Behind the Scenes of "Something's Moving"

Have you ever wished you could swing like a monkey, glide like a swan, or bound like a deer? Author Daya Subramanian tells us what inspired her lovely poetry in our recently launched picture book "Something's Moving". Featuring stunning folk art by Anusha Sundar, the book features the various movements of animals, and has been praised by reviewers as having 'delightful verses' (Booked For Life) and being 'a beautiful book to read aloud' (Myth Aunty).

Read on to find out what talented author (and member of Karadi Tales' editorial team) has to say about her writing process!

Have you always been interested in poetry?

Yes, I have, but I had never tried writing poems or rhymes before Shobha (Viswanath, Publisher – Karadi Tales) asked me to give it a try.

My undergraduate degree was in English Literature and Poetry was my favourite subject. Deconstructing poems is so fascinating to me. I was a big fan of Robert Browning’s poems – I got hooked on to them after studying My Last Duchess when I was in 10^th grade. I have a couple of other stories in mind and I can’t imagine writing them in anything other than verse now - I think anything sounds better in verse!

Why animals, why movements – how did this story come about?

Shobha showed me some completed illustrations of animals done beautifully in Indian folk-art style. Anusha Sundar, an intern at Karadi Tales at the time, had drawn them and put them together. Shobha asked me to try and think of some text to go along with it – it could be a story or just a child observing various animals. She gave me complete freedom to decide how I wanted to write it – the only thing was it had to be about animal movements and include a verb for each animal. For instance, ‘bound’ for deer, and ‘slither’ for snake. I decided to have a child fascinated by animals narrate how much she wished she could move like them. I for one am definitely reminded of our human limitations every time I think of how fast a cheetah can run or how high a bird can fly. So I guess that is reflected in the book.  

What are some other books that are cooking in your mind?

I want to write a book about a child who keeps getting lost in daydreams (because this is a problem I’ve had my entire life!) She daydreams about living underwater with whales during biology class and being able to make herself invisible and create mischief while she is at a boring party. I think her extremely wild imagination might make for some nice illustrations too.

Any advice for aspiring children’s book authors?

As this is my first book, I don’t know if I’m experienced enough to give advice! But going by my childhood experience of reading and loving books (and my limited experience working in a children’s publishing house) I’d say don’t dumb down the text for children. And if there are a couple of words they don’t understand, that’s alright, it can be used as an opportunity to learn the word. A three-year-old child might not know what ‘tranquil’ means but they might understand what it means based on the context.

Also, take constructive advice when it is given to you by someone with experience in children’s publishing and be willing to modify your story a bit!

The book "Something's Moving" can be purchased through this link:

https://www.karaditales.com/catalogue/picture-books/somethings-moving/

In a New Avatar

For the past 22 years, Karadi the bear has appeared in pages of numerous Karadi Tales books, on screen in animated TV shows, and as a mascot at our events. And for the first time, a couple of months ago, he took the shape of a three-dimensional sculpture who now sits in our office.  

Mahalakshmi Gurushankar brought the popular image of a dancing Karadi and his young monkey friend Meera to life with such incredible detail that one might actually think it is 3D printed rather than painstakingly hand-carved! Every little detail from Meera’s flying necklace to what looks like almost every single strand of Karadi’s fur is present in the sculpture. She took the time to add grass, real stones and even a little plastic butterfly to complete the image of the storytelling bear in his home, the forest. When asked how she was able to capture such intricate details in the sculpture, Mahalakshmi said, “I started by creating a wire frame. The sculpture is made of polymer clay but needs a foundation. Once that was ready I could move on to the smaller details like the fur. I have small hands so making small things is not a problem. I used dentist tools which I actually found are the best and cheapest for this sort of thing. The trick is to be extremely delicate. I didn’t have much difficulty getting as close as possible to the existing 2d character.”

Making the sculpture did not take Mahalakshmi very long. She worked on it for two hours a day and was done within a week. “The first time the facial proportions were off. So it took another week to redo that and this time it was perfect” she said.

