Written by Shaoni Dasgupta, Assistant Editor at StoryWeaver

 

We are thrilled and proud to reach 20,000 storybooks on the StoryWeaver platform! When StoryWeaver was launched in September 2015 with 800 storybooks in 24 languages, we couldn't have predicted the tremendous reception the platform has received over the last five years - not just in India, but around the world.

Illustration by Sandhya Prabhat, for Today I Am written by Varsha Seshan, published by Pratham Books

We are extremely thankful to our amazing community, for helping us get to where we are today. It is your unwavering faith in our motto, and your help with strengthening our foundation through your stories and translations that has helped us achieve this milestone. Without your support and goodwill, we wouldn't be where we are! We are so excited to do what we do because of you and our brilliant pool of publisher and translator partners. Here's a shoutout to all of you for being amazing! You have joined hands to hold the base of the platform to make it what it is, and we couldn't be more thankful. 

Today, with 20,000 storybooks in 235 languages, StoryWeaver is truly a global repository of multilingual content. More than 1.5 billion children around the world are at home due to school closures, in an effort to control the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s a difficult time for everyone and the need for reading materials for children that can be accessed at home, is more urgent than ever. During this difficult time we hope you can Read At Home with StoryWeaver and continue to partner with us to bring joyful content to children the world over. 

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September 30th is celebrated around the world as International Translation Day. We're very fortunate that some of our wonderful translators and language reviewers shared their thoughts on translation and children's books with us on this occasion.

 

 With 19 years of experience in journalism Shashi Sampalli is indeed our star translator. This father of an 8 year old girl includes literature, the environment and agriculture are his interests. In this piece of writing he speaks on how to balance “maturity and innocence” while writing for children.  

ಅನುವಾದ ಎಂಬುದು ಕೂಡ ಒಂದು ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ ಕ್ರಿಯೆ. ಅದರಲ್ಲೂ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯವನ್ನು ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವಾಗ ನಾವು ಸ್ವತಃ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗಿನ ಮಗುವನ್ನು ಮುನ್ನೆಲೆಗೆ ತಂದುಕೊಂಡೆ ಅನುವಾದವನ್ನು ಆ ಮಗುವಿನ ಮೂಲಕವೇ ಆಗಿಸಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಎಲ್ಲ ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಕಕ್ಕೂ ಒಂದು ಹಂತದ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆ ಅಗತ್ಯ. ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ವಿಷಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮುಗ್ಧತೆ ಮತ್ತು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆ ಉತ್ತಮ.

ಸ್ವತಃ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ರಚಿಸುವಾಗ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯ ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಇದ್ದರೂ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಅಥವಾ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಅನುಕೂಲವಾಗಬಹುದು. ಆದರೆ, ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಅನುವಾದ ಅಷ್ಟು ಸರಳವಲ್ಲ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಆ ಅರ್ಥದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದೊಂದು ತಂತಿ ಮೇಲಿನ ನಡಿಗೆ. ಎರಡೂ ಕಡೆಯ ಸಮತೋಲನ ಇಲ್ಲದೆ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಜಾರುವುದು ಖಂಡಿತ.

ಭಾಷೆ, ಅರಿವಿನ ವಿಷಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಅನ್ಯ ಭಾಷೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೊಸ ವಿಷಯವನ್ನು ಅರ್ಥಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಆ ಅನುವಾದ ಉದ್ದೇಶಿತ ವಯೋಮಾನದ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಎಟುಕುವಂತೆ ಭಾಷೆ ಬಳಸುವ, ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಮನೋಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ ಅನುಗುಣವಾಗಿ ಸುಲಲಿತ ಮಾತುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತಲುಪಿಸುವ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು.

ಈ ಸಮನ್ವಯತೆ ಸಾಧಿಸುವುದು ಸರಳವಲ್ಲ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗೆ ಒಬ್ಬ ತಿಳಿವು, ಅರಿವಿನ ವಯಸ್ಕನೂ ಇರಬೇಕು, ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯ ಮಗುವೂ ಇರಬೇಕು.

ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವ ಮುನ್ನ ನಮ್ಮ ಎದುರಿನ ಕಥೆ ಅಥವಾ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗೆ ಇಳಿಯಬೇಕು. ಅನ್ಯ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಅದನ್ನು ಓದಿ, ಒಂದಿಷ್ಟು ಕಾಲ ಒಳಗಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡು ನನ್ನ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಮಾತುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮರು ಕಟ್ಟಬೇಕು. ಅದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಮಾತುಗಳಿಗೆ ಕಿವಿಯಾಗಬೇಕು. ನಂತರ ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವಾಗ ಕೂಡ ಬಳಸುವ ಪ್ರತಿ ಪದವನ್ನೂ ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಉಚ್ಛರಿಸಿ, ಅದು ಮಗುವಿನ ಮಾತಿನಂತೆ ಕೇಳುತ್ತದೆಯೇ? ಪದ ಬಳಕೆ ಮಗುವಿನದ್ದೇ ಆಗಿದೆಯೇ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ನಿಖರಗೊಳಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಲೇ ಮುಂದುವರಿಯಬೇಕು.

