Suchhanda Sarkar is a retired teacher, translator and a writer of children’s texts. She taught for eleven years in Nigeria, and for twenty-one years in Kolkata. One of her great pleasures is to read children’s literature. In her teaching career she felt most fulfilled when she could open the doors of the world of imagination for her pupils. She still feels inspired and happy to discover new worlds, new people.
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...
Who should get more rotis — Ookamma or Ookaiah? A folktale about a quarrelling old couple is woven into another story about the lives of children in a village, growing up, playing, going to a government school, watching adults squabble, feeling hunger, understanding friendship and, most importantly, sitting under a neem tree and listening to stories from...
Each finger has its own personality, and when ten little fingers come together, they make things happen. Playful verse draws children into a game of all that their busy fingers can do, while bright pictures imaginatively capture the energy of their busy, busy lives.
It's time to get ready for school and the little girl in this book is still in a world of dreams – of tigers, elephants, the sea... And as she tries to hurry up, her grandmother tells her the secret of what made her father go to school. Inspired by the author’s father's experience at a government-aided school, the text and pictures capture the child's...
The quiet villages of Sundarban are terrorised by a monster with wild eyes, sharp teeth, striped skin and pointed nails — Dokkhin Rai! Until finally, Bon Bibi, protector of the forests and people, asks him a simple question: Why do you do this? The answer to this question is central to the age-old theme of human-animal harmony. Set in the lush and...
A thrilling book based on a true story of an encounter with the endangered cat in the Western Ghats of India. Perched on a treetop at a waterhole in a reserve forest in Kerala, the author and his friend, Natarajan, an Irula tribesman, were waiting to sight a tiger. This was when Natarajan told him the story of his first encounter with a black panther in...
Valmiki has barely put down his pen after completing his magnificent creation, the epic Ramayan, when he realises he has competition. The sage Narad tells him that there is a better Ramayan, written by Hanuman. Valmiki is devastated! As the story of Hanuman's Ramayan unfolds, humorously and gently, so does the idea that there is no one version of the...