Surprisingly, Mahalakshmi does not have a background in sculpting. “I had not learnt sculpting as part of a course before, but I did have a couple of classes in it during animation studies. The first time I ever tried my hand at it was during a competition at school. That was my first time trying it. I had no idea what I was doing but decided to have fun anyway. I did not win anything in that competition, but I clearly remember one of the participants making a dog cradling her puppies…it made me want to try harder. I learnt a lot from YouTube tutorials and by trial and error - I began by just playing around with different types of clay and soon made it a point every Ganesh Chathurti to make my own Ganeshas for Visarjan.”

Today, the painstakingly created sculpture from our beloved reader sits in our office alongside us every day. And sometimes, when the sun shines on Karadi’s face, we almost feel like the big, lovable bear is grinning at us meaningfully, as if to say – “Do you have any new stories for me to tell?”

Discovering India Through Karadi Tales

(Noemie Bellanger interned with us during the month of April 2018. She writes about her experience working with Karadi Tales, and what she learnt about India through just our books.)

For the past few months, my life has consisted of travelling from one children’s book publishing house to another, from one country to another, doing one-month internships in seven publishing houses across the world. For my 4^th internship, I ended up at Karadi Tales, a publishing house in Chennai, India, that I had been aware of for a few years ever since I worked on the British version of their book Monkeys on a Fast during a previous internship. Instead of this being just another average internship, this month was a real journey through Indian children’s literature.

 

In my first couple of days, I had the chance to go through Karadi Tales’ catalogue. I travelled from Allahabad with Farmer Falgu Goes to the Kumbh Mela to Kashmir with Sadiq Wants to Stitch, to the mountains of Ladakh with Thukpa for All. I gathered that India is a diverse country with multiple cultures and communities, and that each region can be vastly different from the other. When you come from France, as I do, you tend to have certain stereotypical views of India -  a country where everyone eats naan, all the women wear sarees, and everyone dances to Bollywood music. But when I read Karadi Tales’ books, I got a clear insight into the many different regions of India and realized that each of them have different languages and dialects, different food, different cultures, and habits. Because children’s picture books have so many references to everyday life, it is one of the best ways to prove stereotypes wrong and to comprehend the complexity of a country and its various cultures.

Learning about Indian illustrations and tribal art was a priority for me during my trip to Chennai. At Karadi Tales, I got the opportunity to meet artists and designers like Ashwathy P.S. She told me about the process of making Fly, Little Fish!, a book by Karadi Tales that uses Gond tribal illustrations. She explained how difficult it was for her to reproduce the same little fish all through the book with different perspectives using only dots and lines. Before I came to Karadi Tales, I had no idea about tribal art styles like Gond, Bhil, or Warli.      I also did not know that art was a part of daily life here until I walked down Chennai’s streets and noticed the kôlams on doorsteps drawn every morning by women. Art can be found everywhere in India – on the floor, on the walls, and even on clothes. How does one continue to produce original, unique art when there is so much all around? I imagine this must be a big challenge for Indian illustrators.

Reading and storytelling can take you on a trip of its own kind. I remember when I was a child, every night, my mum used to tell me a story before I went to bed. For me, it was like a sacred ritual and I couldn’t sleep without it. As I grew up, I continued to be fascinated by storytellings. I still love hearing books read aloud, it gives you the impression the characters are talking directly to you. The whole concept of audiobooks struck me as being such a great idea – what a wonderful way to promote stories and reading! With Karadi Tales audiobooks, you not only have someone reading you the story, but even better, you have beautiful background music to get the atmosphere of the story. Another way of discovering stories that Karadi Tales has brought to Indian children’s literature.

Now that it is time for me to go to another country, I recognise that books can be a great introduction to a country and can give you a unique perspective into the everyday life and culture of that country. Books can make you travel through any country during any time in history. They make up some of my best memories from the past and continue to be one of my best excuses to live the present as intensively as I can.

