The Art of Children's Stories - Author Chitwan Mittal & Illustrator Ambika Karandikar in Conversation.
And One Elephant, two Monkeys, a counting book featuring a little boy's adventures with his animal friends. All of these are whimsical, colorful stories tied around the theme of India and are targeted at toddlers and early readers. And it's a pleasure to have Chitwan and Ambika join me as we talk about these books and take a deeper dive into the world of children's literature. Thank you so much for joining in, Chitwan and Ambika. It's great to have you both on swell
I think I'll start off with a question for chitwan. All the three books seek to bring about an awareness of Indian culture and heritage with a quirky modern twist. So there's this animal musical band that's playing a lot of Indian instruments. There are a bunch of animals who go on a shopping spree and get some delightful Indian clothes. And there's also this delightful animal counting book. Could you maybe elaborate on your approach to conceptualizing and writing these books? Balancing simplicity with depth
Chitwan Mittal
@chitwanmittal · 2:48
There are many families now that are living as nuclear families or traveling from city to city for jobs. And I find that parents even in India are looking for books that will help introduce different elements of their culture to their children and in a playful and fun manner. I wanted to create books which would be of international quality, which would not be boring with lot of colorful, fun, humorous text and wacky animals doing fun things
Chitwan Mittal
@chitwanmittal · 2:52
Adi Dev Press is keen to support parents in their efforts to root their children in their culture and mother tongues. At the moment, we are creating books with other authors in Tamil and English and another one in Malayalam in English for 2024. And we are very excited about these new books. In fact, we are also working on a fourth book in this bilingual series, which I will not reveal now is another fun animal quirky adventure. So I hope these books are enjoyed by parents and children alike
Chitwan Mittal
@chitwanmittal · 2:01
One way to teach a child about their culture could be to read a non fiction book about different instruments, dance forms, costumes, food, etc. Of India. Non fiction books too can be engaging and written in a fun manner. But the format chosen here is a fictional story of animals having a bit of fun in these books
And I also remember for the book Animal Band, we did lots of rough sketches of how the sky looks throughout the day and night because the concert in our book starts in the evening and ends the next day morning. So we wanted to show our sky in a very minimal, subtle style. So we did a lot of back and forth there. And all this process gives me a comprehensive understanding of what I am going to illustrate and how my finer illustrations are going to look
Also ambika illustrations, of course, play a critical role in capturing young readers'attention. Your illustrations, in particular, in all the three books, showcase elements of Indian culture very beautifully, in a minimalistic yet visually compelling manner that does not overwhelm young readers. What inspired this style?
And I also feel that when you're looking at any illustration, you're engaging the book in a very different way. So when we read the text from a page, we know that it's time to turn the page. But I think for a children's book, we should add in details which they have not seen or maybe are not mentioned in the text. Then the child can read the book again and again and rediscover small details, because children do pick up on certain things
I think I'll leave you with one final question. Ambika. In fact, even Chitwan can take this question, I guess... The books seek to introduce young readers to Indian clothes, wildlife and musical instruments. How did you manage to infuse the cultural details and nuances in such a way that they are relatable to children from diverse backgrounds and geographies? I would really love to have both of your take on this. Thank you so much
Chitwan Mittal
@chitwanmittal · 1:07
I chose to use animals to tell these stories as I feel that all children anywhere can relate to animals. All the farm animals in the Animal Band book are common animals which children are familiar with. Even the animals you find in one elephant, two monkeys are common animals in Pagri with Singh. While most of the wild animals I have chosen, such as lion, tiger, hippo, a bear, are known to all children everywhere. I chose a few wild animals that are unique to the Indian subcontinent