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Amar Chitra Katha launches collection of all 300 titles

Amar Chitra Katha, which has depicted India's rich culture for generations of Indians through its comics, has launched a complete collection of its 300 titles.

Billed as a collector's delight and ideal for private, public and school libraries, the collection encompasses books on Indian mythology, heritage, culture, history, heroes and heroines, religion and modern idols published in the past 45 years, Manas Mohan, chief operating officer of ACK Media, said late Thursday.

The late Anant Pai, media-person, illustrator and story-teller, had launched Amar Chitra Katha in 1967 and it soon grabbed the entire nation's attention.

'Today, the collection is an investment in the future of India as we impart knowledge and encourage reading habits among children,' Mohan said.

The collection, which can be ordered online, comes in three boxes with 100 titles each at a cost of Rs.15, 000.

ACK Media has already gifted the collection to around 80 schools and voluntary organisations in Mumbai.

Pai's ACK became popular because each story brought out a different facet of Indian history and mythology - from freedom fighters and great kings to gods and mythological heroes.

There were squeals of joy among the staff and students of the civic-run Deonar Colony Municipal English School in northeast Mumbai when the ACK Media gifted the collection last week.

'The ACK have enhanced the joy of learning for my students and staff,' said school Principal Nandini Sethi.

'The ACK Kids Stories have not lost their appeal and essence over the years. The books help bring history lessons to life and the historical personalities become real people as opposed to just names,' said Gitanjali Ghosh, teacher and founder of Anando, an NGO catering to underprivileged children here.

Mumbai-headquartered ACK Media brings out Tinkle, Karadi Tales, and Brainwave and develops products for multiple platforms from a design studio in Bangalore and a subsidiary in Chennai.

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Panchatantra - The Brahmin & the Goat

My thanks to all persons who are participating in polling. Trend is showing that most of friends wish to read Jataka, Panchatantra, others similar tales first. OK.

I promised to be more active this year. I can inform you today, 30+ ACK are coming with interval of 1-2 days.

How the tales of the Panchatantra came to be told is itself an interesting story (read earlier post). The etymology of term ‘Panchatantra’ suggests that it is a combination of two words, ‘Pancha’ (five) and ‘Tantra’ (practice/ principle).

So, the five principles or practices illustrated by Panchatantra are ‘Mitra Bhedha’ (Loss of Friends), ‘Mitra Laabha’ (Gaining Friends), ‘Suhrudbheda’ (Causing discord between Friends), ‘Vigraha’ (Separation) and ‘Sandhi’ (Union). Here are provided some of the popular tales from Panchatantra.

The study of the theories of philosophy, psychology and statecraft became engrossing when Vishnu Sharma drove the moral home through the mouths of talking animals and their escapades.

One unique feature of the tales is that most of the characters are animals; another, the tales form a chain of stories; a third, each of the tales has a distinct moral; and yet another, the tales have different levels of appeal.

The Panchatantra is the best guide to enroot moral values in children since its each tale has a moral lesson in its end. The morals which the Panchatantra seeks to teach continue to be relevant to this day and the Story Books themselves have not lost their novelty even two thousand years after they were first told.

[Source: http://ack-india.blogspot.in/2009/01/ack-053-panchatantra-brahmin-goat.html]

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The Confidence Game

In India we often refer to a confidence trickster or a con as a “420”. The term “420” comes from a reference to Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code is used in India to refer to a confidence trickster. Even in neighboring Myanmar, term 420 persists in popular culture to this date. Psychologist and writer for NewYorker.com, Maria Konnikova has put together a great read on how the cons operate and more importantly, what makes us fall for these cons? Have you ever been tricked? I have. But have you tricked anyone?

Robert Feldman, psychologist tells us that two people getting acquainted lie an average of three times in ten minutes. Some of these lies are also necessary social lubricants. When you fake interest in the boring life- story books of someone or telling someone that you are pleased to meet them, you are merely doing what is socially expected. When the same behaviour is taken a notch higher, we get the scams.

Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava, better known as Natwarlal was a noted con man who operated in the seventies and eighties in India. He was known for having “sold” the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the Rashtrapati Bhavan and even the House of Parliament to the rich and gullible. After being caught when the judge asked him how he managed to convince people to part with their wealth, he said, “Your honour, I charge a fee (guru dakshina) to teach people. Give me a hundred rupees and I will be happy to tell you the secret.” The judge gave him the hundred rupee note. Natwarlal smiled and said, “This is the method.”

The Confidence Game is a fascinating read into the modus operandi of cons. But when you read it, compare the steps of a con with a sales person or a lawyer or anyone whose day job is to influence others. Here is how the con works:

Step 1: “Put Up” is when the con sizes up the opportunity.

Step 2: “The Play” is where the con approaches the victim.

Step 3: “The Rope” is the hooking of the victim by gaining the confidence

Step 4: The Touch” is that moment when the actual fleecing takes place.

A con is actually a master of influencing skills. Attending a masterclass on influencing skills or negotiation skills will not raise any eyebrows. A confidence trickster is a master influencer cum psychologist who has crossed over to the dark side. He is the wizard in Harry Potter tales who uses magic for hurting others.

Con artists sell hope. So did Bernie Madoff when he sold his infamous Ponzi scheme. Think of the numerous scams that people have pulled off. Here is a list you can flip through <click here>. So do politicians when they promise the impossible during the election campaigns. What is even more interesting is that despite repeatedly being duped, we will once again the next one who promises the moon. We are all geared to trust and believe stories. When we are in distress or getting euphoric, we are most likely to get conned in style. So when someone announces their hook-ups or break-ups on social media they are inviting the cons to check out their next potential victim.

