It’s FINALLY here! The moment you’ve been waiting for… drumroll please… the results of the Pratham Books Retell, Remix and Rejoice content 2016, Children’s Category.

Before we get to the fun bit, a sincere apology for the delay in announcing the results. But with so many amazing entries in two categories (children and adult), we wanted to make sure our internal and external judges had enough time to do full justice to each and every story written.

This year we received a whopping 119 entries. 30 of those entries were by children and we were pleased to see 4 Hindi stories entered by these budding authors! You can see all the entries in the Children's Category here.

CONGRATULATIONS to…

Shristuti Srirapu for 'Night Trouble' and Aviral Sood for ‘An Escapade’!

That’s right, we have two winners! Shristuti and Aviral will each receive a printed copy of their winning story and a hamper of Pratham Books’ latest titles. Read on to find out who our judges were and what they had to say about the winning entries.

Arefa Tehsin spent her childhood treading the Aravali jungles with her naturalist father. As a child, she was often found trying to catch a snake or spin a yarn. She grew up to be a traveller, storyteller and was appointed the Hon. Wildlife Warden of Udaipur for a term. She is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books including The Elephant Bird. Her latest book is Wild in the Backyard published by Penguin. She writes columns and articles for various national dailies and magazines like The Hindu, Outlook Money, Deccan Herald, TerraGreen etc. A dreamer and rationalist, she is a serial traveller who wants to go on an endless journey starting with planet earth.

BAM! Books is an Instagram-led project which talks about children's and Young Adult books, curated by Bangalore-based writers Bijal Vachharajani and Maegan Dobson Sippy. Focusing largely on books with a South Asian context, BAM! aims to help parents, educators and young readers find books they can meaningfully connect to. Find out more at: https://www.instagram.com/BAM_Books/

What the judges had to say

BAM!Books

On ‘Night Trouble’ A wonderful story about animal behaviour and the illustrations work wonderfully with the text. The idea of the dog asking advice from other animals on how to sleep is also sweet, and well-executed.  We also loved the effective rhyming refrain which gives a rhythm to the dialogue.

On ‘An Escapade’ An imaginative and original interpretation of the images, which nonetheless manages to make good sense of the art. The repetition of 'or so his mother would have said' gives a good rhythm to the story, as well as giving credibility to the direction which the story took in the end!

Arefa Tehsin

On ‘Night Trouble’ Night Trouble has a lovely humourous angle to it, especially coming from a 9-year-old!

On ‘An Escapade’

An interesting tale of a pup running away from home in search of better lands. What for? Due to his nagging mum, obviously. Good story, dialogues, similes and a connect with most of the illustrations.

A big thank you to our amazing judges for taking the time to read each entry and share their feedback and marking. Also, thanks to everyone who took part in the contest, your stories are now on StoryWeaver for you to share with friends and family!

You can read the results for the Adult's Category here.

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The results of the Pratham Books Retell, Remix and Rejoice contest 2016, Adult's Category are here! We know you've been waiting for the results for a really long time now and we're so, so sorry for the delay!  

Now, on to the results. This year we received a whopping 119 entries. 83 of those entries were in the Adult's Category (16 years and above) and we were pleased to see 2 Tamil stories and 2 Marathi Stories in the mix! You can see all the entries to the contest, including the Adult Category here.

CONGRATULATIONS to…

'Mr. Moon's New Friends' by Vibha Lohani and 'The Little Pup's Dream' by Rohini Lochan.

That’s right, we have two winners! Each will receive a printed copy of their winning story and a hamper of Pratham Books’ latest titles. Read on to find out who our judges were and what they had to say about the winning stories.

Arefa Tehsin spent her childhood treading the Aravali jungles with her naturalist father. As a child, she was often found trying to catch a snake or spin a yarn. She grew up to be a traveller, storyteller and was appointed the Hon. Wildlife Warden of Udaipur for a term. She is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books including The Elephant Bird. Her latest book is Wild in the Backyard published by Penguin. She writes columns and articles for various national dailies and magazines like The Hindu, Outlook Money, Deccan Herald, TerraGreen etc. A dreamer and rationalist, she is a serial traveller who wants to go on an endless journey starting with planet earth.

