It’s that time of the year again, for One Day, One Story – Pratham Books’ annual storytelling campaign celebrating International Literacy Day on September 8th. Last year, we had over 6700+ Reading Champions conducting 5500+ sessions, reaching out to 40,000+ children all across India with the stories of Gappu and Nila. And this year, we hope to make it extra special!

Why One Day, One Story?
To help children discover the joy of stories, and fall in love with reading. On September 8th every year, Pratham Books Champions all over India use two books to conduct reading sessions for children in their communities.

What’s the story?
Typically, One Day, One Story is a volunteer-led on-ground event where Reading Champions conduct storytelling sessions with groups of children all over India and the world. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this year is a little different, since children everywhere are still at home and on-ground storytelling sessions or book dispatches won’t be possible. So we’re taking One Day, One Story online, where we invite you to conduct virtual storytelling sessions and readalouds over the internet, to continue to spread the joy of reading far and wide!

The storybooks for One Day, One Story this year were chosen keeping in mind that children have been at home for many months now and could use a little bit of humour along with some insight on managing their emotions through these uncertain times. The two books for ODOS 2020 are Angry Akku, a Level 2 book written and illustrated by Vinayak Varma for younger kids, and The Girl Who Could Not Stop Laughing, a Level 3 book written by Meera Ganapathy and illustrated by ROSH for older kids. 

How does this work?
You could conduct a storytelling session online – through Zoom or Whatsapp with a group of children, or on Facebook or Instagram Live.

OR you could record your storytelling of either (or both!) of the books on your mobile phone and share it on social media with the hashtag #OneDayOneStory2020 and then tag a friend to do a reading of the books! (Don’t forget to tag us too!) Check out some basic tips on how to record yourself telling the story.

Whichever storybook or platform you choose, we would love for you to use it in creative ways – read, narrate, enact… so that it’s fun for children to watch and listen to.

Sounds interesting? Mark your calendar for September 8, and join thousands of other Champions sharing their love for reading with the children who need it the most!

Note: If you have any queries, please mail [email protected] before you fill in the form.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. This is the first time I am conducting an event. How should I prepare for it?
Read the book a few times. If you are reading to a younger age group, see how you can tell the story without actually reading from the book (to retain their attention). Think of activities to engage the children after the storytelling. Alternatively, read a few more stories around the same theme.

2. Can I conduct multiple storytelling sessions online?
Oh, yes, you can! The aim is to reach as many kids as possible. You can do more than one session on more than one day, on or after September 8th.

3. Will I be receiving physical copies of the books?
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing logistical difficulties, we will not be dispatching physical copies of the books and banners for One Day, One Story this year. But once you sign up, we’ll be happy to share e-copies of the books in multiple languages. You could read the story aloud from a digital device, like an iPad or a mobile phone, or you could print out the book and hold it up while you read.

4. Should I document the event?
Yes please! You can send us the storytelling video you make, a write-up and tag us on social media when you share your video – just share with us the “real impact” you’ve helped make.

5. I really want to conduct a session but I am not free on September 8? What should I do?
The aim of One Day, One Story is to spread the joy of stories. In case you are unable to, you can still conduct it on a day close to the chosen date. Because children getting to listen to a fun story is much more important than a date, right? This year, we are running One Day, One Story all through September 2020.

6. How do I do a virtual storytelling session?
Once you sign up for One Day, One Story, check out these tips on how to take a video of yourself reading out the story using a mobile phone. If you are conducting a live storytelling session with a group of children on Zoom, Whatsapp or Instagram/Facebook Live, you would need to keep in mind all the things you would normally do when doing a storytelling session in-person – the only difference this year is that it’s online!

Check out some online readaloud videos that others have done with our stories over the past few months here!

Sounds like something you would like to do?
Hop on board! Individuals sign up here and organisations can sign up here.

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Illustrations by Vinayak Varma and ROSH

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Every year, StoryWeaver marks International Mother Language Day (IMLD) to remind us all that learning to read in one’s mother tongue early in school makes education more engaging, meaningful and enjoyable for children. 

Suzanne Singh, Chairperson, Pratham Books, says: ​“Children love stories and they are an ​important​ ​part​ ​of​ ​a​ ​child’s growth​ ​and​ ​development. Children need storybooks that they can relate to and that are in languages that they speak and understand. Through StoryWeaver,  we are trying to address the inequity in the availability of reading resources by providing open and free access to over 18,000 storybooks in 224 languages and fostering the respect for cultural and linguistic diversity.” 

