Hero worship

Posted on by bijalv

When it comes to films and books for children, superheroes rule, finds Time Out

 http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/hero-worship

darsheel safari, zokkomon, children, satyajit bhatkal, film, superhero,

In the book iBoy, an iPhone falls on 16-year-old Tom Harvey’s head and soon the embedded device gives him the ability to surf the internet at will. He uses this ability to take revenge on his friend’s rapists by accessing their personal information. In Joe Craig’s Jimmy Coates, the 11-year-old protagonist discovers that he is only 38 per cent human while the rest of him is robot. As part-robot, he is expected to aid the state’s dictator. In Gaurav Jain’s movie Ashoka, an eight-year-old boy has to ditch his homework to battle a mad scientist with powers bestowed on him by Emperor Ashoka’s medallion. And this fortnight, child actor Darsheel Safary stars as India’s first flying superhero in the Disney film Zokkomon, which has been directed by Satyajit Bhatkal.

Superhero books and movies have always been popular with children. But whereas in the past, one was more likely to read or see stories about adult superheroes such as Spider-Man and Superman, children are now increasingly donning the capes – metaphorically and literally – to save the world. Zokkomon is an adventure story about Kunal (Safary), an orphaned boy whose uncle [Anupam Kher] abandons him in a large city, said Satyajit Bhatkal. “Kunal is alone and friendless,” Bhatkal said, “In this situation, when he is most down and out, Kunal draws on his inner strength. Despite being small and without resources he manages to discover that you are as strong as you believe you are.”

The latest trend of child superheroes started with Harry Potter, said Sudeshna Shome-Ghose, an editorial director with Puffin, which has got books like iBoy and the Percy Jackson series to India.“Each new series tried to differentiate its hero from the earlier ones in specific ways,” she said, adding, “These books are all commercial fiction and a lot of thought would go in from publishers and authors on creating characters that are unique.”

And they are unique. Tom Harvey of iBoy by Kevin Brooks can pluck information off the web by just thinking about it but his nemesis is a no-network zone. Author Rick Riordan had a bestseller in his hands with the Percy Jackson series, a story about a boy who discovers that he is half-human and half-god. While Riordan’s story is about Greek gods, he sets his story in New York, explaining that with Western civilisation moving to America, Olympus followed suit.

When it comes to creating Indian superheroes, most publishers and filmmakers stick to mythological heroes. However, some are trying to think beyond Hanuman and Bal Ganesha. Kunal in Zokkomon will be India’s first flying superhero, Bhatkal said. Recently, Hachette India published The Fang of Summoning by Giti Chandra. The story intersects between Iceland and Gurgaon, where six cousins discover startling gifts – a toddler can bring her childish doodles to life while her older cousin can play music that causes metal to materialise out of thin air.

Another Hachette India book, the Taranauts series by Roopa Pai, focuses a fictional universe called Mithya, where three kids have to find the 32 stars that light their eight planets. All of them of course have their own set of superpowers. Vatsala Kaul-Banerjee, editorial director for children’s and reference books at Hachette India, said, “Both [books] deal with how ordinary young people come to terms with their own extraor-dinary powers, and learn that powers work effectively and with more impact when they work as a team, and for the greater good.”

The Taranauts series stands out as one of the few books with strong female protagonists – Zvala and Zarpa. The lone boy Tufan is the subject of some good-natured ribbing. But Zarpa and Zvala are the exception. Usually, girls use their special powers to help the superhero win. Shome-Ghosh said that it’s a shame that there are few female characters with powers, but pointed out that graphic novels often have strong girl protagonists.

All these books and movies have one common thread – they are about ordinary children who have powers but are still grappling with problems like acne or homework. “The creation of teen superheroes is a result of the popularity cult around these characters,” said Kaul-Banerjee. “What could appeal to a teenager more than reading about a character of a similar age group with similar growing pangs —only blessed with super powers!”

