Early Readers

Trouble In The Forbidden Forest

A gang of robbers is cutting and stealing sandalwood trees from the forest near Arun’s house. Worse, the guardian of the forest, fierce King Yaksha, seems to have lost his powers and can’t stop them. Something must be done… and quickly. A thrilling sequel to The Forbidden Forest that sees young Arun come to the rescue with a smart plan!

The Forbidden Forest

There are strange stories about the big forest at the edge of Arun’s house, and he has been told never to go there. But of course he MUST! So he slips away one day. It is like another world there, strange and beautiful. All is well until he breaks a “rule”… and has to face the fierce King Yaksha, spirit guardian of the forest, who gives him a very unusual punishment.

Shrinking Vanita

Three days to go before a killer asteroid will end life on Earth! Everyone is in a panic. Everyone, that is, but Vanita, who has things to do. Such as saving the planet.  She has a plan drawn up to the minutest detail. All pure science. With just a little help from fridge magnets, a little puppy – and a special ‘shrinking’ gift that she has. Manjula Padmanabhan’s cartoonist’s eye for people and their little eccentricities conflates with a supergirl story to give us this spectacular  science fiction for young readers. A side splittingly hilarious book from a master storyteller with her  tongue firmly in cheek and a straight face!

The Enchanted Saarang

This unique collection of stories about Kashmir invites readers into the everyday lives of ordinary people. Their homes nestle amid jagged rocks and flowering valleys that inspire fear, love, and closeness with and respect for nature. It is a world filled with giving spirits, powerful snakes, cunning horse thieves, greedy treasure-seekers, magical bowls and enchanted saarangs – drawn from mythology, folklore and lived experiences. Told through finely crafted prose and dramatic illustrations of the landscape, flora and fauna, the stories bring alive a world less known but as real as the turbulence that defines the region today – as fragile as it is beautiful.

The simple yet engaging style of writing has a charm of its own. Proiti Roy’s illustrations are lovely, detailed and appropriate… Educative and thought-provoking, the stories show how closely the fates of people and their animals are intertwined. – Vishesh Unni

Blue And Other Stories

Suniti Namjoshi, internationally acclaimed fabulist and poet, brings both depth and lightness of touch to Blue and Other Stories. Playful and gentle, these timeless stories effortlessly traverse layers of myth to speak to readers of all ages. Nilima Sheikh’s paintings hang in galleries all over the world. Her art embraces myriad influences, from Indian visual traditions to written and oral texts. Here, the sensuous colours and delicate textures match and enhance Suniti’s nuanced writing. Blue and Other Stories is the coming together of two fine minds to create a contemporary classic.

Every story in this book is a benediction; there is a blessing planted deep within the words, and the tales evoke a precious kind of joy every time you read them… this book is a precious addition to a child’s imagination, or, more importantly, it examines the autonomous life of such an imagination. – GoodBooks

The Boy And Dragon Stories And Other Tales

A dragon has to be punished by a boy. But neither knows how to go about it, and they become friends instead. Together they chase whirlwinds, combat giants in cyberspace, listen to the stories of pebbles by the sea… Sweeping through spans of fantasy, reality and time, the author of the popular Aditi Adventures gives us a set of stories that once again takes children on a ride through magic realism. And with confused dragons, cricket playing giants, mirror books and little girls who don’t see why they should cry, they once again say as much between the lines as through the light, lively text. Dramatic yet contemplative illustrations evoke the intriguing mix of strength-gentleness that pervades the stories.

This slim, almost gentle looking book is packed with little and big thoughts that set you – thinking ! A Boy and A Dragon and you may immediately think cliched couple, what’s new and what now.. but this is Suniti Namjoshi and she urges you to think things like what is the worth of crying and how similar are we to pebbles ? Bah ! What is all this fantasy you may ask but I think the power lies in fantabulous fantasy of this kind. Every 2 -3 page story made dreamy and whimsical by Krishna Bala Shenoi has a teachable thought. I loved this little book, I am imagining myself reading one story at a time to a whole bunch of YESNO boys and girls, discussing BADHATS and talking trees and allowing a book like this to be a MIRRORBOOK. – Bookworm Trust

Sorry, Best Friend!

Concerned by the divisive forces of communalism, and its influence on children, the Centre for Science, Culture and Education conducted a workshop to examine ways of dealing with the situation. This collection of short stories focusing on communal harmony is an offshoot of this workshop. It is the first in a series on affirmative themes. Contributors: Zai Whitaker, Poile Sengupta, Shama Futehally, Githa Hariharan, Savithri Narayanan, Swapna Dutta, Hemangini Ranade and Sawan Dutta.

“This is a book to be welcomed for its relevance to the world of today, directness, simplicity and, most of all, its effort to hold us to what nature intended us to be – thinking, caring human beings whose ego is best kept within bounds. These stories are mirrors in which our children view us, often in shock and disbelief, but in which we do not stop to look any more. It is high time we did and recognised that regardless of name, species and gods, ‘each one of us has a place in this strange, funny world of ours.’ … Children will readily relate to the contents. Adults please take a look too.” – The Pioneer, 1997

Water Stories

Well-known writers draw upon the oral traditions of Ivory Coast, China, India, Greece, Australia, North America, Spain, Nigeria, Botswana and places beyond names to reflect upon an intrinsic connection, while the pictures are inspired by the rich, visual representations of water across cultures.

