This special issue of The Book Review is on books published for children and YA in 2024-25. As in the years past, the numbers are huge and we have faced space constraints. We thank all our reviewers for keeping to deadlines. Some reviews have had to be held over, and we assure our reviewers that they will all be published in the December issue. The project of putting together this special issue is a learning experience for Team TBR every year, as it has been this year. The themes covered are manifold: education, issues of adoption, inequality and the struggle for inclusiveness in the classroom, picture books and activity books for the beginner readers, engaging fiction for the YA… the list is endless. We hope you will enjoy reading this special issue. We would appreciate your insights on how we can improve the Children’s special issue in the years to come.
This special issue has been sponsored by some members of the TCA family in memory of their mother, late Smt. Kamala Ramanujachari, who passed away on 2 February 2025. She was married to late Shri TCA Ramanujachari, a retired member of the IAS, a well-known criminal lawyer before he joined the civil service, and the architect of the Deed of The Book Review Literary Trust. After his passing away in 1998, she gave her apartment in Vasant Enclave almost rent free for the office of The Book Review where it continued to be published from till July 2023, when the apartment was sold. Kamala Chari took immense pride in the journal run by her daughter, Chandra and adoptive daughter, Uma Iyengar. She was an interested observer of the process of editing the translation series: Past Continuous in the late 1990s, and an invitee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan when the three translations were received by President KR Narayanan from the translators. Chitra Narayanan, the founder editor of The Book Review, a devoted admirer of Kamala Chari’s ageless beauty and warmth, never failed to visit her when she came to India from her postings abroad as an IFS officer. The three women team of TBR continue to miss her.
The Book Review Literary Trust is deeply appreciative of the generous gesture from the TCA Family in sponsoring this special issue on books for the young.