How do the cons do this? Don’t they feel a sense of remorse? No they do not. Like psychopaths, they do not feel any emotion or guilt. The cons are also high on narcissism. They believe they are entitled to success without having to work for it. And they are very high on Machiavellianism. When the author went to interview them, they actually charmed her by talking about her books. They had actually researched her. People who survive regime changes in organizations display all these traits too.

[Source: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/just-like-that/the-confidence-game-maria-konnikova/]

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The real censorship in children's books: smiling slaves is just the half of it

Why aren’t free speech organizations as concerned with the exclusion of writers of color from the publishing marketplace as they are about the censorship of one racist children’s book?

Earlier this month, the Story Books For Children industry released yet another picture book featuring smiling enslaved people, gleefully going about the apparently-not-so-bad business of slave work. A Birthday Cake for George Washington tells the story of Hercules, the first president’s enslaved chef, and his daughter, Delia. Life seems to be pretty decent for them, judging by the wide, shiny grins that appear on almost every page. No context is given about the true, horrific nature of American slavery; George Washington appears as a warm, benevolent patriarch. Besides a brief mention of the complexity of the topic in an author’s note at the end, the book gives no hint as to why Mr Hercules would go on to run away, leaving his daughter behind, on George Washington’s birthday.

Black Lives Matter activist Leslie Mac led the chorus of voices raised up against it. She talked about it on her podcast and began the Twitter hash tag #SlaveryWithASmile. Children’s book activist Debbie Reese, literary scholar Ebony Elizabeth, writer Mikki Kendall, myself and others chimed in, many of us still reeling from the staunch defence put up for the last picture book showing smiles and slavery, A Fine Dessert. Unlike that book, which received critical acclaim for months before it garnered criticism, A Birthday Cake for George Washington was roundly panned by critics and bloggers for essentially the same faults.

It seems the definition of censorship becomes more fluid and convenient with each new use. If free speech groups feel the need to cry censorship about editorial decisions, there are many, many stories of slavery that don’t feature smiling enslaved people or white saviours in the rejected folders of the 79% white publishing industry that they could start with. They could look into the even wider array of stories about our anger, our resistance, our power, that have never made it out of the slush pile, let alone to the shelves of major bookstores.

But the free speech advocates haven’t devoted much energy to the alarmingly un-diverse publishing industry and its very real effect on literature. (Pen American, of which I’m a relatively new and usually proud member, has been doing more recently and hosted an excellent series of panels on the subject last year.)

What we’re left with is a palpable sense of selective outrage. Pulling a book because it’s historically inaccurate and carries on the very American tradition of whitewashing slavery is classified as “censorship”, while maintaining an ongoing majority white industry that systematically excludes narratives of color is just business as usual.

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The statement praises A Birthday Cake for George Washington for generating “important discussions about how our nation creates, perceives, and perpetuates narratives about slavery”. But there’s nothing new about the question of how America has failed to reconcile with its ugly history or how the survivors of that history have been able to represent themselves. Frederick Douglass never allowed himself to be photographed smiling so as not to perpetuate the myth of the “happy slave”. He also warned against being “told of the contentment of the slaves, and…entertained with vivid pictures of their happiness.” He was astonished to encounter northerners who believed the slaves’ song was proof of their happiness: “It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.”

Of course books are dangerous; that’s why we love them. Stories matter, and the stakes are higher in children’s literature. “If books have the power to help us find ourselves,” Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park recently explained, “then a children’s book has superpowers”. And if the pen truly is mightier than the sword – as we were reminded us again and again after the Hebdo tragedy – then we must understand that, like the sword, the blade of art and literature has two sides: one that can create and the other destroy.

Somewhere beyond the false equivalency of caring what our children read and censorship, there is a way to cultivate equity in books by being a conscientious, compassionate, and reflective literary citizen. I’ll meet you there.

[Source::http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/29/smiling-slaves-the-real-censorship-in-childrens-books]

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Teaching Kids about Slavery: Picture Books Struggle With the Task

The shelves and desks at Teaching for Change in Washington, D.C., are full of picture books. For years, the nonprofit, which advocates for a more inclusive curriculum in public schools, has been keeping track of what it considers to be some of the best — and worst — multicultural kids stories out there.

Allyson Criner Brown, Teaching for Change's associate director, says they keep the bad ones because "there's so much to learn from them."

A Birthday Cake for George Washington was just put on the bad shelf.

Over the weekend, the publisher Scholastic announced it would stop distributing the children's picture book after public outcry.

Even though it was created by a multicultural team, the book came under heavy criticism for whitewashing the history of slavery. Just a few months ago, another children's book, A Fine Dessert, drew similar criticism.

It also raised questions about the diversity of the publishing industry and especially about the struggle parents, teachers and authors face when presenting such sensitive topics to young children.

A Birthday Cake for George Washington tells the story of Hercules, a slave Washington used as a chef. It's a book full of smiles, as Hercules and his daughter, Delia, take pride in baking for the president.

But the story glosses over the fact that Hercules and Delia are in bondage. And it's only in a note following the story that the author writes that Hercules escaped, leaving his daughter behind.

"It's almost as if the book presents that because he had moments of happiness and because he took pride and joy in his work that outweighs the fact that he was enslaved," Brown said. "And that cannot ever be a part of telling any story about somebody who was held in bondage."

Brown said that kind of simplistic, idealized narrative in a picture book is just a reflection of the adult world.

This is a country, she said, that wants to believe that the United States started as the land of the free and the home of the brave.

"The nation didn't start like that for everyone," she said. "So, as much as we struggle with it, how to then have these difficult conversations with our children with things that we're wrestling with ourselves, I think is very tough for a lot of people."

But Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, said children are not waiting around for adults.

Thomas studies how schools approach touchy subjects like slavery, and she spent time with students at a Philadelphia middle school.

"I found out that kids are not only ready to discuss these topics, but they are already discussing these topics with their friends," Thomas said.

At the time of her research, the students were reading Elijah of Buxton, a book about a runaway slave in Canada. Thomas said the kids were making sophisticated connections between the historical fiction and the realities of the Black Lives Matter movement today.

So the reality is that while kids are already grappling with some of the world's ugliness, she said, adults are still clinging to a Victorian ideal of an innocent child.

Adults are thinking "the innocence of the ideal child must be protected at all costs," she said. "We must keep the dirty secrets of our society away from those kids. And I think that kids are seeing those contradictions."

That protection instinct is familiar to writer Matt de la Peña — especially because he's a new father.

"I have a 20-month-old daughter," he said. "And you really just want to protect your daughter so much from the sadness. And you feel like, she's gonna see it eventually on her own. But then you have to take a step back and say my need to protect isn't as important as for her to see the truth."

The truth is something de la Peña thinks about a lot. His books for young adults often deal with the harsh realities of crime and violence. That honesty, he said, is valuable to kids.

"Young readers have a chance to experience very scary and sad and dark things in books," he said. "It's kind of the safest way to experience these things for the first time."

De la Peña just won a Newbery Medal for his book Last Stop on Market Street.

It's about CJ, a black kid taking a bus ride to the soup kitchen with his grandma.

At one point CJ asks why the poor neighborhood is always so dirty.

"Sometimes when you're surrounded by dirt," the wise grandma responds, "you're a better witness for what's beautiful."

[Source::http://www.npr.org/2016/01/22/463977451/controversial-picture-books-surface-struggle-to-help-children-understand-slavery]

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How Comic Books India Can Benefit Adults?

Comic books are emerging as one of the few reading materials which have the potential to de-stress an individual’s mind. As a result, comics are not just considered as reading materials for children but also adults and professionals. One might wonder as to how comical tales which are perceived as childish reading materials can be considered as good for professionals. In this article, we’ll see how comic books can benefit adults and professionals alike. #Understanding the positive side of comics For a person to understand the positive sides of comics, it’s required that he/she allocates time reading some good comics. One can experience great benefits reading comic books india. For example, if one wants to gain knowledge about the great Indian mythological characters and epic tales like Ramayana and Mahabharata then he/she can refer to comics from ACK. ACK comics comprise of well-written and structured content suitable for adults and professionals alike. #Comics- A good way to de-stress one’s mind! We all know the hardships one suffers in day-to-day chores especially during working hours. As a result, one may not get time to read or one may find it really tiring reading a book sometimes. During such circumstances, reading good comics sometimes can be a really great stress-buster. One of the major reasons why comical tales are one of the best stress-busters is the kind of content and visuals as displayed in comics. The content (text) along with enticing visuals enhances the reader’s experience. It’s a great way to get entertained in a subtle manner. Also you can gain knowledge about important moral values in an amusing way. For example, ACK’s comical tales depicting epic Ramayana & Mahabharata tales are a great way to learn about this important era in India’s culture. You can learn about the characters like Pandavas and Kauravas and the essential traits of Lord Krishna who is considered as the most intelligent deity in the world including management! Today you can even read online comics and browse through a great variety of good quality comics online. #Comics present a short but valuable read! Another advantage of comics is their short lengths up to 40-50 pages. This enhances the reading experience of a reader as he/she does not has to try hard understand the little words or ponder over difficult economical terms. While reading comic books, it’s the time the reader experiences the joy of reading as well as imagining & encountering his/her inner joy. The visual representations provide additional enjoyment while reading anytime during transportation or while lying. Also one more thing about comics is that when you’ve finished reading one, you’ll find that you have plenty of time to do your other favorite things! Hence, now you know that how comics present certain benefits which cannot be experienced through other mediums? Also trust me while you surf through a comic it will remind you of your childhood days. It will leave you smiling with a happy face and all your worries will be vanished with a new force to start the next moment with a new vigor and energy!

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Beebop books for pre-schoolers: A bee, four children and dogs take off to faraway lands

When did you last see a child reading a book? Chances are that you can count on your fingers those rare occurrences.

Children Story Book  in India are raised on tales from the West: These are the characters they are familiar with, wear on their person in the form of clothes and accessories, and covet as toys and collectibles.

Dream Theatre, an entertainment company that is into licensing of international brands in India, has collaborated with HarperCollins to come out with a new range of story books for children in the age group of four to six. Jiggy George and Susmita Singh Deo set up the company three years back. Launched in 2010 with Beebop toys, the brand has added apparel gift sets and bed sets and has also stepped into the world of publishing.

The genesis of the publishing programme lay in the fact that in today's world, there is no turning away from the fact that kids are born into an age of technology, says George, co-founder, Dream Theatre. It is inevitable that they are growing up in an environment of tremendous opportunity and information, leaving very little space for the "joy of discovery'' and "the celebration of wonder" for both the child as well as for parents and caregivers. There is a distinct need for providing kids with great content which gives them a chance to discover the joys of reading and delve into a world of wonder.

The Beebop publishing programme seeks to do just that: simple playful stories bring alive the world of Beebop, a friendly bee, who takes four friends — Sarah, Jay, Zoya and Zubin — on many marvelous adventures. Beebop books bring back wonder-filled fantasies, adventure and make-believe worlds while spreading the values of friendship and fearlessness.

Dream Theatre is the first professional licensing and brand management enterprise of its kind in the country offering out of box licensing models for brands. It has three verticals — entertainment, sports and lifestyle.

