Mangoes... MmmmmMmmmmMmmm... Alphonso, Hapus, Mundappa....is it raining mangoes where you are? 

Well it sure is at StoryWeaver. We have a wonderful mango-ey tale to share with you, so why don't you sit back with a bowl of your favourite fruit and read on?

'Mangoes for Moidootty' was one of 2015's most read stories on StoryWeaver. Created by Sreedevi Gopakumar, the tale of young Malu, Moidootty and their run-in with the terrible Aamasura was a big hit with our readers. It also happened to be one of the stories chosen for our Weave-a-Story Campaign, where we asked our community to help create 100 translations of a curated list of our stories. 

A few months ago, we received an email from an illustrator named Sahitya Rani. A graduate from NID, Sahitya loved browsing through StoryWeaver and its amazing illustration bank (3000 images from some of the country's finest illustrators) and wanted to contribute to the platform.

"...I was wondering if I could illustrate for someone else's story (honestly, I'm stumped for story ideas of my own). How would it be possible for me to get in touch with any of the writers?" she asked. 

Our digital content manager was wondering how to help Sahitya out, when she remembered 'Mangoes for Moidootty'. Sreedevi originally created the story with illustrations by the super-talented Greystroke from our image bank. We asked Sahitya if she'd like to illustrate something new for Sreedevi's story and connected her with the enthusiastic author.

Sreedevi loved the idea and the news inpsired her to go back to the story and tinker around with it. 

"I'm thrilled to have a second chance at weaving stories around mangoes and Moidootty. Spinning stories on StoryWeaver was fun, but working with and watching an illustrator bring your words to life is an exciting yet humbling experience."

The duo have been busy working on the project all through the summer: tweaking the storyline and experimenting with visual character sketches. And the good news doesn't stop there! Recently, a well known pre-school in Kochi - Sreedevi's home town - reached out to her expressing interest in planning to use 'Mangoes for Moidooty' as a resource for teaching! The school has planned an entire day of fun, hands-on activities for the little ones around the book. Lucky kids!

Here's a sneak peak at the eveolution of Aamasura...

We've been thrilled to watch this collaborative journey and can't be more delighted that a Community Story is growing from strength to strength.  Watch this space and our Social Media handles on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for news about the book!

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At StoryWeaver we're always looking at features we can add to the site that will help our community! 

Searching for the one 

Tags are descriptive keywords you can add to your story to help people find your content. You can now add tags to the stories you create on StoryWeaver. Here's how.

Step 1: Create your amazing story from here.

Step 2: When you're ready to share it with the world, click on Publish.

Step 3: On the story details page you will now find a box for tags. See the screenshot below. 

Step 4: Enter as many tags as you like, separated by commas.

Step 5: Publish your story!

Adding tags to your already published stories

If you'd like to go back and add tags to stories you have published in the past, all you need to do is

Step 1: Log in

Step 2: Go to your Profile.

Step 3: Click on 'My Published Stories' 

Step 4: Click Edit.

Step 5: Once you're in the creator, click on 'Publish' again 

Step 6: Follow the same steps outlined above.

Step 7: Click Publish. 

So, the next time you're creating on StoryWeaver, don't forget to play some tag! It will help others discover and enjoy your creation.

Have a story you've created on StoryWeaver that you'd like us to know about? Share it on Twitter or Facebook and tag us! 

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Amna Singh, Editorial Consultant (Digital), Pratham Books writes about the recent StoryWeaver workshop with students and teachers from the VIDYA Foundation in Mumbai.

It all began a couple of months ago with the Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver workshop in Mumbai. Volunteers from the VIDYA foundation participated in this workshop and fell in love with StoryWeaver and how! They experimented with our user-friendly platform and created books by themselves like 'Am I Alone'  and 'Nanni’s Birthday Gift’ . Teachers also initiated the students of the foundation into the StoryWeaver world which led to the creation of 'Gabbar is Back'. The enthusiastic group of VIDYA teachers decided to share this magic with their VIDYA team peers.

So on a crisp Saturday morning on the greens of the IIT campus, Mumbai a bunch of curious children,  a few equally wide-eyed teachers and StoryWeaver got together. 

40 students from Gyanmandir school and teachers from various other schools in the vicinity gathered together in a classroom to learn all about StoryWeaver: open source, multilingual digital platform of Pratham Books. The enthusiastic teachers of VIDYA foundation took them through all the aspects of StoryWeaver - right from reading to re-levelling. Participants read stories out loud, created funny tales and worked in groups to explore more and then some more. The ever growing number of stories, the rich bank of illustrations and the come-do-it-yourself access and design of StoryWeaver, was all at their fingertips, helping their imagination get wings. 

Would you like a little StoryWeaver magic? If your organisation is interested in conducting a StoryWeaver workshop for educators drop us a line at [email protected] and we'll get back to you.

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