We’ve been away all of July, but as always the world of kidlit has been anything but quiet. From over the last few weeks, here are a few excellent reads for you.
On the Parag blog, read Swaha Sahoo’s thorough and insightful analysis of the draft National Policy on Education, also known as the NEP. She discusses some of key shortfalls of the draft, chiefly how it fails to address the idea of reading for pleasure in regional languages. She also writes on the need to promote regional language writing and publishing for children.
Discussions around the value of writing and illustrating sensitively about gender are ever relevant. Have a look at these two pieces: In the Asia Times, Shreya Sehgal takes a look at what Indian children’s lit is doing to ensure greater representation for non-normative gender narratives, and also points to the importance of tackling diversity of other kinds. In The Indian Express, Disha Roy Choudhury’s parenting column contains a roundup of some recent and very pertinent books that address the issue of gender.
Writing for Vogue, Menaka Raman touches upon the idea of what children take away from books. Starting from the gender stereotyping in Enid Blyton to the responses to more contemporary Indian titles, the author makes us think about how what we read shapes our attitudes. The article also features a list of some fun kidlit recommendations!
We close this week’s roundup with a heartfelt piece by Jerry Pinto in The Hindu. Pinto writes with warmth and gentle humour about the joy of owning books as a child. Give this delightful piece a read here.
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