HarperCollins was interested in the idea. Beebop has three levels for graded readers. Each level increases in complexity to allow for greatest success in ability of the readers to follow the story and keep them interested. The ratings take into consideration difficulty of vocabulary, sentence length, comprehension abilities, literary elements and subject matter. Each level consists of four story books and four activity books priced at Rs 75 each; the whole set of four story and four activity books retails at Rs. 500. Dream Theatre is targeting sales of 25,000 copies in the next six months.

“The Beebop books are fun; they’re funny, they’re charmingly written and beautifully illustrated. I’m so thrilled that Harper Kids is publishing a homegrown graded-reader programme: not only do the stories fit into a larger narrative arc, they are set to match the child’s learning curve at a slightly accelerated level. So as the stories continue and the characters grow, the language too alters in vocabulary and complexity. The series has given us a lot of joy,” says Manasi Subramaniam, Commissioner Editor and Rights Manager, HarperCollins India.

[Source:: http://www.firstpost.com/living/beebop-books-for-pre-schoolers-a-bee-four-children-and-dogs-take-off-to-faraway-lands-2593402.html]

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Beebop books for pre-schoolers: A bee, four children and dogs take off to faraway lands

When did you last see a child reading a book? Chances are that you can count on your fingers those rare occurrences.

Children Story Book  in India are raised on tales from the West: These are the characters they are familiar with, wear on their person in the form of clothes and accessories, and covet as toys and collectibles.

Dream Theatre, an entertainment company that is into licensing of international brands in India, has collaborated with HarperCollins to come out with a new range of story books for children in the age group of four to six. Jiggy George and Susmita Singh Deo set up the company three years back. Launched in 2010 with Beebop toys, the brand has added apparel gift sets and bed sets and has also stepped into the world of publishing.

The genesis of the publishing programme lay in the fact that in today's world, there is no turning away from the fact that kids are born into an age of technology, says George, co-founder, Dream Theatre. It is inevitable that they are growing up in an environment of tremendous opportunity and information, leaving very little space for the "joy of discovery'' and "the celebration of wonder" for both the child as well as for parents and caregivers. There is a distinct need for providing kids with great content which gives them a chance to discover the joys of reading and delve into a world of wonder.

The Beebop publishing programme seeks to do just that: simple playful stories bring alive the world of Beebop, a friendly bee, who takes four friends — Sarah, Jay, Zoya and Zubin — on many marvelous adventures. Beebop books bring back wonder-filled fantasies, adventure and make-believe worlds while spreading the values of friendship and fearlessness.

Dream Theatre is the first professional licensing and brand management enterprise of its kind in the country offering out of box licensing models for brands. It has three verticals — entertainment, sports and lifestyle.

HarperCollins was interested in the idea. Beebop has three levels for graded readers. Each level increases in complexity to allow for greatest success in ability of the readers to follow the story and keep them interested. The ratings take into consideration difficulty of vocabulary, sentence length, comprehension abilities, literary elements and subject matter. Each level consists of four story books and four activity books priced at Rs 75 each; the whole set of four story and four activity books retails at Rs. 500. Dream Theatre is targeting sales of 25,000 copies in the next six months.

“The Beebop books are fun; they’re funny, they’re charmingly written and beautifully illustrated. I’m so thrilled that Harper Kids is publishing a homegrown graded-reader programme: not only do the stories fit into a larger narrative arc, they are set to match the child’s learning curve at a slightly accelerated level. So as the stories continue and the characters grow, the language too alters in vocabulary and complexity. The series has given us a lot of joy,” says Manasi Subramaniam, Commissioner Editor and Rights Manager, HarperCollins India.

[Source:: http://www.firstpost.com/living/beebop-books-for-pre-schoolers-a-bee-four-children-and-dogs-take-off-to-faraway-lands-2593402.html]

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Crowdfunding campaign puts comic books on call in children's hospitals

A crowdfunding campaign to put comics into the hands of children in hospital has more than doubled its target, raising funds to distribute printed issues of the Moose Kid anthology to 50 hospitals across the UK.

The appeal was organised by the comic artist Jamie Smart, who has worked on Desperate Dan for the Dandy and Roger the Dodger for the Beano, and aimed to raise £2,000 to finance the project. When this week’s deadline passed, supporters had contributed more than £5,350, which will allow multiple issues to be produced throughout 2016.

Moose Kid Comics launched online in June 2014, but now Smart has teamed up with the charity Readathon, which provides books for children’s wards, to produce and distribute a printed edition.

Speaking to the Guardian, Smart said he was amazed by the response.

“The original £2,000 target we set was to fund the printing of Moose Kid Comics Story issue one and two,” Smart said, “which would then be sent to approximately 50 children’s hospitals and wards across the UK.”

With more than £5,000 raised, Smart continued, “we can get more comics story printed, and we can send them out regularly throughout the year, not just as a one-off. So possibly three deliveries, throughout 2016. Now thanks to our generous funders we can reach even more children with comics, and keep them amused while they’re going through a rough time.”

Smart put together an online Christmas special to promote the fundraiser, which is now due to be printed up and distributed to hospitals in time for Christmas 2016.

According to Readathon, books are “incredibly important” to children in hospital, where “they comfort, distract, reassure and entertain”.

“Throughout the year, Readathon provides brand new books and storyteller visits to brighten up the days of children in hospitals across the UK,” the charity said. “Even children unable to leave their beds can choose books from Readathon’s specially designed mobile bookcase, and because they are brand new, the books are safe for those at high risk of infection.”

