A little girl hops across a wall and finds herself wondrously lost in a forest where even the grass is taller than her. That’s the story in An Adventure for Tia Mia , a picture book by Cara Tejpal. As Tia Mia roams around the forest, her “horrid horrid mood” disappears. She skims stones in a stream, gets directions from a snake and hornbill when she’s lost, and meets smiling tigers and friendly elephants.
Illustrated by Alankrita, the picture book doubles up as a little activity one too. There’s a colour-in activity and toddlers can spend hours poring over the illustrations trying to spot different hidden animals.
According to Tejpal, who works with wildlife magazine Sanctuary Asia on a range of conservation initiatives, in many ways she is the grown-up version Tia Mia. Tejpal says she set out to have an adventure and discovered that she had luck and nature on her side. “I’ve always loved the outdoors and animals, so I drifted into conservation in my teens,” she says. “Since then, I’ve had and created the opportunities to travel widely and work with some incredible conservationists, starting with a gap year spent working with Wildlife SOS right after school. After that was a slew of volunteering assignments, internships and freelance projects with organisations like Aaranyak, Panthera, The Tiger Haven Society, the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and more, following which I worked with the Gerry Martin Project in Bangalore, while copy editing for Tiger Link .” Over email, Tejpal talks about her debut book and the message of conservation behind it.
In many ways the book is interactive; there are also spot-the-different-elements and colour-in. Tell us about the process of working with the illustrator, Alankrita.
I’ve actually never met Alankrita. The publisher was our go-between, and I found the process seamless. She’s such a talented illustrator, that my input was limited to things like the colour of Tia Mia’s cat (ginger, like one of my spitfires) and asking for the jungle to be denser. The colour-in was my mum’s idea.
How did the idea of An Adventure for Tia Mia come about?
When Priyanka from Full Circle asked if I was interested in writing a kids book, I knew immediately that anything I write would have to include three elements: wild animals, adventure and a little girl who sometimes breaks rules. Beyond these, I wanted the book to carry the simple truth that nature is on our side, if we respect her. The story developed from there.
Tia Mia is a lovely name, any interesting story behind the name?
She was originally Tiya Mia! Tiya is my older sister’s name, and Mia comes from one of my pet names, Cara mia, with mia meaning “my” in Italian. A friend read the first draft and suggested I make the spellings of her two-part name match, so I changed it to Tia Mia.
When the protagonist steps into the forest, she suddenly feels free. Tell us about that.
I’ve spent some time working with kids and introducing them to wild nature. I’ve seen the impact that it has on them. I personally feel that urban kids are crushed under the weight of rules and structure and restriction. Being in nature releases them from that in a very healthy way.
Actually, it’s not just kids, nature does that to adults too, and I for one, am never happier than when I’m wandering the wilds of my own volition.
As you introduce each animal, you try and bring out some natural history about the species.
Wild animals are fascinating, and their lives just as colourful and diverse as ours. Writing for kids, means that you can anthropomorphise to your heart’s content and still be taken seriously by your audience.
It’s a nice break from my work life. Plus ‘humanising’ natural history is a great way to show that other sentient beings are as worthy of freedom as humans.
There’s a message at the end of the story: ‘Trust in nature and you will never be lost’. You work in conservation. Tell us about how your experience reflects this message.
I’ve been lost in a forest, but unfortunately I wasn’t guided home by a herd of elephants! I think this is more an intuitive understanding of the fact that we’re so wholly dependent on nature.
Yes, nature is clean air and pure water and fresh food, but it’s also art and science and solace. I’ve found that no matter how terrible things are, being in places of wild beauty will always still my mind and allow me peace.
An Adventure for Tia Miais available on Amazon: Rs 176
Bijal Vachharajani writes about education for sustainable development, conservation, and food security. She’s the former editor of Time Out Bengaluru.
‘Humanising’ natural history is a way to show sentient beings are as worthy of freedom as humans
