Monday, September 07, 2009

My Pratham books and Mindfields!

Five years after writing them, (and taking any mention of them off the back of the second edition of my book), my three books for children are finally out! These Pratham books have been so long in the making because they've been simultaneously translated into several languages, and I'm not sure how easily they'll be available in bookstores, but here's their website.

One book, The Flyaway Cradle, is for children between the ages of three and six. The other two - Cheenu's Gift and Phani's Funny Chappals - for early learners (7-10 year olds; these books are for first time learners and for children who are not used to reading books for fun because they don't have the resources for that kind of reading).

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In other news, I've got my copy of the latest issue of Mindfields as well, to which I've contributed an article on K.

Quite apart from the fact that I've contributed to it, if you have kids or are generally interested in alternative education, consider this a plug for the magazine.

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So it has been that sort of a day. As you can see.

27 comments:

km said...

Congratulations. Someday, the kids will thank you for writing these books.

(Could you tell the powers that be at Pratham that resizing the browser window is a universally-despised web design practice?)

Aishwarya said...

Fantastic news! :)

Rakesh Sharma said...

mubarak!

Rakesh

ps - in goa for IFFI?

Szerelem said...

congrats!!! I wants to read about Phani's Funny Chappals. (I have a relative called Phani - hah!)

Anindita said...

Congratulations! :) The good kind of day, you mean?

Gautam said...

Hola from Pratham Books - we're happy that we could publish them!

@km Whoops. Sorry. The website is due for a rather large overhaul and will fix it soon.

theinsider said...

Space Bar aunty: This is great news. However, I'd be much be more happy when you write a few books for unborn spawns.

amruta patil said...

what-a-relief about mindfields and congratulations about the books, d! *waiting* to see.

Space Bar said...

Thanks all!

km: Dunno about kids in general by mine was pretty happy.

szer/anyone else who wants to order, the website has an order form, but it appears to be a little out of date. Perhaps that will get fixed soon, otherwise, I suppose one can always contact Gautam, yes? (thanks for dropping by, Gautam!)

Toshisan: sure. i'll write a story just for you. :D

amruta: :D It was lovely to get it too!

Anindita: yes, happy sort of day only!

Gautam said...

@Space Bar. Of course! gautam at prathambooks dot org

Drop me an email!

Also, would love to talk Creative Commons with you sometime...

the mad momma said...

a GOOD kind of day :) congratulations!
will pick up the books for the brats

??! said...

Awesomeness.

Also, Space Bar aunty? Hai la. Unkelji must've been snorting away there.

Cheshire Cat said...

Congrats! And which one is most suitable for a grown-up with a nostalgic addiction to children's literature?

JP said...

Congratulations!!!

And of course, I read the article in Mindfields - I have trouble associating real names and online handles, sorry. I liked it a lot, it said a lot more of real pith than the usual gushing sort of thing one reads thereof.

Space Bar said...

Thanks tmm, ??!, cat, jp.

??!: i don't know about unkelji, but i'm waiting for the spawn to come out so i can take revenge. i hate being called aunty.

cat: now how to answer that question?!

jp: don't blame you! thanks (again).

Falstaff said...

Congratulations on the books.

Am I missing something or is your article for mindfields not up on the site yet?

I have to say I'm underwhelmed by what I read online. Apparently I'm going to have "huge amount of psychological problems later in life" because I wore a uniform in school, and I don't know how to make a living because I went to an IIM. Loved the Nathan Lewis piece though - largely, I suspect, because of the Poussin.

Preeti Aghalayam aka kbpm said...

cool. these sound like fun (will get them for me). congratulations!!

Rahul Siddharthan said...

Congrats on the books! Will keep an eye out for them.

Thanks for the mindfields pointer too.

falstaff -- I don't think SB says the mindfields article is online. I took "I've got my copy" to mean "printed copy".

Space Bar said...

falsie: Thanks. I don't think they put up all - or even many - articles on their site. I got my (printed) copy, as did JP, because we subscribe to the magazine. My article draws somewhat on this post, so you could re-read that.

Kenny, Rahul: Thanks! If it's not in bookstores, mail Gautam (id in the comments).

dipali said...

How wonderful- I must get them for my young friends.
They look super:)

SUR NOTES said...

i like this day - you with your new and shiny books, shankar with his shiny award....i'd gloat in reflected glory but i think i need to go get these books.

blackmamba said...

Congrats! And considering I own "Sam I Am" and "Oh The Places You Will Go", I am sure these will be a great addition to my book collection :)

Space Bar said...

dipali, sur, bm: thanks.

sur: i know - but if i do one more post on frozen without having seen it, i think i - i - will have ot do something drastic.

(shanker raman won the national award for best cinematographer, and the film national award for best debut, if anyone wants to know).

bm: what about *where the wild things are*? and will you see the film when it releases?

theinsider said...

??! uncle: Go read about Stephen's theory on Will uncle instead of getting poor Space Bar aunty worked up over what I call her.

amruta patil said...

falstaff: wish you would write for us. we are continually seeking people who can overwhelm.

regards
amruta
co-editor, mindfields

Aditi said...

Gah, this is what happens when you don't check your feed reader in a long time. Sorry for the delayed congratulations. This is totally awesome! Imagine having more than one book published! Wow.

<3 <3 <3

Aditi

(Emoticon legend: <3 = luff)

Choxbox said...

congrats (much delayed).

will look for the books else write to gautam.