Source::http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/01/crowdfunding-campaign-puts-comic-books-on-call-in-childrens-hospitals

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Book Review: Karmic Kids

It usually involves pain, discomfort, lack of sleep or rest, being ready to face the unexpected or the unreasonable anytime, leads to crankiness and exasperation, and can entail a thorough revisiting of primary studies or embarrassing situations outside. But despite all, motherhood is special, especially moments like when her hand suddenly finds a small, warm one thrust in for reassurance (or swatted away few years hence) or when they become glad of a ribcage to keep in a heart swelled with pride.

Stories of motherhood are in essence the stories of humanity itself, but most of them are not recorded - the ups and downs, the bonding and the battles, the frustrations and the fears, the hopes and happiness, and the tenderness and temper tantrums (latter not restricted to kids.. sorry, mothers!)

Unfortunately only a few happen to be shared outside family, and among these, most deal with celebrity moms or kids. Among the exceptions, and an outstanding one, was Erma Bombeck, and Kiran Manral, the author of this rib-tickling but endearing account of the roller-coaster ride in delivering and nurturing a new life, is a worthy successor.

A prolific and popular blogger and author of three witty, readable story books, Manral proves her credentials with her first non-fiction work, growing out of her blog posts, spanning moments after childbirth to her most spirited boy's tenth year.

She strikes up a fondly irreverent tenor right from the beginning, referring to her son as "The Brat", but her real - and composite - sentiments are evident in the dedication - to "the sprog of my womb, sparkle in my eye, the tenor in my yell, the grey in my hair, and the beat of my heart".

The first glimpse of her newborn actually becomes an attempt to see the "little mewling ball of flesh" - with the "first moments of the mother-child bonding were marred by the fact that I couldn't see too clearly" (her spectacles were with a solicitous mother who had promptly kept them away). Consequently, "my first view of the offspring was that of a red blur that looked somewhat like a newborn kitten or puppy..", confessing "maternal love did not well immediately in the maternal breast".

And that was even before he began bawling!

Manral takes us down the years, in her same inimitably witty style, chronicling various milestones of not only her son, but also in her own life and role as mother. These encompass visits to the paediatrician with a long list of questions till the long suffering man sighs and tells her he thinks she ought to "stop Googling up things and worrying about them", the days of playschool, where the kid runs in without a backward glance and she joins a group of mothers sniffing into their hankies, the desperate struggle to institute a sleep routine (and get some herself), and the routines of "frenship, besht frens and second besht frens" (Manral reproduces the cadences of the kid's speech perfectly - and mercilessly) and more.

Then there are experiences of travels and holidays with a child in tow, about healthy food, dress codes (he is most happy with "jakkid wid jeans"), sensitizing the child to learn and report any sort of abuse (which leads to a piquant situation when he complains against his own grandmother to the parents), the tickling issues of explaining sex and death (including the sombre happenings of 26/11) and the biggest problem, getting "boreding", whether it is at school, friends' birthday parties or family functions.

Complementing her recollections is advice on a range of issues by experts - some of them being more seasoned mothers too - and some as subversively funny, eg. Shunali Khullar Shroff, author of "Battle Hymn of a Bewildered Mother" and frequent traveller, who suggests leaving children with grandparents - the reason is not very altruistic!)

A book not just for mothers or mothers-to-be, this book about the magic of shaping life needs to be read by everyone - including the other part of the parenting team, and especially by children. A sequel would be eagerly awaited and welcome.

Source::http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/features/Book-Review-Karmic-Kids/articleshow/50341138.cms

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Hillary’s new star turn: heroine of children’s books

In a presidential election year, there will, of course, be political biographies. But political biographies for children? This month three children’s books about one candidate — Hillary Clinton — hit the shelves. Aimed at a variety of age groups, the story books for children deliver a similar message of female strength, though admittedly one likely to go down easier in Democratic-leaning households.

Jonah Winter’s picture book “Hillary” (Schwartz & Wade, ages 4 to 8) begins with a slightly tongue-in-cheek overview of history’s notably strong women: Queen Elizabeth, Joan of Arc (“she was . . . kind of intense”), Rosie the Riveter, “and now there is . . . Hillary.” The first image, rendered delicately in watercolor, colored pencils and lithograph crayon by Raul Colón, shows young Hillary in a baseball cap, surrounded by tall boys, pointing assertively. “She was scrappy,” Winter writes. The tale that unfolds will be familiar to parental readers — Hillary graduating from law school, becoming a mother and first lady. There’s even a summary of her work for health care reform. In simple terms, Winter offers younger readers a portrait of someone who learns all she can and draws on her experience in tough situations. As secretary of state, “she was the hardest of workers, getting up earlier and staying up later than anyone, reading countless reports filled with important information, making decisions that might save lives or cost lives.”There is little subtlety to Winter’s depiction, and his author’s note says it most plainly: “By becoming president, she would demonstrate that a girl can grow up to be the most powerful person in the world. That’s the world where I want to live. And this is a story I am thrilled to tell.”

[Looking back: Best children’s books of 2015]

Cynthia Levinson lived across the hall from Clinton as a freshman at Wellesley, and her biography “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Do All the Good You Can” (Balzer + Bray, ages 10 to 14) conveys her admiration for her former schoolmate. Levinson’s portrait shows a smart, determined young woman who acts fearlessly and with conviction. Levinson draws on a number of sources, including Clinton’s writing, as well as previous biographies and interviews with fellow classmates. Levinson’s style is clear and reportorial, her narrative straightforward with restrained analysis (though a couple of chronological errors will stick out for adult readers). The book’s discussion of Clinton’s historical mentor, Eleanor Roosevelt, offers young readers a way to understand politics as service. Levinson allows her subject to demonstrate fallibility and doubt, and she acknowledges Clinton’s struggle with admitting mistakes, such as her support, as a U.S. senator, of the resolution to go to war with Iraq. Levinson highlights Clinton’s assertion at the 1995 U.N. conference on women that “human rights are women’s rights . . . and women’s rights are human rights,” an idea that will feel familiar to the many young readers who have been introduced to Malala Yousafzai’s life and work.