ನನಗಂತೂ ಒಬ್ಬ ಕವಿಯಾಗಿ ನನ್ನೊಳಗಿನ ಮಗುವಿನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಮಾತಾಡುವುದು  ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಒದಗಿಬರುತ್ತದೆ. ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಎಂಟು ವರ್ಷದ ಮಗಳಿಗೂ ಕಥೆ ಓದಿ ಹೇಳಿ ಅವಳ ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ ಮೇಲೆ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ ಮಾಡುವ ಅವಕಾಶ ಕೂಡ ಇದೆ.

ಹಾಗಾಗಿ, ಬಿಯಾಂಡ್ ಸೈಟಿಂಗ್ಸ್, ಬೆಸ್ಟ್ ಫೂಟ್ ಫಾರ್ವರ್ಡ್, .. ಚೀನಾಟೌನ್ ಮುಂತಾದ ಕಥೆಗಳು ನನ್ನ ನಿರೀಕ್ಷೆಗೂ ಮೀರಿ ಉತ್ತಮವಾಗಿ ಮೂಡಿಬಂದವು ಮತ್ತು ನನಗೇ ಅಚ್ಚರಿ ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸಿದವು.

ಮುಖ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಅನುವಾದ ಕ್ರಿಯೆಯನ್ನು ಆವು ಮೋಜಿನ ಆಟದಂತೆ ಆನಂದಿಸಬೇಕು.

ಇವು ನನ್ನದೇ ಅನುಭವದ ಮಾತುಗಳು.

- ಶಶಿ ಸಂಪಳ್ಳಿ

 

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Here’s a post by Purvi Shah, Senior Director — StoryWeaver, to mark our 7th anniversary.

The right to read. To learn. To discover… It’s what every child deserves.

Take 9 year-old Snehal, for instance. Born with impaired speech and hearing, she often struggled in school. There’s no measure of how deeply her learning journey was affected by her impediment. But a child is a child, and from the moment she first opened “Maaloo aani Kaaloo” (Maaloo and Kaaloo), a storybook from StoryWeaver’s Foundational Literacy Program, she was captivated by the new world among its pages.

Snehal Sampath, Grade 3, Kishtapur Aheri, Gadchiroli, Maharashtra

Snehal couldn’t read the book, at least not at first. But she could see the beautiful illustrations, and as she traced them with her fingers, as she turned pages to see how the story unfolded, she began to smile. Her teacher tells us that she used to copy the stories from these books to her notebook, and would retell them in her own words. Her parents were thrilled to see her express herself through the written word.

From curiosity, to reading, to writing – these are the journeys we celebrate today, on International Literacy Day. It’s been seven years since Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver took life online to help children like Snehal along their reading journey. And to celebrate our anniversary, we’re celebrating the right to read, in its many shapes and forms.

Pratham Books is the not-for-profit publisher of children’s books that aims to put a book in every child’s hand. Early Literacy is at the heart of our work. We know the power of reading to feed curiosity, shape imagination, and equip children with tools for social and emotional learning. The joy of reading is an extraordinary motivation for children to transition from ‘Learning to Read’ to ‘Reading to Learn.’ And we work to achieve this through a combination of methods.

Our storybooks are contextual, so that the child can relate to them. They are visually rich, to be attractive for the child. And finally, they are in the child’s mother tongue, so as to be as accessible as possible. Through our award-winning open source digital platform, StoryWeaver, we make thousands of such stories available easily to parents, teachers, and children in over 300 languages, all for free. 

 

#RightToRead through the pandemic and beyond

2020 was a year like no other. All over the world, the shadow of COVID-19 loomed large. School closures put an abrupt end to the planned learning journey for months to come. In the state of Maharashtra alone, 5.3 million* students of government schools were bereft of their regular learning environment. Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver, the Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research & Training (MSCERT), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), and UNICEF came together to tackle this problem head on. StoryWeaver helped create the  Goshticha Shaniwar Reading Program (Saturday of Stories). 

Every Saturday, teachers, parents and volunteers would receive and disseminate the all-digital ‘package’ of storybook, posters, and activities via WhatsApp. The Program shone a light on the role remote learning can play in a student's life. As more and more children return to school, it falls upon us  to continue this momentum and keep building their reading habit by providing regular online and offline access to interesting, relevant storybooks in mother tongue languages. 

 

#RightToRead in your mother tongue

Language supports cognitive processes required for learning. They are intrinsically linked to culture and central to the identity of communities. It is said that children should be taught in their mother tongue for at least 6 years. According to Unesco, 40% of the global population cannot access education in a language they understand. StoryWeaver has been relentlessly  working on the right for children to read in their mother tongue for the last 7 years. Through partnerships and language champions we have made available storybooks in over 300 of the world’s languages, 70% of which are underserved.

 

#RightToRead so that children can ‘Read To Learn’

 A 2021 study conducted by Azim Premji University in 1137 public schools in 5 states of India found that the learning losses due to school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an average of 92% of the children losing at least one specific language ability from the previous year across all classes. At Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver we took this time to pause, reflect and build a suite of programs that would help teachers and parents bridge this gap - leveraging the power of stories. 

Our Early Childhood Program supported early readers. The Reading Program guided children from Grades 1 to 8. The Foundational Literacy Program (FLP) built foundational reading skills. The STEM Literacy Program, to be launched soon, helps inculcate a STEM mindset. Each of these programs is linked to curriculum, learning outcomes and  scaffolded with activities, worksheets, A/V resources and training videos - thereby making it easier for any teacher, anywhere to adopt the program.

At Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver, we believe that every child has the right to read. And we’re drawing upon the best of technology and open licensing to make sure that children can have uninterrupted access to the books they so richly deserve to read and enjoy. Not just today, but every day.

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