Pratham Books intern Rahel Rao, puts together some stories guaranteed to make you guffaw and giggle!

One of the most popular sayings in the world is: laughter is the best medicine. With this in mind, we have compiled a list of hilariously told and beautifully illustrated stories that will surely make you smile and brighten up your day!

1. सोना की नाक बड़ी तेज (Sona’s Smart Nose) by Vinita Krishna and Suvidha Mistry

Sona’s strong nose can smell all the amazing flavours of the chuskis (or golas) in her uncle’s shop. But wait! Something also smells bad! Can Sona figure out what it is?

2. ಕಣ್ಣಾಮುಚ್ಚಾಲೆ   (I Spy!) by Samvida Venkatesh and Sandhya Prabhat; translated by Asha Yogendra

Play a game of I Spy! with Sania, on her birthday. Can you and Sania find all eight friends in this beautifully illustrated book, while learning subtraction at the same time?

3. Kallu’s World 3 - Mangu Mali and the Ambia Bhoot by Subhadra Sen Gupta and Tapas Guha

Join Kallu and his friends in his third adventure in the series as they try to get juicy mangoes from Mangu Mali’s haunted tree. It is a colourfully illustrated, hilarious story, sure to bring a smile onto your face.

4. వార్షిక క్షవర దినం (Annual Haircut Day) by Rohini Nilekani and Angie & Upesh; translated by Ambika Ananth

It is the day Sringeri Srinivas gets his annual haircut. But, when he asks people to cut his hair, nobody has the patience. He finally ends up finding help in the most unexpected place.

5. Mr. Anand has an Adventure by Mala Kumar, Manisha Chaudhry, and Satya Krishna Prakash

The adventurous Mr. Anand finds Greeno when going on a walk in the forest. Greeno is crying and, when Mr. Anand agrees to help, their adventure begins.

6. आकऽछी! आऽऽ क् ऽऽछी! (Hatchu! Ha-aaa-tchu!) by Sharada Kolluru and Lavanya Karthik; translated by Sandhya Taksale

Hatchuram’s sneezes are so loud, they disrupt the entire village, from the milkman, to the peacocks, to the earthworms and the mice. How does the village respond to this? Find out in this colourfully illustrated story.

7.   டொக் டொக்! (Tok Tok) by Vidhya Pradhan and Reshma Barve; translated by N. Chokkan

There is a loud noise and it’s keeping the king awake. Join the kingdom as they try to find out what is making the loud noise that keeps their king awake, making him cranky the next day.

8. Tommy and Tingu by Kanchan Bannerjee and Natasha Mehra

Tommy’s owner has a friend called Rohan. Rohan’s cat is called Tingu. In this cute, short story, find out why exactly Tommy is scared of Tingu. This is a perfect book to read-aloud to children.  

9. खोदकर भोवरा पंबरम (Pambaram, the Naughty Top) by Kavitha Punniyamurthi and Ajanta Guhathakurta; translated by Sushrut Kulkarni

When Pambaram the top is spun after years, he begins spinning everywhere, out of excitement. Chase him along with Priya and Bala, trying to catch him and stop him from making a mess everywhere.

10. ಹೀಗಾಗಿದ್ದರೆ? (What if?) by Hari Kumar Nair; translated by Aparna Prasanna

In this story, born out of Shyam’s wild imagination, he thinks about what his life would be like if all his features were different. What would life be like if his legs were as long as building; or his teeth so strong, he could bite into anything! Beautifully illustrated, it is a great book to read aloud.    

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At StoryWeaver, we believe that every child deserves to have joyful reading material in her mother tongue. To make this a reality, we have been building all-digital libraries in underserved languages through the 'Freedom to Read' campaign.  

In November 2019, we opened applications for the 4th edition of  Freedom to Read, inviting organisations and individuals to partner with us to achieve our goal: the co-creation of digital libraries in languages with few or no storybooks by February 21, 2020 - International Mother Language Day. Each of these free-to-use digital libraries will contain at least 50 quality-assured books - creating more storybooks, in more languages, that serve more children all over the world.

