Karnataka - Bangalore   

Booking that special place in young imaginations

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES: Hooked on Books provided a common platform for interaction to children’s book authors, illustrators and librarians, in Bangalore on Friday.

BANGALORE: Coming together on a common platform, authors of children’s books gathered here on Friday to discuss on writing books for the present generation.

Hooked on Books, an interactive gathering of children’s book authors, illustrators and librarians, was facilitated by the Australia India Council (AIC), an initiative of the Australian Government to better the ties between the two countries, and Hippocampus, an organisation striving to inculcate reading in children through its centres in Bangalore and Chennai.

Australian author Michael Panckridge and Children’s Book Council of Australia award-winning illustrator Alison Lester were part of the session focussed on writing for today’s children.

Having authored over 30 children’s books, Mr. Panckridge said that there was no dearth of topics to write for young readers.

“Children have so many distractions, starting with television to videogames. However, books open up a whole world of creative possibilities to them, allowing them to have an emotional connect with the subject. Thus, books sure have their own magical captivity over the minds of young readers.”

“The seductiveness of other media is what pushes us to work hard,” pointed out Gita Wolf, publisher of Tara Books.

Vinayak Varma, a young illustrator and graphic designer, however, chose to differ and said that it was not fair to compare one medium with another.

Calling books a technology that narrates a story, he said that like all things need to evolve, later technologies only built on the base provided by books.

Children’s books sell the highest in India after self-help books, said Umesh Malhotra, co-founder of Hippocampus Children’s Experience Centre.

The discussion drew various queries about the present and future of children’s books which the expert panel tackled well.

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