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A picture book with minimal text from Eklavya.This album-size book with large bold illustrations is perfect as a child’s FIRST book. Here, the element of story is irrelevant, almost redundant.It is all about familiar colourful images that inhabit a child’s universe—water, fish, frog, buffalo and so forth. It does not have to tell much beyond mundane things like a buffalo’s horns, its tail, and of course the delicious joys of hush-hush words like su-su and poo-poo, that are so much a part of the early years…

A little story book from the Muskaan Series of Eklavya. It tells a simple story that would appeal to a small child, who does not yet read by herself, but enjoys listening to a story.However, the text of this book does not lend itself to an interesting read-aloud experience. The sweet little story is actually written jointly by four Agariya kids, Sonam, Ritik, Vikram and Ajay, with some assistance from their school teacher. Although originally written in Hindi, the syntax and choice of words sound somewhat stilted, akin to a literal Hindi translation of an original English text…

Truly, an offering for a world increasingly dominated by the digital media. A short little story for kids as young as 3 years to as old. For, let us face it, whether we like it or not a mobile phone has become a favourite ‘toy’ for the young and old alike.To add to this bane of device obsession, we now have online classrooms! The die is cast. What began as a guilty diversion has now become a necessary evil.Richa Jha in her delightful book Ast-Vyast Mast addresses this issue without making it preachy for the young reader. In fact, she turns the tables, depicting a scenario where the internet is down and it is the child that pulls her parents away from their respective devices to enjoy a fun-filled family time outdoors. After an exhilarating time in the park the family returns home where we have a twist in the tail. Our online student is frustrated at not being able to access her school results as internet is still down. A reality check!…

Great nonfiction in Indian children’s literature is hard to come by, especially picture books for young children. I was pleasantly surprised to get a set of non-fiction books translated into Hindi by Eklavya. These have been translated from English by the eclectic Sushil Shukl. The first one, Ande Mein Kucch Kala Hai is about the life cycle of frogs. Nona aur Seb ka Ped is about the journey of an apple tree from a seed to a full grown tree. Both the books are written by Kanchan Sharma and illustrated by Radhika Tipnis. The rhythmic text brings in a fresh flavour to the stories and are unlike any non-fiction book I have read in Hindi…

These books are a fascinating example of the kind of good that a regional publisher publishing in a regional language can do for children to develop critical thinking skills, a scientific outlook, pique their curiosity about natural phenomena or sensitize them to the gradient of social difference and inequality that is often actively and conveniently ignored in school syllabi or made invisible in social discourse. Stories for children have been used to instruct and entertain, but these books are special not only because they take their inspiration from the world around them where the context, art and language are familiar and relatable, but also because their printing and pricing makes them attractive and accessible…

A simple story, whose title itself excites curiosity, and colourful eye-catching illustrations in an unusually large-sized picture-book—what more does a beginning reader need to get attracted?The very size of the book catches attention. The two little girls aged five and six years, whom I teach as they are homebound due to the Corona epidemic, fight to grab the book. It is spread out on the table and they both bend over it, the younger concentrating on the pictures while the elder tries to read the text. Big words, difficult for the under-privileged kid to read, and I have to help her at first. But as the words get repeated, slowly she is able to recognize them…