International Mother Language Day 2022

In 2020, we're ringing in International Mother Language Day by helping volunteers conduct more than 1000 reading sessions for children in over 60 languages! This week, volunteers from around the world are using StoryWeaver’s digital repository of multilingual storybooks to read to children in several languages, including mainstream Indian languages (Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu), indigenous languages (Kuvi, Pawari, Santali), vulnerable languages (Gondi, Korku), classical languages (Sanskrit) and other languages from around the world (Arabic, Igbo, Nepali). 

30,000 schools in the state of Chhattisgarh, India (of which 15,000 are in tribal areas) have been encouraged to celebrate International Mother Language Day with StoryWeaver by giving children access to books and storytelling in indigenous languages like Gondi, Kurukh, Sadri and many more. Says Dr. M. Sudhish, Samagra Shiksha Chhattisgarh: “On January 26, the Honorable Chief Minister of Chattisgarh announced the use of mother tongue languages while teaching in classrooms. When we heard about StoryWeaver’s IMLD initiative, we felt that this was a great opportunity to take the Chief Minister’s mandate forward and bring mother tongue storytelling into the classroom.”

Additionally, we're also thrilled to announce the launch of open digital libraries in 16 underserved languages, marking the culmination of our Freedom to Read 2020 campaign, which aimed to create digital books in languages that have limited or no children’s books. Through our campaign, over 500 storybooks have been translated into languages such as Amharic (Ethiopia), Basa Jawa (Indonesia), Bodo, Tangkhul (vulnerable languages from North-East India), Kolami (vulnerable indigenous language from Maharashtra), Kochila Tharu and Rana Tharu (spoken in Nepal), Sindhi, and bilingual books in English-Surjapuri, to name a few.

International Mother Language Day 2022 | Theme

"Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities" is the focus of the 2022 International Mother Language Day, which highlights the potential of technology to enhance multilingual education and encourage the development of high-quality teaching and learning for all.

Some of the biggest problems in education today may be solved by technology. If it is governed by the fundamental concepts of inclusion and equality, efforts to ensure fair and inclusive lifetime opportunities to learn for everyone can be expedited. A crucial part of inclusion in education is mother tongue-based multilingual education.

Many nations used technology-based solutions during the COVID-19 school shut down to ensure that learning continued. However, a lot of students lacked the tools, internet access, resources, content, and human support they would have needed to pursue remote learning. Furthermore, the diversity of languages is not always reflected in the tools, programmes, and content of distant learning and teaching.

International Mother Language Day At StoryWeaver

These libraries have been co-created in collaboration with our partner organisations:

• Aripana Foundation
• Azad India Foundation
• Karunodaya Foundation
• Pragyam Foundation
• Ras Abebe Aregay Library
• Nepal Rana Tharu Samaj 
• Institute for Multilingual Education (IMLi)

And our Language Champions:

• Amina Bouiali 
• Bharti Menghani 
• Dron Sahu
• Kaleab Getachew
• Marzieh Nezakat
• Minket Lepcha
• Nazanin Karimimakhsous
• Sanjib Chaudhary
• Themreichon Leisan
• Theresia Alit

A huge shout-out to our Freedom to Read partner organisations, Language Champions, and IMLD reading volunteers! Your efforts will go a long way in helping put a book in every child's hand. THANK YOU! 

Stay tuned for more stories from the IMLD reading sessions and our Freedom to Read partners!

In the meanwhile, here are some happy moments  from our ongoing International Mother Language Day celebrations:

From a reading session in English-Surjapuri conducted by Azad India Foundation in Kishanganj, Bihar

From a reading session in Arabic conducted at the Qatar National Library

From a reading session in Kolami, conducted at DIET Yavatmal to mark the launch of an open digital library of 100 Kolami storybooks, created by Institute for Multilingual Education (IMLi) and StoryWeaver

From a reading session in Maithili conducted by Aripana Foundation at Gyan Niketan Public School, Darbhanga, Bihar

From a reading session in Amharic, by Ras Abebe Aregay Library in Ethiopia

From a reading session in Karbi, conducted by Pragyam Foundation at Parijat Academy, Guwahati, Assam

From a reading session in Marwari conducted by SNS Foundation, Rajasthan

From a Nepali reading session conducted by Nepali Rana Tharu Samaj

From a reading session conducted in Mayurbhanj, Odisha

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Do join the conversation by leaving your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also reach out to us through our social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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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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