Multicultural children’s literature from across the world – stories, poems, folktales and books in English for kids, and stories in Hindi and poems in Hindi too. Original literature in English for kids from around the globe and book reviews and recommended reading lists for children.
432 items in this section. Displaying page 21 of 44
Mr Meant-to
Mr Meant-to has a comrade, And his name is Didn’t-do; Have you ever chanced to meet them? Did they ever call on you? These two fellows live together In the house of Never-win, And I’m told that it is haunted, By the ghost of Might-have-been. Mr Meant-to [Illustration by Anup Singh]
AHA! Books: Arvind Gupta
An individual booklist is found to reflect the compiler’s own interests and biases. To that extent this booklist does not lay claim to any objectivity. It contains some extremely fine books on education, popular science, maths and children’s stories. Over the years, I have been actively involved in translating and popularising many of these books. At times we have been successful in bringing out low-cost, Indian reprints like for instance The UNESCO Source Book for Science in the Primary School, Publisher : National Book Trust, India....
And Elephants did Fly
A Saora folk tale from Orissa retold from ‘When the World was Young’, by Verrier Elwin. The book is a fascinating collection of folktales from the tribal peoples of India. Elwin was a pioneering anthropologist; he spent his entire life getting to know the ways of life of the tribal peoples. There was a time when elephants could fly. The world was young then, and they had wings — four big wings. In fact they were God’s greatest vehicle; he used to ride one of them....
Message in the bottle
I watched the tide From my little house by the seaside I didn’t have to wait long to find what the waves had brought along a bottle with a message in it, it looked like a message, at least I ran to pick up the bottle And took out from it a coiled paper As I smoothened it, And peered deep Message in the bottle [Illustration by Shinod AP] The yellowing paper came apart...
The Shop at the Corner
Butter and bread, Needle and thread; Sweets and candy, Yellow and red. Ice-creams, chocolates, Bells that ring; Music – which you’d Love to sing. Books and biscuits, Dolls and toys; I keep them all, For girls and boys! The Shop at the Corner [Illustration by Anup Singh]
The Beast
Ten-year-old Preeti looked at the computer screen. She had received an email from the editor of the site Natkhat informing her that her story had been accepted for publication. The editor wanted to create Preeti’s home page and had sent her a questionnaire asking her to list out her favourite things. The very first question was – who is your favourite person? “Mr. Rajeev Kumar, my papa,” she typed out on the keyboard without any hesitation....
The Lion's Share
One day an ass and a fox entered into an agreement with the lion that they would assist each other while hunting for food. They felt that their combined efforts would ensure that none of them would have to starve. Of course, both the ass and the fox were a little nervous about accompanying the lion in the hunt. But the thought of the game they would acquire with his help, made them salivate. They put the nervousness down to nerves....
A Cat’s Nightmare
The cat woke up with a beating heart She had just had a terrible nightmare. A little rat had pulled her whiskers and called her ‘Friend Cat!’ A Cat’s Nightmare [Illustration by Shinod AP]
Borrowed Feathers Help
Haka and Phaka, the twin jackals were feeding on some juicy berries. They sat eating their berries with their mouths and paws quite blue with the juice. They were enjoying themselves thoroughly when they saw Mor, the peacock, strutting down the path hurriedly. The poor bird looked terrified! “Hey, what’s up Mor bhai? What’s the hurry?” Haka asked. Borrowed Feathers Help [(Story and illustrations first published in WWF India Quarterly Apr-Jun 1995)] “We peacocks are in great trouble Haka....
Tiger Move
Santhals are a tribe found in rural Orissa and West Bengal. They believe that every individual born on earth comes destined to die by some specific stroke of fate. How the individual dies is determined at birth and this is called Dana or move (like the moves of a chess game). This move determines the kind of death the person would get – at the hands of a tiger, snake, a fall from a tree or just from old age....