The National Geographic's June issue is being widely shared on Social Media, thanks to its attention grabbing cover. 

                                                           

One of the most comprehensive studies on plastic polluttion estimates that 8 million tonnes of plastic went into the ocean in 2010. Oceans that are home to a stunning array of plant and animal life. These books remind us exactly who we share our planet with, and will hopefully help readers young and old think twice before reaching for a one time use plastic, that will mostly likely end up in someone elses home.

Dive! written and illustrated by Rajiv Eipe

Take a dive into the spectacular world of coral reefs, and catch a glimpse of some strange and beautiful sea creatures! Available in 14 languages, free to read, download and share.

Goby's Noisy Best Friend by Sheila Dhir and Anjora Noronha

We could all use a little help from our friends... even when you live in the ocean! Legless Goby and noisy Snap are best friends who live together in a burrow deep under the ocean. What happens when Goby gets tired of Snap’s loud claws?

Miss Bandicota Bengalensis Digs Up the Seashore by Aditi Ghosh and Sunaina Coelho

Miss Bandicota Bengalensis is an avid explorer. Every time she digs in a new direction she lands up in new and wondrous places! This time our unlikely explorer has surfaced near the sea. Enjoy a walk along the beach with her as she befriends a host of strange creatures.

Turtle Story by Karthik Shanker and Maya Ramaswamy

Under cover of darkness, baby olive ridley turtles hatch from sun-warmed eggs on remote beaches. One of them, the little hatchling who is the narrator of our story, is delighted to make it across the beach and into the ocean without losing her way or being captured by predators. This charming life story of an olive ridley turtle introduces readers to several interesting creatures along the way.

You can read, download and share ALL these stories thanks to open licensing. You can also translate them to a language you're fluent in and take the stories to more children in more languages. 

Tell us, what are you reading this week?

 

Be the first to comment.

---

Pratham Books is a not-for-profit children's book publisher that was set up in 2004 to publish good quality, affordable books in many Indian languages. Our mission is to see ‘a book in every child’s hand’ and we have spread the joy of reading to millions of children in India.

In the last 13 years we have published over 3000 books and printed over 14 million copies and 16 million storycards. Last year Pratham Books' increased its footprint by going digital. As an industry leader we were one of the first publishers in the country to open licence our content. All this content in now available in digital formats on StoryWeaver, our digital platform that hosts stories in 59 languages. The stories can be read, translated, versioned or downloaded for free. With both the print and digital initiatives being scaled, Pratham Books is looking for a Junior Graphic Designer. The job involves book design, page layout, and preparing illustrations for page layout, creating promotional posters, catalogues and other creative products, in English and many other languages.

Key Responsibilities

• Working closely with the design and editorial teams to design and layout new children’s books for print and digital formats. ( The illustrations for the books will be provided)

• Adapting the original print design files, and adapting it into sizes and templates that are suitable for StoryWeaver - Pratham Books’ digital story platform. Strong photoshops skills are required for this    

• Pagination, Artwork, Archiving and Documentation

Required skills:

• Designer with an eye towards details and a strong sense of visualization.

• Graphic design skills and an interest in book layouts

• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite (Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) and CorelDraw. Proficient in MS Office and Windows

• Basic understanding of the printing process     

• Minimum of three years of relevant experience

• Ability to work quickly and accurately on design files

• Be a team player, Quick learner

• Good communication skills     

• Capable of working within a team and tight deadlines

• Knowledge of fonts and Unicode fonts will be a plus

Pay: Subject to level of previous experience

Location: Delhi

Interested candidates are requested to send in their resume to [email protected]

Be the first to comment.

---

StoryWeaver is proud of the small role it plays in the preservation of languages. Our collaborations with language organisations, educators and NGOs has helped in creating joyful reading material in languages such as Konkani, Tibetan and Kora and Santali, thus ensuring that they are passed on to the next generation of learners.  The ‘Freedom to Read’ campaign was our effort to make many more stories available in languages that are underserved and underrepresented in the mainstream.

Languages like Jèrriais. Jèrriais is a minority, endangered language, spoken in the island of Jersey, off the coast of France. To pull it out of this status and keep it alive, various schools in Jersey have started teaching Jèrriais and organisations have been made to protect the language by promoting literature, music, and any other sources of the language. Anthony Scott Warren, one of the few teachers of the language, asked us to add Jèrriais to StoryWeaver. 

"In the 1990s it was realised by the States of Jersey government, that the number of Jèrriais speakers was in serious decline and that as there was no longer inter-generational transfer of the language, a programme to teach it needed to be set up.  There were no qualified Jèrriais teachers working in the Education Department, so the States outsourced the programme to Le Don Balleine, a will trust who set up L’Office du Jèrriais to run lessons in primary schools from the start of 1999." shared Anthony.

Jèrriais lessons began in secondary schools in 2001 and were optional and generally outside normal school hours. In some schools,  children could attend Jèrriais instead of assembly. "I was initially the only employee, but later the team expanded to 2.8 equivalent full-time teachers.  We currently are training two new teachers to take over when I and one other teacher retire." says Anthony who is hoping (subject to funding from the States of Jersey) to increase the teaching provision to 4 teachers and to run lessons in grades 4 to 6 (ages 8 – 11) in curriculum time.  "We also plan to increase the provision in secondary schools and to develop an immersion programme in nurseries and Foundation stage."

Anthony plans to use the stories  he is translating on StoryWeaver in his lessons, which are generally for beginners.  "I’ll be making laminated flipbooks to take to the classrooms.  We would ideally like to add the stories to our new LearnJèrriais website which is intended to go live later this year.  We are also planning to have a Story and Rhyme Time feature at the Jersey Library each week, and these stories will fit in very well."

Currently  40 children are learning Jèrriais, but Anthony hopes to increase to at least 200 children per year in the next five years. We look forward to seeing more stories in Jèrriais on StoryWeaver and hearing about the wonderful work Anthony and his colleagues are doing!

Be the first to comment.

---