Michelle Markel and LeUyen Pham’s picture book biography, “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some Girls Are Born to Lead” (Balzer + Bray, ages 4 to 8), focuses on the mostly male political world Clinton had to navigate to get where she is. Of the three books, this biography takes the most lighthearted and cheering girl-power approach. Markel and Pham’s account opens with a double-page portrait in grays and browns of the famous men who dominated each field, from politics and humanitarianism to physics and sports in the 1950s. “Girls weren’t supposed to act smart, tough or ambitious,” Markel writes. “But in the town of Park Ridge, Ill., along came Hillary.” Standing next to that sentence, in color, is a young Clinton, hands on hips, sporting a beret. Later she is shown raising money for the poor, listening to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., championing women, children and the poor, withstanding criticism and remaining bravely forthright. In a detailed and remarkably entertaining artist’s note, Pham identifies the cameo appearances by several dozen noteworthy women, including physicist Lisa Randall, chef Alice Waters and Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Mothers and grandmothers may find themselves feeling teary-eyed and thrilled about this expansive collection of substantial women. The story isn’t finished, but the sense of possibility is enticing.

Source::https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-message-in-three-new-books-for-kids-you-too-can-be-as-great-as-hillary/2016/01/07/cbc01a6a-b304-11e5-a842-0feb51d1d124_story.html

[storybooksinindiablog]

What stories should you be telling kids this holiday season?

In every culture that anthropologists have ever studied, people tell stories.

Families most frequently tell stories around the time of vacations, family reunions, (sadly) funerals, Thanksgiving and, of course, the family-oriented winter holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Stories are told about times past, times present and even times yet to be. These stories mix real people and places with imaginary people and places. For instance, there was never anyone called Sherlock Holmes, but the town he lived in – London – is real. The street he lived on – Baker Street – is also real. But there is no 221B – his house number in the story.

So, why do we tell these stories?

For more than two decades, my colleague, Robyn Fivush, and I have been studying the importance of family stories at Emory University’s Family Narratives Project, which conducts research on how people remember and narrate the events of their lives. And we have found that the more children know about their own family history, the healthier and more resilient they are.

There are a variety of forms that family stories take. It has been our experience that the so-called “bad stories” – in which bad things happen to good people – do more to immunize children and build resilience than happy ones.

What stories do families tell?

Most families have stories that parallel the Seven Basic Plots proposed by journalist Christopher Booker.

Briefly, these plots are: the Quest (think Lord of the Rings), Voyage and Return (Ulysses), Rags to Riches (Cinderella), Tragedy (King Lear), Comedy (Will Ferrell movie), Rebirth (The Ugly duckling, Shrek), and Overcoming the Monster (Star Wars’ Darth Vader).

Generally, all of the family story plots contribute to a sense of history and resilience in families. But when dealing with difficult times, families tell the “voyage and return” and “overcoming the monster” stories.

Our interviews with professionals working on rehabilitation, patients and patients' families show that the narrative plot – “voyage and return” – is arguably the form most commonly taken by kids stories to talk about illnesses and recovery.

For instance, many families use “journey” metaphors when talking about illnesses. One family we interviewed, for example, saw the emergency room, the hospital, the rehabilitation center and the outpatient treatment center as “stations” (ports) along the way back home.

Another family talked about how long the “trip” had been from injury to recovery. This plot line works because it is so easily understood by people of all ages.

Such “voyage and return” stories provide hope in times of present and future illnesses. They teach that, with time and care, people who have “traveled” into a far-off land of infirmity can and do return.

Based on my four decades of experience as a licensed clinical psychologist and on the hundreds of interviews we did at the Family Narratives Project over an 10-year period, it’s my belief that knowing such stories helps people get through their own illnesses and those of their loved ones.

Voyage and return is just one of the seven basic plots that we have found in family stories. An illness or injury from which someone does not recover becomes a “Tragedy story.” Very often, comedic details are added to even the most trying of narratives.

Generally, it’s been our experience that stories are recounted on an “as needed” basis. And stories may have more than one type of plot. So, if a child is having trouble in math, a grandparent might tell the child about how the same thing happened to the child’s mom or dad and how he or she overcame the challenge.

Overcoming the monster

While not entirely separate from the “voyage and return” story, another of the seven basic family story plots that our research shows is important for children to hear is “overcoming the monster”.

These stories describe how people in the family dealt with hardships, traumatic events or unpredictable challenges. Often, grandparents would describe overcoming the financial challenges of economic downturns, or parents would describe being bullied as children.

There could be other stories about relatives or friends who experienced horrific events, resulting in injuries or even deaths of loved ones – all of these could be considered stories about overcoming some sort of “monster.”

The power of such stories rests in their being told long after they have been resolved and the tellers and listeners are safe or have successfully coped with their challenges. These stories teach resilience.

They teach that ordinary people can rise to heroic levels if they are called upon to do so. They teach us that no matter how scary the “monster” or how intimidated we are, we can prevail.

What stories should we tell?

Does this mean we should tell only positive stories?

Many parent groups that I have spoken with fear telling their children so-called “bad stories” in which bad things happen to good people.

However, it has been our experience that bad stories do more to immunize children and build resilience than happy ones. We have theorized that this is because hearing about overcoming bad things tells children that they are part of a family that “rises above” and faces problems squarely.

