Four titles in the Economist Crossword Book Awards 2013 Long List!

The long list for the Economist Crossword Book Awards generally tends to be pretty loooooong! We do have 4 titles listed in the award for children's books:

1. The Bookworm
2. Tak-Tak!
3. The Story and the Song
4. Revenge of the Puppets

So we're pretty pleased and we can't wait for the short list! The complete long list can be found here.

Super Hathaman: Storytelling Session

Our storytellers from the Book Lovers' Program for Schools did a storytelling session at Kamala Niketan Montessori School in Trichy on 25 June 2013. She narrated Super Hathaman to the students of Class 3. The kids particularly enjoyed the part about the monkeys. They did an activity called the "Super Yogi Distraction" where one kid stands in front of the class in a yogi posture and tries to maintain a neutral position while the others try to distract her. 

Here are pictures from the event!

The Monkeys and the Capseller: Storytelling Session

Our storytellers from the Book Lovers' Program for Schools did a storytelling session at P. S. Senior Secondary School in Chennai on 24 June 2013. She narrated The Monkeys and the Capseller to the students of Class 5. She also did 2 activities with them: "Monkey See, Monkey Do," where the kids had to imitate her, and a craft activity that involved making paper hats.

Here are pictures from the event!

We're Hiring: Librarian in Chennai

We are looking for librarians to manage and curate our Creative Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired in Chennai. The Creative Resource Centre, a library especially aimed at children with visual impairments, is an initiative by the Karadi Cultural Alliance Trust in association with the Sir Ratan Tata Trust Fund. The library is housed within the Hippocampus Children’s Library in Chennai. The pilot centre houses a variety of non-academic Braille books, audio books, tactile books, and tactile toys.

The centre contains over a hundred Braille titles, including tactile books drawn from books published by popular children’s book houses such as Karadi Tales, Scholastic, Tulika, Mango Books, Ekalavya Publishers, Khaas Kitaab Publishers, Young Zubaan, and Tara. The centre also has a collection of famous folktales of India in the audio format, generously donated by Radio Mirchi. The centre will house tactile kits from Butterfly Fields and toys from Bambaram. 

The pilot centre was set up for the wholesome development of visually impaired children aged four to fourteen years. The design of content, infrastructure, and activity has been carried out with the involvement of multiple institutions with extensive experience in working with visually impaired children. A specialised catalogue of content has also been acquired.

We are now looking for a librarian to manage the library, liaison with schools and other centres for visually impaired children, organise events and curate the collection. The ideal candidate will possess the following skills:

• A love of children's literature
• An interest in working with children and with disabled communities
• Strong communication skills in English and basic fluency in Tamil
• Organisational, documenting, and cataloguing skills
• At least an undergraduate degree

The position is in Chennai and the candidate will be expected to work 6 days a week (4 hours per day). A competitive remuneration package will be offered. Please send a resume and a covering letter to contact@karaditales.com if you are interested. 

World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day!

Are you looking for a book to introduce your child to important concepts of animal rights? Look no further than our gorgeous picture book Dancing Bear!

Somu the bear is unusual. He can dance! But Somu wants to be unchained. Can his friend Altaf understand this? Will Altaf ever set him free? This story describes the true plight of dancing bears in India and has been commended by wildlife organizations and educational institutions.

The Qalandars, a nomadic gypsy tribe date themselves and the origin of bear-dancing back to the 13th century in India. They gained prominence as the royal entertainers of the Mughal emperors. With the fall of the empire, they began to perform bear-dancing for the general public. Today, bear-dancing is banned in India however the law is not easily implemented and sadly bear-dancing still prevails.

This book provides a very powerful message of ecological responsibility through the simple story of a boy and an animal that he loves. Wildlife SOS is a registered non-profit charity that liberates and rehabilitates these dancing bears. This story was inspired by their efforts.

This book has been illustrated beautifully by Korean illustrators Gwangjo and Jung-a Park in water colours. The illustrations lend the book an unusual quality and each page is a work of art.