@writing
@writing · 1:29

In Conversation with Shobha Viswanath of Karadi Tales - a Trendsetter in Children's Publishing

article image placeholderKaradi Tales
Karadi, the Storytelling Bear is no stranger to children across India and to many others beyond the country as well. Set up in 1996 by Mr. C. P. Vishwanath and Shubaw Vishmanat, Kara details has played a significant role in changing prevailing attitudes towards children's books in India by time and again

Karadi Tales

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@Shobha
shobha viswanath
@Shobha · 2:15
But I think to write a children's book, especially a picture book, is far more difficult than if you have all the words at your disposal to write a really long story. But if somebody came up to me and asked me that I would like to write for children, and what do you suggest I do? I'll probably tell them first
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@writing
@writing · 0:33

The key to writing a great children's book?

Thank you for that. Shobha. I agree with you. Writing for children is a completely different ball game and I'm sure is way, way harder than you know, writing for adults. So with that said my question to you is this what do you generally look for in a children's book submission? And in your mind, what makes for a great children's book? And what's the key, if at all there is one
@Shobha
shobha viswanath
@Shobha · 4:41
That's a good question, Ramya. Actually, if you go to our website, you will see a page on manuscript submission itself, because for a long time we would get manuscripts which always tended to have some sort of a moral or a lesson or some learning to be had within a story. And even though we would like books to be the teacher of things or of values in life, we've moved away from all these overt good do the right thing kind of stories
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@writing
@writing · 1:02

Stereotyping in children's literature

Thank you so much. That was so helpful because to me as a writer, this was very insightful as to what really matters when it comes to children's writing. And I just want wanted to go back to that point. You mentioned about stereotyping in children's books. So there are these classic children's stories like The Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella that have a smattering of stereotypes in them, the good versus the evil, the wise versus the foolish, the strong versus the weak
@Shobha
shobha viswanath
@Shobha · 3:48
And so therefore we've got a book which is called A Pair of Twins, which is about a girl becoming an elephant rido or a mahouth as opposed to her brother who's expected to be that but ends up being taking to dance for music. We've got a child who is blind in Tukpa for all, where the story is told without the overtone of the poor thing kind of a thing
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@writing
@writing · 0:31

'Dreaming fingers' series - books for visually impaired & differently abled

Thank you Shobha. In the context of being inclusive, I just wanted to bring up the initiative of the Details, Dreaming Fingers, or a special series of tactile picture books for visually impaired and differently abled readers. So could you tell us a bit more about that? And I how that came about
@Shobha
shobha viswanath
@Shobha · 4:59
And we also had the people who put it together. In fact, we worked with a women's organization who helped with the embroidery and the stitching and the cutting. And the final book was something that was absolutely marvelous. And what we discovered was, though we set out to make a book a picture book for the visually impaired, it turned out to be a book that every child could enjoy, not just the child was visually impaired
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@writing
@writing · 0:52

Seeding the love of reading in young minds

Wow. I can only imagine the kind of hard work that goes into the making of these books and the challenges that you face as a publisher when it comes to bringing these books out out. So I do hope that people are listening and that conversations around this happen. So thanks for sharing that with us. So my next question to you is this how can we inspire our children to become lifelong readers? And are there any specific charity books that you would recommend for preschoolers and older children this summer?
@Shobha
shobha viswanath
@Shobha · 4:25
So when a child listens to a story and he or she has a book in front of him and follows the story as the story is being read, there's nothing more powerful and attractive than that. And I think that this is one of our what do you call primary reasons for a child to get into reading? And as far as our books are concerned, all our audio books where we start with I mean, we have introduced books which have songs
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@writing
@writing · 0:28
Thanks for that. Shobha. So my next question to you is on digital publishing. So would you say that digital publishing has greatly influenced the children's publishing market in India? And if so, has it kind of altered the way children's books are written by authors? I would love to know your take on this. Thank you
@Shobha
shobha viswanath
@Shobha · 4:27
And this is the same with, but there are some books that I read on Kindle, and I still want to own a physical copy, so I really don't think it's affected the publishing market too much. I think there's a demand for both and both are here to stay and nothing replacing the other or displacing the other
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@writing
@writing · 0:50

https://www.karaditales.com/

Also, I'd like to let our folks here know that current details are going to be having their own spell cast on the app and you could follow them there for updates on their latest books and events. So please do give them a follow I'm and thank you so much for listening in and have a great rest of your day
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