reminder of how two decades on, very little has really changed.

For Tweens

The Boy Who Swallowed a Nail and Other Stories by Lalita Iyer: A fresh voice in kid lit, journalist Lalita Iyer’s memoir is reminiscent of the simplicity and innocence of childhood. Children will fall in love with her quirky family, where one day Appa is pondering about buying a buffalo much to the horror of the children, and on another, Ammini is telling an impressive story about a fart. It’s the little things that count – such as Amma’s habit of washing clothes in every hotel they stayed in during holidays or the description of foods such as aloo parathas with dollops of white butter and dahi. There’s even a recipe for this tomato jaggery chutney by Paatumami. Shamika Kocharekar’s illustrations are as happy as the stories. The tales are almost like sitting at your grandmother’s knees, listening to one anecdote, after another.

Monkey Trouble and Other Grandfather Stories by Ruskin Bond, illustrated by Priya Kurian: There’s always a steady stream of old and new Ruskin Bond stories jostling for space on bookshelves. But now some of these stories have a new avatar with Priya Kurian’s splendid illustrations in the comic book, Monkey Trouble and Other Grandfather Stories. Kurian takes three of Bond’s stories – “Monkey Trouble”, “Eye of the Eagle”, and a “A Special Tree” and renders them in delightful colours. The most memorable one is “A Special Tree”, where a Ruskin Bond like grandpa encourages his grandson to sow a cherry tree seed and together they marvel at its growth through different seasons.

Simply Nanju by Zainab Sulaiman: Life isn’t easy for Nanju – he was born with a spinal problem and is often bullied at school. To make matters worse, Appa is threatening to send Nanju away if his marks don’t improve and someone’s flicking the topper’s notebooks in class, and Nanju is a key suspect. But the boy finds solace in his very smart best friend and plants. Zainab Sulaiman sets her story in a school for the differently-abled, writing about it with sensitivity and masterfully. Simply Nanju is about inclusion, but it’s also about class structures, bullying, and just navigating the bumpy path of school life.

For the younger ones

A Helping Hand by Payal Dhar and illustrated by Vartika Sharma (available on StoryWeaver.org.in): Miss has told “me”, the protagonist of the story, to be the mentor to the new girl in class and show her around. In a series of letters that are never meant to be read, the girl pours her heart out – about her reluctance to befriend the new girl because she’s different. At one point, she writes about a conversation with her older sister. “I told her, ‘There’s a girl in my class and she has a fake hand,’ and she said that the term is ‘prosthetic hand’.” Payal Dhar writes convincingly from the point of view of a child and has shades of empathy, bullying, discrimination, and inclusion. Vartika Sharma’s illustrations are hauntingly beautiful and stark, making the story a memorable one.

Kasturba by Tanaya Vyas: The young Nina is quite an actor. She’s played all sorts of strong female protagonists – from Sita to Razia. But for her next play, Nina’s got the role of Kasturba. She can’t help but wonder about the role, after all she asks herself, Kasturba was only Gandhiji’s wife, wasn’t she? But when Nina starts preparing for the role, she finds out there was more to her than just being a wife.

Thatha at School by Richa Jha and illustrated by Gautam Benegal: Delhi-based Oviyam may just be in second standard but she has a looming black cloud above her head. The school is celebrating their annual Grandparents Day and all grandpas and grandmas are invited. Oviyam’s embarrassed to bring her lungi-clad Thatha, but he’s ever-so excited about it. Richa Jha writes a wonderful, nuanced tale about a child’s relationship with her cherished, if sometimes embarrassing Thatha. Gautam Benegal’s illustrations are spirited and reflect Oviyam’s constantly changing moods perfectly.

