India has always thrived on stories. From folk tales to urban legends, stories truly bring the country together. What better way is there to celebrate Republic Day than by reading stories from across the country that celebrate its myriad arts and crafts, flora and fauna, people and food! 

 Handmade In India by Olivia Fraser

Olivia Fraser takes us on a handcrafted journey through India, starting from the North, going to the South, East, and finally West – touching upon every corner of the country. The beautiful illustrations to go along with the story only enrich it – depicting everything she describes.

ಮರಗಳ ನಡುವೆ ಒಂದು ವಿಹಾರ (A Walk Among Trees) by Nimret Handa

The story follows the conversation between a king and his son, the prince, as they walk through the orchard. The king tells his son about all the different trees in India, all of which can be found in the royal orchard. Nimret Handa has written this beautifully with minimalistic illustrations, ensuring that the focus stays more on the writing and the information about each tree while still making it appeal to children.

सबसे पहला ‌‌घर (First House) by Nabanitha Deshmukh and Phidi Pulu

Set in Arunachal Pradesh, this folk tale tells the story of how the very first house was built. How the  two friends: Kindru-Lalim and Kincha Lali-Dam got help from the forest to built the house. Along with facts about the tribe they belong to at the end, साबसे पेहला घर is brought to life with vibrant illustrations.

मुमताज़ ने काढ़े अपने सपने (Mumtaz Embroiders Her Dreams)  by Jolly Rohatgi and Ram Soni

Mumtaz is a young girl who has come to Lucknow to further her knowledge of chikankari - the traditional embroidery style there. She meets a child called Munnu and Munnu teaches her how to dream - greatly influencing her embroidery. But Mumtaz also has a pair of cousins who are determined to ruin her work. This story, coupled with the unique illustration style, is definitely something children should read.

स्वातंत्र्याकडे आगेकूच (Marching to Freedom) by Subhadra Sen Gupta and Tapas Guha

Told from a child's point of view, this story is about the Dandi March that Mahatma Gandhi undertook. A young boy at the ashram  finds out about the march and wants to join, only to meet Gandhi at the end of the book. The story itself is filled with beautiful, colourful illustrations that immediately catch the eye.

काका और मुन्नी (Kaka and Munni: A Folktale from Punjab) by Natasha Sharma

Kaka is a crow who wants to eat Munni, the sparrow's, eggs. Munni cleverly asks Kaka to do something first and so Kaka goes on a journey, needing to complete various tasks since nobody he meets wants him to eat Munni's eggs. A true children's and folk story, Kaka and Munni is a delightful read aloud story.

The Cloud Dragon by Nidhi Jha

The illustrations almost entirely in different shades of blue, The Cloud Dragon tells the legend of how Meghalaya was named. It begins with Lord Indra making the cloud dragon and ends with a home in the clouds for the dragon, who brought down rainfall and make rain clouds for Meghalaya and the neighbouring states. 

The Adventures of Philautus the Frog by Kartik Shanker and Maya Ramaswamy

Philautus the Frog wants to see the sea and so goes on an adventure through the Western Ghats in this story, meeting all the creatures beyond his tree. 

What’s Neema Eating Today by Bijal Vachharajani and Priya Kuriyan

What’s Neema Eating Today is a book for food lovers of all ages. Join Neema as she eats her way through the seasons, enjoying all the fresh fruit and vegetables this country has to offer our taste buds.

 

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Communities Rising runs after-school programmes for children attending government primary schools in underserved rural villages in the Villupuram District of Tamil Nadu. The not-for-profit reaches out to over 1,600 students in ten villages in the area, with a focus on English, Tamil, math and computer education. In addition to this, they provide enrichment programmes in art, music and leadership skills. Two years ago, Communities Rising started a new reading programme for students. Betsy McCoy, founder and President of the not-for-profit, asked students “How many of you ever read books for pleasure?”

“Communities Rising was struggling to find affordably-priced, beginner reader books in English and Tamil that the children would enjoy reading,” shares Betsy. 

This is a common problem faced by organisations working in education and literacy at the grassroots level: not enough books, in not enough languages, compounded by poor access and issues of affordability.

Most publishers cater to middle and upper income audiences in urban areas, often to the detriment of creating joyful books for underserved communities of children. StoryWeaver’s relationship with Communities Rising started earlier this year, when they attended a workshop and demonstration in Bangalore.  Via the platform, Betsy and her team have access to a wealth of books in both English and Tamil, which they can download quickly and print to share with children. A choice of titles in a variety of genres, including books on STEM subjects, are available across reading levels to suit the needs of all students. 