When similar challenges then face the children themselves, they have role models to turn to.

To be sure, both good and bad plots are necessary in the set of stories that children know about their families. It helps kids the kids to know that people they are related to are strong enough to have overcome “monsters” in the past.

This helps them realize that when they come upon their own “monsters,” they will be able to overcome them as well.

[Source: http://www.enca.com/life/what-stories-should-you-be-telling-kids-holiday-season]

[storybooksinindiablog]

This year, let kids wake up to ‘A Book on Every Bed’

Dear Readers: This is one of my favorite days of the year because this is the day I get to step out from behind my desk and advocate — simply and sincerely — for literacy. I choose this particular day because it is my mother’s birthday. She was a reader, writer and teacher, and I can think of no better way to honor her memory than to ask other readers to participate in the “Story Books on Every Bed” project.

This week many of us are scurrying around, looking for the “perfect” gift. And yet, looking back through our own holiday memories, we realize the best gifts arrive in the form of traditions or objects that we can look at and know exactly where they came from. We invest these simple possessions with meaning and memories, particularly when we connect them with nurturing relationships. (In fact, during a recent family discussion, my older cousin told our aunt that she still has the book “Madeline” our aunt gave to her, around 60 years ago).

According to a position paper from the American Academy of Pediatrics (and many other studies), early literacy has a direct bearing on educational success later in life. We don’t need a study to tell us this, however. Reading opens the door to all good things. Literacy offers both connection and escape.

I’m so proud to advocate for a gift-giving tradition that is straightforward, inexpensive and reaps boundless and lifelong rewards.

A “borrowed” concept: Like all my best ideas, this was stolen (borrowed, really). Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough (author of the books “Truman,” “John Adams” and his new book, “The Wright Brothers”) once related in an interview that every Christmas morning during his childhood, he and his siblings awoke to the gift of a wrapped book on their beds, delivered in the night by Santa.

This year I have partnered with Reach Out and Read (reachoutandread.org), a national organization that gives children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together. As the organization’s member doctors tell us, “Books Build Better Brains!”

[Source::http://www.freep.com/story/life/advice/2015/12/17/ask-amy-book-every-bed-christmas/76935642/]

[storybooksinindiablog]

Manga comics: The latest obsession of city’s youth

For those who think comics are meant only for children, think again! Japanese comics and graphic novels known as manga are becoming a rage among the youth and adults alike in the State.

With themes ranging from romance to fantasy and well fleshed-out characters like Uzumaki Naruto and Goku, manga has got people from all age groups hooked. For many, the route to discovering manga was through animes or cartoons that aired on popular kids channels. A college student Sagar explains, "I used to watch animes. When I did further research into the ones I liked, I found that animes were based on manga. I stopped watching anime after I started reading manga as they were always ahead." These comics are read from right to left and are printed in black and white. While it takes some time to get used to the style of reading the Japanese comics that are dubbed in English, it is no turn off for its avid readers. Manga aficionado Ashwathy says, "You get used to it after a while. Initially you will face trouble but after a few pages, you get used to it and then you wait every week for the next issue to come out." Story Books comics also run for several hundreds of issues. Popular ones such as Naruto had 700 chapters with the first one released in 1999 and the final in 2014. "The storylines are as elaborate and long as any of the novels that you read. The only difference is that it is presented in the form of a comic book," says Madhura, a post graduate student. Other popular manga comics include Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, One Punch Man and One Piece.

Jacob Neroth, a 31-year-old banking professional, tells us that he got hooked to the comics a few years ago while he was studying in the USA. "Manga is huge in foreign countries. I started reading it 10 years ago but still follow the arcs of the comics I like. I have even got my cousins and friends here hooked to it." Age is no barrier when it comes to manga, he says. Supporting him, Madhura says, "You have comics like Doraemon for children and also cerebral thrillers such as Death Note fit for adults. That's what makes manga unique. You can have your pick." As Preet S, a city college student says, "Reading manga is my guilty pleasure."

[Source::http://storybooksinindiablog.blogspot.in/2015/12/manga-comics-latest-obsession-of-citys.html]

[storybooksinindiablog]

A new superhero has emerged, the web comic

Little stick figures taking digs at patriarchy. Illustrations poking fun at an intrusive government. Miniature paintings with hilarious speech blurbs. Cartoons that lampoon everything from selfies and smartphones to the Land Bill and pseudo-patriotism. In the new world of Indian web comics, illustrators are using art and wit to showcase (and soften) the gritty reality of issues facing India today.

No superhero adventures here. No stuffed tigers, lasagne-loving cats or philosophical beagles either. These comics are going viral because they tackle subjects from Breaking News tickers to Twitter rants, earning fans by making them question popular opinion and people in power.

Animal circus

The five-year-old web comic Crocodile In Water, Tiger On Land was born after its two creators spotted “a well-heeled, arty-looking guy… talking about Bengal’s great cultural heritage while pissing on the sidewalk” outside their house.

They named it after the Bengali proverb ‘Jawle kumeer, danga-e bagh’, which roughly means that between a tiger stalking you on land and a crocodile waiting in the water, there’s no safe place. “You are caught between the devil and the deep sea, a rock and a hard place, the Congress and the BJP, the left and the TMC, and so on,” they explain.

CWTL describes itself as a “non-profit, equal opportunity collection of below-the-belt cheap shots”. Its creators – one writes, the other draws – remain anonymous by choice, as they “want their work to be judged on its own merit”. It suits the nature of a job that takes potshots at controversial subjects like the India Is Tolerant march, and the beef ban.

