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Bridging the gap

Four recently-released works dare to experiment with the genre of children's fiction

DIFFICULT ROAD With publishers and distributors sceptical of contemporary children's writers, the journey to the stands is long and hard for most authors

While the works of Amitav Ghosh, Upamanyu Chatterjee and several other contemporary writers have hit the stands long ago, the children's section sure seems to have been slightly less fortunate in this regard. One isn't sure where the blame really lies. It might be the publisher who isn't prepared to experiment much with contemporary writing styles and atypical story lines, the distributor who is disinterested in such assignments or it might purely be due to inadequate marketing of the works of most children's authors. One thing is certain, though: children are missing out on the many flavours of contemporary writing.

Fortunately, however, individual efforts are being made to bring to light the works of some of these writers. Unisun Publications recently launched four children's books — The Lion Who Wanted to Sing, Bunny in Search of a Name, Doogoo the Noisy Elephant and Competition in Africa, at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. "Most of the publishing houses are in Delhi, while the numbers of people who read English and are interested in reading English books are much higher in Bangalore. This is what made me start my own publishing house, apart from the urge to do something more meaningful," said Annie Chandy Mathew, Director, Unisun Publications.

All the stories covered in the four books revolve around animals, with an underlying value system running through all its stories. Of these, Competition In Africa, written by Pilar Palacia of Spain, talks of teamwork and inspired leadership. It talks about individuals with different abilities and the value of true education, all of which have great significance in character building.

"I have always loved children and their imagination appeals to me," said Malavika Kapur, a clinical psychologist and the author of Doogoo the Noisy Elephant and Other Stories, who has several national and international publications to her credit. Commenting on the role that the schools play in moulding a child's reading habits, the writer said: "Schools can play a very crucial role in building reading habits in children. They should not deprive children of the joy of reading Indian literature."

While Annie believes that it is the distribution of these books that is a greater challenge for such writers, Rachna Chhabria — a freelance journalist and the author of The Lion Who Wanted to Sing and Bunny in Search of a Name — and Malavika say that the difficulty begins right from having to find a publisher who is interested in publishing their works. "Apart from the lack of proper advertising, the main problem is that the Indian publishers are very scared of experimenting," says Rachna, adding that despite sustained interest in magic among children, there is a lot of scepticism and disinterest on the part of Indian publishers. This results in a limited range of contemporary story lines for children in the Indian markets. Annie, who was the head of the English Department at Mount Carmel College for several years, will be launching another book on numbers for children in February, followed by a book on colours.

MADHURIMA DUTTAGUPTA

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