Communities Rising has downloaded 100 stories in English and Tamil, and is in the process of printing one set of all titles and distributing the same to each of its centres, thus reaching 360-400 students.

“We especially love the bilingual books printed in both Tamil and English that allow our students to read in both languages on the same page. These books are a tremendous help with comprehension – it’s like getting two books for the price of one!” says Betsy. “Plus, if a particular title is not available in Tamil, we can translate it on the platform and have it ready for the children to enjoy.”

Printing is often expensive and another roadblock so, Communities Rising experimented with a number of formats before narrowing down on one that worked best for them.

“We tried printing the books in two formats. One with single pages hole-punched and attached with rings, and the second with the pages stapled in the center. Durability is an issue so we printed samples on heavy, cardstock,” shares Betsy. The organisation believes that reading makes children learners for life, and encourages reading in a big way in their after-school programme. They have just opened their first community library in an area where there there are no other such spaces.

The organisation is running two other initiatives to great success. One is the ‘Daily 5,’ a reading programme developed by educators in the US; and the other is ‘CR Super Readers,’ a homegrown reading incentive programme. Both programmes are working wonders! Students are first taught how to pick ‘Good Fit Books’ that they can read comfortably. The books are then kept in a book basket which they share with a friend. 

Each day the students have to read to themselves for 5 to 10 minutes. Other days they have to read to their partner. In this way they can help and learn from each other.

Students keep a list of all the books they read and have it checked by a teacher for comprehension. This forms the basis of the ‘Super Reader’ program.

“In addition to the book basket which contains books, we also give the children a ‘reading necklace.’ They get a bead for each book that their teacher certifies they have actually read. After reading 10 books, they get ‘Readers Are Leaders’ pencils, and after 20 books, they get pins that proclaim them ‘CR Super Readers’.”

“I’m happy to say that we are giving out many pencils,” says Betsy, who believes that the necklaces, reading pencils and Super Reader pins help build a sense of community and sense of belonging to Communities Rising, amongst the children.

“At the end of the year, the top readers from each center will travel to Chennai to visit Tara Books for a program there and the top reading center will have a book party!” she says. “All of our students are now reading everyday; story books, non-fiction books, biographies, all kinds of books. They are discovering the joy of reading! Without StoryWeaver, this remarkable change in our students’ reading habits would not have been possible,” shares Betsy.

“Last year, I told some of our kids, that I was looking forward to hearing complaints from their parents that they were spending too much time reading, instead of playing or helping at home. We aren’t quite there yet, but with access to so many stories now, I have no doubt those complaints aren’t far away,” says Betsy.

We look forward to hearing those complaints too!

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Pratham Books' One Day, One Story is back with story reading sessions for children across India! On September 8, Pratham Books Champions all over India will use one book to conduct reading sessions for children in their communities. All sessions are conducted free of cost, and focus on children from under-served communities. You can read more about this event here.

This year, Season 7 of One Day, One Story will feature A Cloud of Trash, written by Karanjeet Kaur, and illustrated by Bhavana Vyas Vipparthi. It’s a story about a little girl called Cheekoo, who has a cloud of trash hanging over her head. This makes her very, very unhappy, and as we follow her story, we learn a little more about trash, and about keeping our surroundings clean.

Last year, 5700+ Champions took the story of Kottavi Raja and his Sleepy Kingdom to thousands of children – conducting 6300+ storytelling sessions in 26 languages, in 25 states and 3 union territories in India. As well as 13 other countries.

We need your help to help children discover the joy of stories, and fall in love with reading. The more languages a story is translated in, the more it will travel to be read and enjoyed by children.

A Cloud of Trash, a reading level 2 story, is already available in English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati, Konkani, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Sanskrit, Punjabi, Telugu, Maithili and also, in Surjapuri and International languages like Portuguese, Basa Sunda, French, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesia, Czech, Italian, Norwegian,and Chinese too. Join in as a Translation Volunteer to translate this story to a new language. Your contribution to add a language version of this story on StoryWeaver will go a long way in multiplying the number of PB Champs' reading sessions and in turn, help reach more and more kids. We have also created a level 1 version of this story for sessions with a younger audience. You can weave a translation of this version too if you like. 

Wouldn’t that be lovely?  

We need all the translations to be on the site before 30th August.

If you have any queries please write to us at [email protected]

Here's a quick and easy video tutorial on how to translate stories on StoryWeaver. Once you've seen it, you can head over to the site to start translating A Cloud of Trash.

P.s: If you're interested in joining us as a PB Champ this year, click here to enrol.

 

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