By Bijal Vachharajani on April 14 2011 

Spilling the beans

Posted on by bijalv
In an email interview with Time Out, Ken Spillman talks about the love of books

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/spilling-beans

ken spillman, childrens novels, advaita the writer, dehradun, ruskin bond,

Australian author Ken Spillman loves visiting India. “I never fail to enjoy India – it is definitely part of who I am now,” said Spillman, who has written over 30 children and young adult novels. Now the country is also the setting of his latest book, Advaita the Writer. The novel is about a girl who is lonely at her new boarding school in Dehradun, but who soon finds friends in the form of library books. Reading and the love of books is a recurrent theme in many of Spillman’s novels. In Jake’s Gigantic List, part of the immensely popular Jake series (Scholastic), a little boy called Jake is writing a super-long birthday list which includes things like a good mood tablet for teachers and a piranha fish tank. Then his Aunt Lyn introduces him to the wonders of books. This fortnight, Spillman will be in Mumbai to read from Advaita the Writer. In an email interview with Bijal Vachharajani, Spillman talks about the love of books.

Tell us about Advaita the Writer.
It’s a story about the sustaining power of imagination. I’ve always believed that a child’s resilience is linked to the strength of their inner life, which is richer when interwoven with stories of other lives, other worlds. In 2008, I met Advaita Kala (author of the bestseller Almost Single) and she told me that she’d been homesick when sent to boarding school at Dehradun, and had immersed herself in books. She was inspired when she heard that Ruskin Bond lived up in the mountains, and started to write her own stories. That was the seed from which my book grew. It’s not a true story, but that little bit of it is based on Advaita Kala’s actual experience.

What made you decide to set a book in India?
I never actually decide to set a book anywhere – a story begins with a character, and if that character lives in India then so does my story. The fact that I now have books with Indian settings at Indian publishers is probably because I love India so much, return here several times a year, and stay for as long as possible. India is now feeding my imagination.

How did you start writing for children?
My first published writing was short stories and poems, from the age of 17. After that I was able to earn a living with nonfiction and continue with my fiction ‘on the side’. Having always had a great connection with young people, writing for them seemed a natural shift. Now I see that this is my real strength – being able to engage with kids anywhere at any level, and to see the world as they do. I delight in visiting schools, whereas some writers prefer to stay home. Some people say I’m childlike, actually. Maybe one of the hyperactive variety.

Through your writings, you also try promoting the love for books and libraries.
Reading feeds the imagination, and I consider that imagination is our most precious gift as human beings. With imagination we can deal better with everyday problems, put ourselves in another’s shoes, cure diseases, teach more effectively, invent new things and so on. The key to getting the imaginations of children well fed is in getting them to read… and the key to getting them to read is to make that fun. I try to show kids everywhere that books are magic – we can go anywhere, do anything, meet people very different from ourselves. We can understand the world better.

Advaita the Writer, Tulika Books, R 100.

By Bijal Vachharajani on August 04 2011

Page turner

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Is it a book? Is it a game? Anshumani Ruddra helps the reader find some answers

In Anshumani Ruddra’s latest book, The Enemy of My Enemy, assassin agent PRD Jhabvala’s high-priority mission gets stalled when he gets cornered by a Godzilla-like lizard. What happens next? Does Jhabvala battle the lizard or does he run for his life? In most conventional books, that’s a decision the author would make. But in Ruddra’s multi-player gamebook, it’s the readers who decide how the story should move forward.

Gamebooks, said Ruddra, are stories that allow readers at several points in the narrative to make choices about how the plot should proceed. “Each storyline has multiple endings,” said Ruddra. “The reader’s choice makes the character win or lose, live or die.” Ruddra, who has written several short stories for children, has ensured that there are plenty of twists and turns in his gamebook. Here, Jhabvala is working on an important case: the Earth has stopped rotating on its axis and the sun is stuck above Japan. His quest can take him to South Africa, Antarctica or Japan, depending on the reader’s choices. “

As a genre, gamebooks are quite old in the West,” said Ruddra. “They fall under the category of Choose Your Own Adventure.” Though they’re still a novelty in India, it isn’t as if they haven’t been available here before. In the late ’80s, gamebooks based on the Nancy Drew detective series by Carolyn Keene and the Hardy Boys series by Franklin W Dixon could be found in stores. As a kid, Ruddra read fantasy-based, Dungeons & Dragons-variety gamebooks and GI Joe adventures. “The GI Joe books were slim volumes of 70 to 80 pages each,” he recalled. “But in that many pages you had some 20 stories. Each time you read the book, you came up with something new.”