BAM! Books is an Instagram-led project which talks about children's and Young Adult books, curated by Bangalore-based writers Bijal Vachharajani and Maegan Dobson Sippy. Focusing largely on books with a South Asian context, BAM! aims to help parents, educators and young readers find books they can meaningfully connect to. Find out more at: https://www.instagram.com/BAM_Books/

What the judges had to say

BAM!Books

On Mr. Moon's New Friends: "A good story with strong rhymes in place." 

On The Little Pup's Dream:  "Nice simple couplets bring out the concept and a sweet resolution."

Arefa Tehsin

On Mr. Moon's New Friends: "The illustrations go very well with this poetic story about Jake who introduces the friendless moon to the creatures of the night."  

On The Little Pup's Dreams: "A pup looking for an escaped dream and his friends lending it a little bit of their magic to make it better! To know what the perfect dream is about, you'll have to read this rhythmic story right till the end."

You can find out who won the children's category over here.

A big thank you to our amazing judges for taking the time to read each entry and share their feedback and marking. Also, thanks to everyone who took part in the contest, your stories are now on StoryWeaver to share with friends, family and the entire world!

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1.     What do you usually read? Which language do you prefer to read in?

Like most readers, my preferences change every few years. For the previous five or six years, I am mostly reading poems (and few stories/articles) written at least few hundred years back. It is fascinating! Given a choice, I would ONLY read Tamil books :) Mainly because there is so much to read there and I am quite comfortable reading Tamil. I usually read English books for relaxation or when my work demands it.

2.     Is there a favourite book / author and why is it a favourite?

Favourite book: there are many, don't want to name a single one :)

Favourite authors: J. K. Rowling in fiction, Nammazhvaar, Kambar and Bharathiar (All Tamil) in poetry, Sujatha (Tamil) in Nonfiction.

Reason: when you read just a few paragraphs from any of their work, you will immediately know that they care for their readers. I feel that is an important skill for an author.

3.     You have contributed for us immensely. How has the StoryWeaver journey been?

Amazing. I loved the concept of infinite stories in different languages in a single platform. I am enjoying it!

4.     Could you share one big thing that you take away from this experience?

I guess the biggest thing I learnt from StoryWeaver is that stories and images don't stop within a book.

I mean, when you read a printed picture book, you are focused on it, you complete it, close it and then you pick up the second book. A similar experience is possible with StoryWeaver too; one can read each story separately and enjoy it. But, the fun increases multifold when you look at the "picture repository". Suddenly, you see all those images at your disposal; I can mix two images from two different stories and create a third story. Someone (coming from a different background) may mix those images backwards and create a fourth story. This means you have an unlimited supply of stories, most of them may not even be written!

5.     How does it feel when your story gets published online?

It doesn't create the kind of excitement I get when I see a story published in print. But then, I am not a digital native and I still love print books. So don't take this feedback personally!

6.     You have translated / reviewed a handful of stories for us. Which one has been your favourite and why?

That would be "A Helping Hand" by Payal Dhar, illustrated by Vartika Sharma.

I enjoyed reading this story which talks about friendship and fitting in. It has an implicit message, even some scientific facts, but they don't disturb the story flow, which fills us with positivity.

7.     What is your key driver in taking this up?

Very simple, I like writing, and I keep looking for new ways to write and learn. As I told earlier, StoryWeaver gives me unlimited options to do so.

8.     How else do you think we can join hands in taking bigger steps for children’s literature?

I know there are many kids' books (stories and images) which are in public domain. I feel StoryWeaver can have a crowdsourced project to bring them to its platform.

Also, given the fact that many of your target audiences may only understand their regional language (even their mother tongue) and can't read, you can think of adding the audio capability to story pages. I mean, one volunteer can read the story and hundreds of kids can listen to it, even if they can't read that language.

9.     How has the overall experience with StoryWeaver been?

அருமை! ஒரு வாசகனாகவும் எழுதுகிறவன், மொழிபெயர்க்கிறவனாகவும் StoryWeaverஐ மிகவும் ரசிக்கிறேன்!

Excellent! I love using StoryWeaver as a reader and as a writer/translator!

10. What’s the secret behind your awesome professionalism?

Ah, finally an easy question :)

My teachers (in and out of school) taught me that professionalism is as important as (if not more important than) the talent. I am just trying to follow their advice. If at all I am doing well on this aspect, credits should go to them!

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