The author writes about education for sustainable development, conservation, and food security. She’s the former editor of Time Out Bengaluru

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/dialling-the-right-number/article8554028.ece

Missed calls, especially in India, are a useful tool. You pass on your number to an acquaintance through a missed call, you “miss call” to let someone know you’ve reached a particular destination, or you get a missed call because the other person wants you to call them back. But last week, these calls got a new twist with Pratham Books’ “ Missed Call Do, Kahaani Suno ” campaign. For two days, emails, WhatsApp messages, and social media posts flew across cyberspace, urging people to give a missed call to a Bangalore number. Pratham Books would then call back and children and adults could listen to a story in five languages: English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, or Telugu. The not-for-profit children’s books publisher partnered with Radio Mirchi and Exotel, a cloud telephony company, for the campaign.

“Most of us were fortunate to grow up in world full of stories,” said Purvi Shah, Head Digital Projects, Pratham Books. “But for millions of children the culture of books and reading for joy in their home environment does not exist. From our varied experiences on the field we constantly heard the need for audio stories. To us, this was a great insight to reach where a culture of reading at home was missing for the child. We felt we could address this need gap because we already had lovely stories in many Indian languages.”

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India has over a billion mobile phone users, of which 42.39 per cent are rural subscribers. Businesses have long wised-up to this statistic, as have political parties. We have been bombarded with marketing calls and SMSes, electoral campaign texts, and sales alerts and urged to send text messages or call toll free numbers on television shows. The Pratham Books campaign puts phones to better use: getting stories to remote parts of the country.

“The mobile phone as we know already exists in most Indian households today,” said Shah, “and that became an easy, scalable distribution medium, What we needed to ensure was that the parent did not have to pay for hearing the story. This was crucial considering the focus of Pratham Books’ target audience: the underserved child. That’s how we thought of exploring the ‘missed call’ route, which already existed as an idea.”

As part of their CSR initiative, Mirchi Cares, Radio Mirchi recorded the Pratham Books’ stories and then Exotel created the framework to deliver the audio stories. The Delhi pilot saw over 35,000 missed calls from 3,500 phones. For Exotel’s CEO, Shivakumar Ganesan, the campaign’s phenomenal response was “yet another testimony to the power of a simple phone call.”

“When the campaign went live, we received a great response online,” said Maya Hemant Krishna, Community Manager, Pratham Books. “Over the years, we’ve built a community of reading evangelists who are passionate about helping us in our mission of getting ‘a book in every child’s hand’. Many of them pitched in to spread the word about the campaign, actively tell people about how it works and more, ask for an extension because their children didn’t get to hear it, spread it through WhatsApp.”

As a campaign, “ Missed Call Do, Kahaani Suno ” dialled a lot of right numbers: a zero-cost operation that spreads the wonder of stories to children with little or no access to stories, or with limited literacy; and in multiple languages. “Listening to stories is a joyful way to create an interest in reading among children,” said Himanshu Giri, CEO, Pratham Books. “Our aim was to take the magic of storytelling into the homes of children by empowering parents to bring the joy of stories to their children.” Shah further said, “Many studies on language development have documented that children from low income families hear as many as 30 million fewer words than their affluent peers before the age of four. A simple technique like reading aloud can bridge this gap. The idea of ‘ Missed call do, Kahaani suno ’ is to create a culture of listening to stories within the home environment. This will eventually lead to an interest in reading as well.”

To encourage reading, for instance, after you heard the narrator growling away in Pehelwaan ji in Hindi on the phone, you also got a SMS with a link to the e-book on StoryWeaver, an open source repository of multilingual stories for children. Maya Krishna said that the content is available for now on StoryWeaver and on Pratham Books’ SoundCloud account for free download.