Together with interesting facts and a timeline from earliest times, this book makes a creative plea to readers of all ages to treat water, and, by extension, all life, with respect. Contributors: Amruta Patil, Deepa Balsavar, Mariam Karim-Ahlawat, Niveditha Subramaniam, Radhika Chadha, Sandhya Rao, Sowmya Rajendran, Suniti Namjoshi, Zai Whitaker.

Each of the nine storytellers represented here has a very distinctive voice but the one thing they all have in common is that they grip the reader right from the first sentence. And among the stories themselves, there’s something for everyone: magic, retribution, monsters, dragons, giants, deities, misunderstandings, humor, pride… Helping to bring the stories together as a collection are Nirupama Sekhar’s colourful illustrations. Her style shifts to allow each story some individuality but certain motifs are carried through the whole book… All in all, this is an excellent anthology that is likely to become a firm favourite in homes and schools alike. – PaperTigers.Org

Aditi Adventures – The One-Eyed Monkey

An enchanting modern fairytale involving an unlikely foursome. A monkey sets out to explore the world, joined by a curious ant and an elephant trying hard to be aggressive. They come across a princess with a mission and rally around to help her. Armed with a cloak of invisibility, a sword of courage and a ball of magic clay, the friends journey to the den of a fierce dragon who must be tamed. Poor dragon! UK-based feminist writer Suniti Namjoshi has published several books and collections of poetry. There is fun and adventure in this ‘fairytale’, which stands adventure on its head as it twists and turns its humorous way.

Aditi Adventures – The Thames Dragon

There’s an urgent call for help from London, and Aditi
and her friends — the One-eyed monkey, Elephant and
Ant — fly off on the back of their new friend, the Dragon.
There they discover that the River Thames is being slowly
poisoned… and the River Dragon who lives in it is dying.
Something has to be done quickly. And what they do
lands them on primetime television news!

Aditi Adventures – The Marine Sage

Aditi and her friends are on a mission for the Island
Sage. So they fly on dragon-back to her sister who lives
deep down under the sea off Australia, on the Great
Barrier Reef. But the Elephant has a mission of her own
— to find her name that was swallowed by a fish.
Action enters new-age with a Thought Submarine and a
laser beam show by the dragons!

Aditi Adventures – The Techno Sage

Goldie the dragon is missing! Following a clue, Aditi and
her friends fly to Italy on Opal, their other dragon
friend. The search leads to encounters with the Sybil of
Cumae who knows everything, a magic mirror that can
trap, and the tantrum-throwing, lava-spewing,
earthquake-causing Vesuvian Giant.

Aditi Adventures – Meeting Grendel

Looking for a Deep Rose that may make Aditi’s grandmother
feel better, the adventurers go to the coast of Devon in
England. There they meet the little boy Grendel who lives
under the sea, prowls around at night scaring others, can’t
remember anything and doesn’t care about it.
Re-casting ‘monster’ characters from the Beowulf story, the
author wonders if what we see depends on how we see it.

Aditi Adventures – The Vesuvian Giant

An official visit to Prague takes a strange turn. The naughty granddaughter of Princess Libusha casts a spell on Monkeyji, and the only one who can help is Shemeek – the snow white horse who sleeps behind a rock at Wysherad, dreaming of the world. But to reach Shemeek, Aditi and her friends must first deal with rude Sir Sparrow, and get past Old Fiery Blue, the good-hearted dragon intent on a good fight. A popular legend is woven into this unusual adventure in the Czech Republic. There is action and drama, but by the end of it there are also questions: Who finally wins? And can a problem be a solution? With her usual light touch, the author subtly infuses the ordinary and everyday with new depth in the eighth book in the series.

Aditi Adventures – The Budapest Changeling

Siril the Ant finds himself bobbing on the River Danube
in Budapest, Hungary. He has been brought there by a
strange little creature who keeps changing form and
wants to help him become great.
As the adventurers try to discover who this changeling
really is, Beautiful is captured underwater by an Old
Woman Who Lives in a Shoe.

Aditi Adventures – Finding Shemeek

On a visit to Prague, the naughty granddaughter of
Princess Libusha casts a spell on Monkeyji. And the
only one who can help is Shemeek, the sleeping
white horse of Wysherad. But to reach him Aditi and
her gang must first deal with a rude sparrow and a
dragon who wants to fight. A popular Czech legend
is woven into this unusual adventure.

Aditi Adventures – The City Of Lions

    Gardy isn’t sure if he is the lost lion cub prince who will save the ‘City of Lions’, Singapore. But he rushes there with his friends, all the same. They find that the city is indeed under threat — from its very own haughty, crotchety, bickering guardians, Sir Leon and the Old Woman under the Sea.

    Aditi Adventures – The Word Eater

    Danger! That’s what the digital butterflies seem to spell out. There is a little boy, Otto, who has been snatching up words and making them disappear.
    Armed with Siril and Gardy’s own word-hoards and Monkeyji’s mind power, the adventurers go to Hong Kong — the city of dragons — to stop Otto and his platoon of crows from destroying the city.

    Aditi Adventures – The Spaceflower

    A space adventure! One of Jupiter’s moons is going off orbit and calls out to Siril. So, with some help from the scientific genius of the Techno Sage, Aditi
    and friends build a spaceship, fix on anti-gravity pads, and zoom off to see what they can do to correct its path. A gripping sci-fi fantasy with some unusual insights.

    Aditi Adventures – The Cyberspace Runaway

    Holiday plans for the adventurers go off track when a runaway computer programme, the naughty Mistress i, decides to hide with them. Hot on her
    heels is the scientist who created her, who threatens to put them in jail for kidnapping. And in the middle of all the commotion, Beautiful the Elephant is determined to become rational and logical.