Both creators insist they’re pretty ordinary, but admit to a love for comics. “When we were kids, we wanted to be superheroes. When we grew up, we wanted to write about superheroes,” says one of them. Their comics story has been so popular that it was recently turned into a book.

Change agents

The comics will make you smile, but they’ll also make you think. When she started out, Taneja confesses that people would often have trouble with a woman expressing her opinion. She’s been used to trolls. But using a medium like Facebook has meant not responding to every piece of criticism. She takes suggestions from close friends and family before putting up a comic.

Parthasarathy says that the feedback has been positive so far and has now collaborated with her friend, artist Kaveri Gopalakrishnan, to document changing Indian cities through a webcomic titled Urbanlore.

CWTL has also had its fair share of praise and criticism, but some readers have supported them since the beginning. “Over the years, they have religiously shared our work and spread the word. We owe them a great deal,” they say. “But nothing entertains us more than some sharply-worded trolling. One of them said, ‘Where are these dumb*****, ignorant, newly-‘secular’ retards coming from?’ It was so layered and revealed so much about us and the person saying it, that we even put it on the back cover of our book!”

[Source::https://storybooksinindiablog.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/a-new-superhero-has-emerged-the-web-comic/]

[storybooksinindiablog]

A new superhero has emerged, the web comic

Little stick figures taking digs at patriarchy. Illustrations poking fun at an intrusive government. Miniature paintings with hilarious speech blurbs. Cartoons that lampoon everything from selfies and smartphones to the Land Bill and pseudo-patriotism. In the new world of Indian web comics, illustrators are using art and wit to showcase (and soften) the gritty reality of issues facing India today.

No superhero adventures here. No stuffed tigers, lasagne-loving cats or philosophical beagles either. These comics are going viral because they tackle subjects from Breaking News tickers to Twitter rants, earning fans by making them question popular opinion and people in power.

Animal circus

The five-year-old web comic Crocodile In Water, Tiger On Land was born after its two creators spotted “a well-heeled, arty-looking guy… talking about Bengal’s great cultural heritage while pissing on the sidewalk” outside their house.

They named it after the Bengali proverb ‘Jawle kumeer, danga-e bagh’, which roughly means that between a tiger stalking you on land and a crocodile waiting in the water, there’s no safe place. “You are caught between the devil and the deep sea, a rock and a hard place, the Congress and the BJP, the left and the TMC, and so on,” they explain.

CWTL describes itself as a “non-profit, equal opportunity collection of below-the-belt cheap shots”. Its creators – one writes, the other draws – remain anonymous by choice, as they “want their work to be judged on its own merit”. It suits the nature of a job that takes potshots at controversial subjects like the India Is Tolerant march, and the beef ban.

Both creators insist they’re pretty ordinary, but admit to a love for comics. “When we were kids, we wanted to be superheroes. When we grew up, we wanted to write about superheroes,” says one of them. Their comics story has been so popular that it was recently turned into a book.

Change agents

The comics will make you smile, but they’ll also make you think. When she started out, Taneja confesses that people would often have trouble with a woman expressing her opinion. She’s been used to trolls. But using a medium like Facebook has meant not responding to every piece of criticism. She takes suggestions from close friends and family before putting up a comic.

Parthasarathy says that the feedback has been positive so far and has now collaborated with her friend, artist Kaveri Gopalakrishnan, to document changing Indian cities through a webcomic titled Urbanlore.

CWTL has also had its fair share of praise and criticism, but some readers have supported them since the beginning. “Over the years, they have religiously shared our work and spread the word. We owe them a great deal,” they say. “But nothing entertains us more than some sharply-worded trolling. One of them said, ‘Where are these dumb*****, ignorant, newly-‘secular’ retards coming from?’ It was so layered and revealed so much about us and the person saying it, that we even put it on the back cover of our book!”

[Source::https://storybooksinindiablog.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/a-new-superhero-has-emerged-the-web-comic/]

Manga comics: The latest obsession of city’s youth

For those who think comics are meant only for children, think again! Japanese comics and graphic novels known as manga are becoming a rage among the youth and adults alike in the State.

With themes ranging from romance to fantasy and well fleshed-out characters like Uzumaki Naruto and Goku, manga has got people from all age groups hooked. For many, the route to discovering manga was through animes or cartoons that aired on popular kids channels. A college student Sagar explains, "I used to watch animes. When I did further research into the ones I liked, I found that animes were based on manga. I stopped watching anime after I started reading manga as they were always ahead." These comics are read from right to left and are printed in black and white. While it takes some time to get used to the style of reading the Japanese comics that are dubbed in English, it is no turn off for its avid readers. Manga aficionado Ashwathy says, "You get used to it after a while. Initially you will face trouble but after a few pages, you get used to it and then you wait every week for the next issue to come out." Manga comics also run for several hundreds of issues. Popular ones such as Naruto had 700 chapters with the first one released in 1999 and the final in 2014. "The storylines are as elaborate and long as any of the novels that you read. The only difference is that it is presented in the form of a comic book," says Madhura, a post graduate student. Other popular manga comics include Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, One Punch Man and One Piece.

Jacob Neroth, a 31-year-old banking professional, tells us that he got hooked to the comics a few years ago while he was studying in the USA. "Manga is huge in foreign countries. I started reading it 10 years ago but still follow the arcs of the comics I like. I have even got my cousins and friends here hooked to it." Age is no barrier when it comes to manga, he says. Supporting him, Madhura says, "You have comics like Doraemon for children and also cerebral thrillers such as Death Note fit for adults. That's what makes manga unique. You can have your pick." As Preet S, a city college student says, "Reading manga is my guilty pleasure."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/features/Manga-comics-The-latest-obsession-of-citys-youth/articleshow/50043617.cms