Ruddra has added a twist to the conventional gamebook format by making it possible for children to read it with their friends or siblings. Kids can split into teams and become Jhabvala’s “spirit guide”. One side becomes the Knights of Order whose job is to find a peaceful resolution to a problem. The other team takes on the mantle of the Crusaders of Chaos, who are out to cause more mayhem. Ruddra, who is now working on a sequel to the book, wants to encourage reading as a group activity. “When we were kids, my friends and I used to read together,” he said. “Not everyone had a copy of Tintin or Asterix, so we’d huddle together and read the comic. It was fun.”

A chemical engineer from Chennai’s Indian Institute of Technology, Ruddra is a big fan of Japanese anime and manga comics. The influences are visible in his book. Samurais and Japanese gangsters rub shoulders with androids and djinns. Ruddra has plenty of surprises in the plot, with some choices leading to an unpredictable, brutal end.

“It took me six months to plan the book’s structure and only three weeks to write it,” said Ruddra, who frequently conducts writing workshops for schools and Prithvi Summertime in Mumbai. “I worked out many beginnings, endings and middles. Since it had to be a multi-player format, it took me time to figure out the structure. Usually, the reader has to make the hero win, but here I had to make it possible for him to lose.”

Ruddra gets his niece and nephew to listen to his stories as he writes them. They don’t mind the sudden diversions and multiple endings. “We think that if it isn’t a linear narrative, they will get confused,” he said. “Kids are sharp, you tell them a haphazard story and they will still get it. For them, it’s normal for the hero to stop suddenly in the middle of a quest to eat a popsicle.”

Anshumani Ruddra’s The Enemy of My Enemy, Scholastic, R90
Ages 10+

 By Bijal Vachharajani on August 07 2009

http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/kids/features/page-turner

Green warriors

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The First Look Science Books series by Tulika demystifies nature’s wonders

The spirit of enquiry, glorious as it is, can result in casualties. Especially when it involves children. It isn’t unusual that, foxed by a seemingly innocuous question directed at you by the young one – “Why does the sky turn orange in the evening?” or “Why is a desert a desert?” – you’ve had to furtively google answers on your smart phone. Tulika Books’s set of five fun science guides might just bail parents out of trouble. Priced at R95 each, they’re not as expensive as your monthly 3G plan either.

The beautifully illustrated series were developed as part of a classroom project at the Bengaluru-based Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology.

The stories are simple; at times even simplistic. But thankfully, they are not didactic or apocalyptic. They couldn’t have come at a more suitable time – India celebrates National Science Day this fortnight, on Thur Feb 28.

Beeji’s Story: Earth’s Surface 


Beeji is a globe-trotting seed who sets off on an adventure. She flies off to the Arctic to meet polar bears, then to snow-capped mountains, down a river on to a beach and through a desert, before settling down in a forest. Through Beeji, kids learn about surface areas of the earth.

Bhoomi’s Story: Space 


Bhoomi is earth, and this is the story of the universe, which she is part of. She tells readers about the sun, moon, stars and planets. Young scientists can learn about how the earth’s distance from the sun makes it habitable and also why the moon takes on different shapes and sometimes “hides herself completely” from the earth.

Boondi’s Story: Water 


By now you must have caught the drift. Boondi happens to be a water droplet. And he narrates the story of the water cycle and its importance for all living things. Kids will also learn about the creatures that live only in water and even complex concepts such as floods and droughts.

Dhooli’s Story: Air 


Dhooli is, of course, a mote of dust floating on air. The little adorable speck explains complex concepts of the atmosphere, cloud formation and how the sky changes colour in the morning and evening.

Gitti’s Story: Earth 


Gitti, a little rock who sits on top of a mountain, reminisces about her past, delving into the earth’s crust, and its different layers. Kids learn about volcanoes, the movement of the earth’s plates and mountains.

