Nina Sabnani is an illustrator, animator and film-maker, currently a Professor at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. Until recently she taught at NID, Ahmedabad, and served as the coordinator of the Animation and New Media disciplines for several years. Mukund and Riaz, both as an animated film and illustrated book published by Tulika, won critical acclaim internationally. Deux Amis, its French edition, was launched by Syros at the Paris Book fair in March 2007. This simple, endearing story of two friends dealing with Partition has also been published in Pakistan by Oxford University Press. Nina has illustrated and created several books for Tulika, such as Best Friends and Home, which is an innovative and contemporary adaptation of the craft and art of the kaavad, a storytelling medium from Rajasthan. Of these, My Mother's Sari was selected as an Outstanding International Book for 2007 in the U.S.A. Stitching Stories, her latest book, is based on her award-winning documentary Tanko Bole Chhe (The Stiches Speak). She has also designed the award winning My Gandhi Story.
Kuk... Kuk… The poor rooster can't KUKAROOKOO because his throat is so parched. There is not a drop of water left in the village pond. The only hope is to find a badwa who can ask the gods to send rain. What does the badwa tell them to do? Go home and paint! The adventure-filled origin myth about Bhil art revolves around the thirst for rain and water...
Everyone has their own story of Gandhi. And in this book – that came out of a set of four large paintings – a Warli artist, an animation filmmaker and a storyteller collaborate to create a very visual Gandhi story. 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 details...
Pappuram and Kojaram are kaavadiya bhaats, storytellers from Rajasthan. Each has his own favourite story about why Lord Ganesha is always worshipped first, before any other god or goddess. They open their kaavads, the beautifully painted storytelling boxes, and begin – only to realise at the end of it that the stories may be different, but are still...
This unusual, interactive stand-up book adapts a traditional Indian storytelling style. The Kaavad is a portable wooden shrine used by Rajasthani storytellers. Its many-hinged panels display vibrantly painted scenes from local myths and folktales. The Kaavadiya Bhat narrates the stories, opening up panels, pointing with a peacock feather. In much the same...
The sari Mother wears every day is sometimes a train, sometimes a river, or a swing, or a hiding place… Children have a way of seeing things differently! The pictures too break away from conventional depictions of both saris and children, combining photographs and acrylic in dramatic, original ways, with spare text that weaves and winds. 2007:...
The story is set against the background of the 1947 Partition. But friendship between children knows no barbed wire fencing: all children play games, enjoy ice-cream and feel the loss of friends. This book is about every child's right to friendship and a home. Based on memories of her father, animator Nina Sabnani first made this as a film for the Big...
Sameer lives in a house on Saraswati Street in a city called Mumbai, which is in Maharashtra, which is in India, which is in... A popular idea re-presented in a new and appealing way to show how everyone is a small part of this universe. Strong illustrations take children on a visual journey of expanding horizons, from Sameer's house to the star-filled...
Muchu the merchant has to work with numbers all the time – but without ‘zero’ it is so very difficult! Arising from an animation film, the story is a well-researched fictional take on how zero came to be used in mathematical calculations. It goes centuries back to Takshashila in northwestern India, where the concept is said to have originated. The people...
Based on a real friendship between the author’s niece and a tree, this heartwarming story reflects on the true relationship between human beings and nature. Rich colours set off against stark white give the illustrations a dramatic quality.
A small boy loves colour. So he paints his hair green and his legs blue. Then he picks up his brush again and…? A simple bilingual book for beginner readers, with repetition for easy language learning. The dramatic illustrations draw children into an imaginative and inspiring world of colour.
What do ancient fragments of cloth found in Egypt have to do with modern-day Gujarat? The answer starts with A — and sets us off through the alphabet, building with blocks of a very different kind! A for Ajrakh, B for Bagh, C for Chhipa… Each letter sparks off an aspect of block printing on textile, so that by Z for Zafran what we get is a fascinating...
"Before I used to stitch just to make patterns. But now I think about what I want to say through my stitches." Like many others, Raniben has moved beyond beautiful needlework to narrative art, embroidering her own stories. This book has one such story – about how she and her family left their village in Pakistan, crossed the harsh desert to start life...