We are overwhelmed by the response to Freedom to Read 2020. A BIG thank you to the applicants - we are inspired by your work in the field of literacy and language.

Based on our guidelines, relevance of work, and a rigorous evaluation, we have selected 5 organisations and 18 individual Language Champions to collaborate with us to build and share digital libraries in 20 languages.

Here is the list of partners for Freedom to Read 2020:

Partner Organisations

Target Language	Organisation
Amharic	Ras Abebe Aregay Library
Bodo, Nepali and Karbi	Pragyam Foundation
English-Surjapuri	Azad India Foundation
Fijian	Fijian Language Society
Hindi-Magahi	Karunodaya Foundation

 

Language Champions

Target Language	Language Champion
Amharic	Kaleab Getachew
Arabic	Amina Bouiali
Chhattisgarhi	Rohit Sharma, Er. Vivek Rathore, Charan Das Mahant
Farsi	Marzieh Nezakat
Basa Jawa (Javanese)	Theresia Alit, Sigit Apriyanto
Kochila Tharu	Sanjib Chaudhary
Lepcha	Minket Lepcha
Persian	Nazanin Karimimakhsous
Rana Tharu	Kamal Singh Rana
Setswana	Leelo
Sambal	Leo Fordan
Sambalpuri	Dron Sahu
Sindhi	Bhawana Dhameja P, Bharti Menghani
Tu'un savi	Francisco Amado Cruz Ramírez

 

We shall be getting in touch with the selected partners to discuss the next steps.

We are so grateful to everyone who applied - thank you once again for your participation, interest and support! We shall do our best to reach out to you to explore alternate ways to collaborate.

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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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TinyTales is a performing arts initiative invested in taking stories to children through the medium of theatre.

The TinyTales team consists of three theatre graduates and storytellers: Kalpesh, Pratiksha & Santosh whose journey began when QUEST (Quality Education Support Trust) announced a Goshtrang fellowship to work with children in Ashramshala, Sonale village (District Palghar).

“We applied for the fellowship and through it we were able to perform stories for children in several schools,” shared Kalpesh. “Interactions with the children made us realise how the sessions affected them, and we decided that the experience  shouldn’t be restricted to children in one region. We felt the need to reach out to more children in more schools in more villages.”

The outcome of this strong belief  was TinyTales.

“Today, because of their hectic schedules, children do not have the free time to go and watch plays. So we decided to take the plays to them. We do not need a professional stage with sounds and lights; we improvise to present our stories wherever possible. In classrooms, under trees or even on playgrounds. We only need some space and enthusiastic kids as an audience.”

After 90+ shows, TinyTales realised that while listening to and watching stories, children get emotionally involved with them. “They laugh with us, they cry with us. This joy of learning together is really immense.” said Kalpesh. “Adding a visual element to storytelling not only strengthens the audience’s imagination but also subtly demonstrates the spirit of  teamwork, which is the base of any theatre activity.” Though theatre is at its heart a form of entertainment, TinyTales attempts to present a different world to children through stories which can enrich and broaden their way of thinking.

The team discovered the StoryWeaver platform when looking for the book 'My Best Friend' by Anupa Lal and Suvidha Mistry.  "It's like a Pustakancha Khajana for us" shares Kalpesh "and now we have a perfect list of great book to use. We have used a number of books from workshop and got great results."

 Geetanjali Kulkarni (Goshtrang, Project Head), Nilesh Nimkar (Founder of Quest) and Prasad Wanarse (TinyTales, Director), have chosen stories based on the age of the audience. "We’ve included books from the StoryWeaver platform such as जपून रे सत्तू! and बुजगावण्यांची वरात. All these stories were directed by Prasad Wanarase and we performed these stories in Marathi.”

 

 

The group has also begun to add more components to their sessions like ‘Goshtincha War’ where they gather together with students and read out stories to them. “This way they are introduced to various authors and their books and hear and learn new words too.”

“Our objective is to work with the kids as per their needs and demands. Most important of all are the little viewers who are genuine and constructive in their feedback. That’s why we love to work with them.”

- Kalpesh, Pratiksha & Santosh

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