E nter a swanky book store and try looking for children’s books, and you will probably find a handful in a forgotten corner. But, there is a wealth of children’s writing by Indian authors waiting to be discovered. Authors, editors, and illustrators invested in children’s books are doing all they can to reach out to the young minds and get them interested in reading. But the refrain, ‘Children don’t read’, gives the impression that children’s books don’t sell.
Ask Shreya Rao, a class 10 student at A.P.S., Bengaluru, who also writes a blog and she is quick to point out: “People who say children don’t read, don’t even read themselves.” She says that her love for reading began when she was in class four. “My mother gave me a book to read and said she would buy as many toys as I wanted if I finished reading it. I loved the book so much that I wanted to read more.”
Shreya loves fiction. One of her favourite books is Lucknow-based Ilika Ranjan’s Secrets of Zynpagua: Return of the Princess. Even though Ilika’s book has been a hit among kids across schools, she says publishers ought to take children’s books more seriously. “We have not gauged the potential of Indian children as readers. Not knowing your readers, especially children, is not ignorance but a fatal blunder which might impact readership of books written by Indian authors and the literary creative potential of our children in future.”
Quoting a recent research, she says the notion that they don’t read is completely false. “The India Book Market Report, released by Nielsen at Frankfurt Book Fair 2015, values the print book market in India, including book imports, at $3.9 billion, said to be the second-largest market for books in the world. This report states that school books account for the bulk of our country’s overall book market. In fact, purchases of school books are estimated to account for 71 per cent of the market. In other words, the maximum number of readers are children, whether mandated or willing. Can we not understand the potential?,” she asks.
Ilika started writing Secrets of Zynpagua in 2011. “I used to interact with children in my residential area. The few insights while interacting with them was they loved characters which they aspire to be; they were curious and liked creating new versions of the same word (literary creativity), monotony broke their interest and they loved experimenting with language. These interesting interactions were precursors to initiate writing Secrets of Zynpagua .” Editor and writer Vidya Mani runs Melting Pot, a content and design studio, that puts together books and magazines for children’s publishers and NGOs. She is also the founder-member of Bookalore: Bangalore’s Big Little Book Club, which conducts monthly events to introduce contemporary Indian books to children in interesting ways, and runs a travelling children’s book store, Funky Rainbow, “which pops out of the boot of her car and puts out a curated collection of Indian children’s books at Bookalore events.”
She says there are independent publishers who are doing their bit to promote Indian authors. “They do have an interest in publishing authors, but what they don’t necessarily do is reach out books to children.” She adds that Bookalore and Funky Rainbow aim to connect children to good Indian books.
“They would relate to biting into a jalebi much more easily than a scone. Even though in these times kids are well travelled , they still feel a greater connect with Indian stories.”
Ilika agrees: “Children read a lot, but very few knew Indian fiction authors. Many children wanted to be authors. They were fabulous at creating witty anecdotes, but most of their incidences were at some international destination and with international characters.
“They were not relating to their experiences while narrating their stories, but with the type of books they were reading and since most of the books they read were by foreign authors, their stories did not seem to be of their own. They could not relate to the cultural environs of these books as they did not find semblance with the contents of the books and their own lived experiences.”
Vidya emphasizes: “If a book is presented in an attractive way, children will pick it up. There’s a book by Deepak Dalal for eight to 10-year-olds, which has been presented as an adventure of bird migration and has been popular not just among children but parents too.”
Award-winning children’s writer, Arundhati Venkatesh, whose books Petu Pumpkin and Bookasura have been huge hits, says reading among children has increased in absolute numbers. “Independent publishers are strapped for time and money. But they do make efforts to organise author visits to schools. Literature festivals, social media and book events help in bringing books to children.” She contends, though, there is a still a lacuna. “The vast majority don’t get to know about many books. Schools need to do more in supporting reading habits. They are responsive to parent’s requests, but parents need to ask for the right things.”
Vidya agrees and says that a love for reading can be cultivated among children in different ways. “Some like to read comics. Let them! I think parents must be able to identify the right books for their wards.”
Beenu Garg, a librarian of D.P.S., Bengaluru East, says that children read both International and Indian authors. “Some students are voracious readers. They finish a book within two days. For children who don’t read heavy books we encourage them to read comics to begin with. Out of an average of 40 students till class eight, 30 to 35 students read.”
Children also love to read series. Ilika says she is flooded with requests on when her next book is going to come out. Some of the mails by children to her are heartfelt requests. Arundhati too says that kids always ask her,
“When will the next Petu Pumpkin and Bookasura books be out?” She observes, “Many parents who aren’t readers themselves do want to get their children reading and some try, but awareness can be an issue. I always have parents come up to me after a Bookasura or Petu Pumpkin sessions asking me to suggest more such books. On a Facebook group called ‘The Reading Raccoons - Discovering Children’s Literature.’
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/Readingraccoons/), I often see parents ask for suitable titles. It’s a great place to be for anyone who is looking for recommendations for any age group -- right from infants to young adults. Might be of use to parents or teachers.”
Reading holds a special place in children’s heart. Shreya sums it up best when she says:
“It is difficult to describe the pleasure of reading because sometimes things have to be experienced first-hand.”