First Look Science Books, Tulika, R95 each. Ages 6+

 By Bijal Vachharajani on February 01 2013 

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/green-warriors

 

 

Lore and behold

Posted on by bijalv

http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/kids/features/lore-and-behold

A new book club in the city gives children plenty of reasons to rejoice

Bangalore now has a “big little book club”, named Bookalore, created by the people responsible for some of the more interesting children’s literature in the country. “Bookalore is a collective enterprise and the people behind it have several years experience in writing for children, illustrating children’s books and editing children’s fiction,” said author Asha Nehemiah. Members of the club will participate in monthly activities that will be held in different venues. Asha Nehemiah discussed the idea with Time Out Bangalore in an email interview.

Tell us about Bookalore.
A group of us – authors, illustrators, editors of children’s books and magazines – decided we wanted to do something more than just create books for children. We wanted to become part of the process of actually reaching out and taking books to children in a way that is exciting and interactive. We’d been talking about things which concerned us all deeply: are children getting to read the works of Indian authors? Why is it that Indian children stick with reading the usual bestselling books when there’s a world of fantastic new books that they’ve never tried or explored? To our delight, librarians and educationists became a part of our mission and that is how Bookalore was born. Bookalore hopes to partner with performers, storytellers and other artistes to hold monthly events for children and young adults. These will be held across Bangalore at libraries, schools, bookshops, art galleries, museums and theatres.

What can we expect to see over the next few months?
Our launch event gives you a flavour of the sort of things children can expect from Bookalore. We have a dramatised story-reading of The Story of the Road by author Poile Sengupta for children in the three to five years age group. For slightly older children, we have a wonderful performance by the kids from theatre group Natakvalas; they will be reading from two of my books: Meddling Mooli and the Blue- Legged Alien and Meddling Mooli and the Bully-on-Wheels. For kids aged eight to 12 years, there’s “Magazine Mazaa” where they actually write and put-together their own magazine.

Children will get an opportunity to meet authors and illustrators and buy books. In the next few months, we are planning a Bookalore Folklore Festival, celebrating folk tales which have been retold with a contemporary flavour. Author Roopa Pai will conduct an exciting quiz type of activity with children based on her Taranauts series.

What are the age groups that you are looking at?
We will basically be catering to kids aged three-12 years. We will also have events for young adults and will be introducing them to a genre that is fairly new in children’s publishing in India – young adult fiction, that is.

What prompted you to start a book club in the city?
The fact that all of us live in Bangalore made this city the venue for our early activities. Already, we’ve received requests to have events in other cities and we will consider it at some point if it’s viable. But for the moment, we want to take our events to every part of Bangalore. Bookalore is not a traditional book club. It’s more of a travelling book carnival offering different types of events and activities based around children’s books.

Who else is involved?
There’s writer/poet/theatreperson Poile Sengupta, who has been writing fiction, plays and magazine and newspaper columns for children for many years – decades actually. Roopa Pai is young and dynamic and involved with children in so many ways. She’s written an amazing series of fantasy-adventure books for kids: Taranauts. She also conducts history and nature walks for children. Aditi De has written books for kids and also edited children’s pages in newspapers and a children’s magazine, Junior Quest. Vidya Mani and Shyam Madhavan Sarada have edited and designed children’s magazines for over 15 years – Chatterbox earlier and now Hoot and Toot.

Vimala Malhotra has been something of a pioneer in setting up a dedicated library and activity centre for children (Hippocampus) and is a library consultant working on helping government and private schools set up libraries. Vijayalakshmi Nagaraj – storyteller and author – worked with children in areas such as Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East.

I have been writing for children of all age groups for several years. Apart from these people, there are so many writers and illustrators who’ve come forward to offer time, space, talent to us.

At a time when literary fests are everywhere, conversely book spaces are dwindling. Do you think such initiatives will help bring visibility to the right books?
Literary festivals (with the exception of children’s book festivals like Bookaroo in Delhi and Junior Bug in Bombay) do not give much space or attention to children. I think initiatives such as Bookalore will definitely bring visibility to children’s books.

The Bookalore Launch will be held on Sat Feb 9.

By Bijal Vachharajani on February 01 2013