Chennai-based Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy was one of the callers. “I have this special connection with this girl whose parents do a bunch of chores in our apartment,” she told Pratham. “I couldn’t wait to sit next to her and make her hear the story. When she and my daughter heard the Mouse in the House story, their eyes gleamed in delight. We learned a bunch of words from the story. Later, I enacted the story for them, playing the grandma, the pa, ma, the baby, and the mouse. They all giggled and clapped. The best part of the campaign was your insisting on sharing this with those kids who didn’t have access to stories.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/article8439992.ece
Alex Gino’s book George starts with its eponymous protagonist poring over fashion magazines. The fourth grader reads about make-up, even though she’s never worn it but tries to imagine herself with a slash of lipstick. George, we find out, doesn’t like her name much, preferring to think of herself as Melissa. She also wants to play Charlotte in the school play, but it’s looking impossible. Her brother teases her, saying she’s got girls on her mind. She does, only not in the way her brother thinks. That’s because George is a boy who actually identifies himself as a girl.

George is one of the slew of international books that gently explain the confusion and discrimination transgender people face. These books reinforce the fact that gender is something children learn from social conditioning – their parents, peers, schools define what it means to be a boy or a girl. And when a child like George strongly feels he is a girl, he finds himself alienated, bullied viciously at school. George is nothing but a mere reflection of real life.

Recently, I came across India’s Youth Speak Out About Higher Education, a report prepared by UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) to Support Ministry of Human Resources Development’s 2015 Revision of the National Education Policy. The report included 44 transgender respondents and the findings were telling. The data suggested that “bias about gender and sexuality is, unfortunately, common in Indian higher education, and must be addressed”. As many as 85 per cent of the transgender respondents had never been enrolled in an institution of higher education. The reasons were multifarious, ranging from family constraints, and social unrest at their native places, to lack of financial support. Some dropped out after they felt they weren’t accepted by their peers.

In 2014, the HRD Ministry advised all States and Union Territories (except J&K) to include “third gender” children as part of the socially and educationally backward classes for admission under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. Yet, apart from reservation, there’s a lot that needs to be addressed to makes schools and colleges more inclusive for transgender students.

In the focus group discussions conducted by the UNESCO MGIEP, students of all genders agreed that on campus, those who were transgender and/or sexual minorities were bullied. One transgender student from the east mentioned in the report that he dropped out because the campus climate was too hostile. He said, “I had to face harassment in college because of my gender identity… Whenever they would see me, they identified themselves as ‘straight’. They would completely ignore me. In the three years of college, I went for the first one-and-a-half years because of attendance. After that, I didn’t go. I didn’t have friends. I didn’t have anyone to share things with.”

The fictional George’s best friend, Kelly, on the other hand, is more accepting. And that makes a world of a difference for George. It’s the same for David Piper, the protagonist of Lisa Williamson’s book, The Art of Being Normal . His two best friends couldn’t care less, unlike most of his school mates. Both books are written with sensitivity and a keen perception about young adults and children struggling to understand gender identity.

Then there’s How to be a Girl , a podcast where a single mum documents life with her six-year-old transgender daughter. The audio-series is heart-wrenching as it attempts “to sort out just what it means to be a girl”. At the age of three, we hear the toddler beg his mum to fix the mistake and put him back to being a girl. The mother is confused and distraught but supportive. That kind of family support is rare. In Presentation of Gender Dysphoria: A perspective from Eastern India , Debmalya Sanyal and Anirban Majumder studied “the clinical, biochemical profile, personality characteristics and family support of GID subjects”. Their findings revealed that it is difficult for transgender people “to express their sexual identity in family or in society” – only 10.96 per cent had their family’s support. Their conclusion states that “social taboo and lack of informative, family support [led] to delayed medical consultation and have accounted for complexities in presentation indicating a huge need for awareness programmes.”

The UNESCO MGIEP report outlines recommendations on making higher education campuses more inclusive. Suggestions included orientation sessions and mandatory course modules to sensitise students, faculty and administration about gender and sexuality from the primary school level, faculty training, privacy protection, counselling, and infrastructure such as gender-neutral toilets. In George , one of the things George hates is the boys’ bathroom. “It was the worst room in the school… the whole room was about being a boy…”

Books like George and The Art of Being Normal are few and far between. They are powerful stories with well-etched characters. These stories help children feel it’s okay to be different, and as Gino puts it, it’s okay to “be who you are”.