A Departure From The Mainstream

Maria L. Denjongpa grew up in Massachusetts and attended Brown University where she met her Sikkimese husband. She is one of the founders of Taktse International School in Sikkim, where she is also an English teacher.
We interview her about her new book with us, The Truth About the Tooth.

     Tell us about the origins of your story The Truth About the Tooth.                                               

This is a classic Buddhist tale. You hear different versions of the “Dog Tooth Story” all over the Himalayas, from Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, to Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan. You’ll often hear Lamas (Buddhist teachers) saying, “If you have faith, even a dog’s tooth can radiate the light of enlightenment.”

          Why did you choose this particular story to be told?   

                   

I love so many aspects of this story: the human part of a son forgetting to bring his mom a gift and then lying to her about it, the magic of light coming from a tooth and the idea that our minds create the world. And if that all were not enough, there is also the paradox of Buddhist ethics. We all know that we are not supposed to lie, but in this story the lie is not such a big sin. In fact, it leads to something beautiful and miraculous, something that stays with Tashi the rest of his life. 

The Truth About the Tooth is a twist on the usual moralistic tales - did you ever read a story in your childhood that was like this?                       

Not really. I read picture books like Sam and the Firefly where a naughty character learns a lesson and becomes good. And fairy tales like Cinderella where the hard-working, poorly-treated stepdaughter wins the prince. As a kid, I didn’t find those stories true to life. At least not true to my life. Bad things happened to good people all the time, and people rarely learned lessons and suddenly became good. I think that is why a nuanced story like The Truth about the Tooth appealed to me so much.

        Do you have a favourite children’s book that you have read?

   

     I remember my mother reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White to me one summer when I was small. She’d make us each a glass of lemonade and then we’d go outside and she’d read aloud under a tree. So there was the intense pleasure of being read to, along with the pleasure of a deep and wonderful story. I love books that ask big questions: What is love? What makes a good friend? How do we deal with betrayal and being different? How do we deal with death?

          Has being a teacher changed the way you write for children?    

Yes! Whenever you read aloud to kids, you can instantly tell if a story grabs them. They wiggle and whisper and throw pencils when it doesn’t. They sit in pin drop silence when it does. How I appreciate it when a writer has pared down the text so the sentences roll off the tongue! How I dread long sentences and bombastic words!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

       And finally, are you planning on writing more books for kids?           

Yes! I just completed a chapter book on Buddha’s life for eight to twelve year olds, and am working on two more Buddhist-inspired picture books for younger kids. 


You can buy The Truth About the Tooth here.

Tips on How to Write a Great Book Review

With the boom in book publishing, the availability of diverse kid lit, and the soaring popularity of reading devices like the Kindle, the average parent is often spoilt for choice when it comes to buying quality books for their children. A well-written book review is key to helping someone make a decision on whether they want to buy a book or not. So naturally, it is critical to cover all the important points while writing one. Here are some tips on how to write a good book review.

Don’t summarize the story

This seems to be the most common mistake people make while writing reviews. Very often, especially in children’s books, the stories are so short that summarizing them tends to give away the entire story. The element of surprise still needs to be there for the reader once they buy the book – also, people may not want to buy a book if they know the what happens in the end! Instead, mention in a line or two the premise of the story.  For instance, if you were to review the book Monkeys on a Fast, you would say something along the lines of, “A determined monkey chieftain tries to get his tribe of monkeys to diet in this hilarious story – this story is as much a children’s book as it is a glimpse into the common grown-up preoccupation with resisting carbs”.

Mention other key aspects

Write about other aspects of the book that stood out to you that a reader would not be able to tell just by looking at the thumbnail image of the book’s cover on an online retail store. Did you like the illustrations? Were they done realistically, or does the artist exaggerate the characters for comic effect? What was the typography like? Was it easily readable or a font that looked fancy but was not legible?  Does the font change colour depending on what is being said, and does this help or hinder the reading experience? And is it done with a specific pattern or does it appear to be random? For example, in a review of our book Farmer Falgu Goes to The Market, Kirkus Reviews writes, “…the concise onomatopoeic sounds are in bigger and colour-coded type, which provides additional emphasis and is perfect for read-alouds.”
What is the price point like? Is it too expensive or good value for money? Is it the author or illustrator's debut book? If so, it is worth mentioning that.
If the book is a part of a series, it would be a good idea to mention this as well.

What sets the book apart?

What does this book have that most other books out in today’s market do not? Is there a disabled character in it? Is he or she portrayed with sensitivity yet without being patronizing? Is there a character from a minority community that is not usually represented in children’s literature? Does the story deal with any topics that are taboo in society?

Talk about the book’s cover

Was it eye-catching enough to make you want to pick it up and read it? Yes, like mentioned in the above paragraph, a book’s cover would be visible to anyone who sees the book in an online retail shop. But you have the added benefit of having read the story, so you can judge the cover based on that. Does it give you an idea about the tone or mood of the story? Is it a fitting cover or does it give a skewed idea about what the book is about? Is it a hardback or a paperback? In rare cases some books have two covers if it is a two-way book. Mention this and how the covers differ from each other. 

The writing

Naturally, one of the most important parts of any book. But rather than describe the writing as ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘marvellous’, elaborate on what you enjoyed about the writing. Does the story flow well or does it have random jumps to different scenes? Is it written in prose or in verse? Does the level match the age group it is targeted at or is it far too simple or far too advanced?

Avoid superlatives

And lastly, try to avoid saying things like ‘this is my favourite book’. A person reading your review would not know what kinds of books you like or what your taste in books is for it to be your favourite book. Describe what you like about the book instead. For instance, “…the watercolours that are mostly in pastel shades lend the illustrations a gentle, peaceful quality.” If it is your favourite story, you can make it a starred review, or give it 5 stars on 5, rather than explicitly say so.

Fresh, Yet Familiar: Tanvi P.S.’s Tryst With Karadi Tales

Tanvi P.S. interned with Karadi Tales in the month of December 2017.

It was on a bright, cozy December morning that I stepped into a quaint building to see a big cut-out of a brown, cheerful bear smiling at me, pointing towards glass doors that held behind them an array of books. From all these books, the same kind-natured Karadi beamed at me. It was as if I had stepped into a new tale, with an old friend.

Picture a young child holding a book in her hand, waiting to read along with a bear that told her stories through a cassette. I was this child when I was around 7 years old. I loved Karadi Tales’ audio books. Sometimes, I even had an itinerary ready for when I came back from school: first I would read The Blue Jackal, then The Four Friends, and then save my favourite for the last, The Monkey and the Crocodile. As you can surmise, my childhood was built on a steady diet of fables and fantastic music, courtesy of this musical bear.

With every audio book that I picked up, I started off on a brand new journey. I would elatedly sing and dance along as soon as ‘Karadi the Bear’ welcomed me to his jungle. I would wait eagerly for the ‘tak-tadak’ sound that told me it was time to turn pages and let the story unfold. What a glorious twenty minutes I had with every new tale!

Now, over fifteen years later, after joining Karadi Tales as an intern, when I was asked to pick a book and reflect on my journey with Karadi, my hands immediately reached out to pick up The Monkey and The Crocodile. It has been a long time since I last read (and listened to) this audio book adaptation of the Panchatantra classic, but by the second page I was humming along as the story serenaded me. I found that Ratna Pathak Shah’s evil cackling as the cunning crocodile, Mrs. Jagged Jaws, still sent chills through my spine.

After all this time, Karadi Tales still manages to awaken that little kid in me by bringing together two of my passions – music and stories. All these years I only marvelled at the magic of the books, but now I get to glimpse the magic that goes into their making.  It’s been less than a week since my internship began. However, seeing that my days are filled with working on children’s books, and the road ahead seems tremendously promising. Dear Karadi, thank you for the journey so far. Here’s to many more days spent reading and listening to your wonderful stories.