JANUARY began with momos, ghos, kiras and the smell of juniper honey in the air and many, many postcards from Ura. Meanwhile, Kabir wove his magic into cyberspace and Tulika’s Panchatantra animals funked themselves out in t-shirts, on mugs and more in the BOOKs+ line.
FEBRUARY came and a little voice called out to a lonely king and queen who rushed to find it with Deepa Balsavar in the Kala Ghoda Festival, Mumbai and Uma Ky and Uma Ki painted the town green with Out of the Way! Out of the Way! We also turned fifteen!
MARCH met Mayil Ganeshan, her Amma, Appa, Thatha, her brother Thamarai and read her diary despite threats from slightly scary looking monsters on the first page. Nina Sabnani’s stitches told a story every bit as visually compelling as her multiple award-winning film.
APRIL belonged to the ladies. Spirited Siri went in search of a smile, mischievous Mala chik-chik-chummed and curious Kunku uncovered The Mystery of Blue. Pippi rocked the NSD stage in their production Socho! Jab Sab Ulta Ho, while Rafiki Workspace in Bangalore adapted The Aditi Adventures for a theatre workshop.
MAY dreamt of magical bowls and giving spirits so Sandhya Rao took Asha Hanley's The Enchanted Saarang to Bookaroo in Kashmir and Nina Sabnani took Home to the Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore. In Mumbai, Gillo Gilehri’s play Kyun-Kyun Ladki brought to life one of Tulika’s favourite girls – Moyna. On Rabindra Jayanti, Tulika launched 11 books in Braille with The Third Eye Charitable Trust.
JUNE said blue was the new green and we took one look at Let’s Plant Trees and couldn’t help but nod. Its tree-loving author planted seeds on World Enviroment Day with lots of kids at Mother Earth, Bangalore. We also dug the blues of Grace, City Auto for Hire No. SD 01 3422 and decided to look for the Blue River.
JULY rained cats and dogs. Miaow! said the black cat with green eyes. Bowwow! said Purple Jojo and bookworms in Goa loved him so much, they baked jojo-shaped cookies. Ken Spillman hit Mumbai’s schools with Advaita the Writer and Husain roamed (barefoot, of course) in Bamboo House, Delhi.
AUGUST flew with Padma to eat star-rock salad from Galaxy Stellar 5689, to the cozy Kitab Khana with Ken to meet Advaita, to Jumpstart 2011, Delhi with Radhika, to Little People Tree, Hyderabad with the magnificent Black Panther. The kaka decided to sit pretty in the Tulika Bookstore, imagine words and puzzle over The World Tour Mystery.
SEPTEMBER travelled all the way from Kutch, Gujarat to Kala Ghoda, Mumbai with Raniben and Meghiben to discuss the craft of Stitching Stories with Nina Sabnani and to Goa to the very first Publishing Next Conference. The Tulika Book Club was launched at Nurture Montessori School in Chennai and Bangalore.
OCTOBER sat up as the chemma chekka world of Oluguti Toluguti came to life. At the Kids Central launch in Chennai, everyone hopped onto the railgaadi and rhymed away! Simultaneously, the ebook with audio went live. Storytruck’s Mohan Rao brought to life the book in its digital avatar. Craig Jenkins tucked a magic feather behind his ear and told Tulika stories to awestruck children at Hutchins High, Pune. Tulika Books USA was at Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin. Nandini Nayar launched My Grandfather’s Stick at Little People Tree, Secunderabad. Saffron Tree's lovely online book festival CROCUS 2011 featured Radhika Chadha and Vayu Naidu. Radhika was at the 8th Festival of Books for Children (29th October - 6th November) in Guwahati.
NOVEMBER knocked itself out with back to back book launches, readings and performances. The Oluguti Toluguti Express went non-stop, Advaita went on a whirlwind tour of schools and NGOs, Jeeva Aunty was on a roll at the Tulika Book Fair in American International School, Chennai. Radhika went to The Hay Festival in Tiruvananthapuram and participated in Damroo, an International Seminar on Creating Content(ment) for Children in IDC, IIT Bombay. Sandhya, Helen and Shweta went to Bookaroo, Delhi, while lots of Tulika Books went to The Hundreds Hands Festival, Bangalore under the capable hands of Rachna.And Dokkhin Rai? He was everywhere. But Bon Bibi kept an eye on him.
DECEMBER is nearly over but we’re not done, not yet. Two gorgeous tree books have made quiet entrances – The Coral Tree and Magnolias. With New Year’s just around the corner, we have lots more in store. We'll be doing a post on forthcoming titles very soon so keep visiting. For regular updates on new books, events and tulika buzz, don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and on our Youtube channel.
Warm wishes for the new year from the entire Tulika team to our authors, illustrators, translators, typesetters, printers, friends, well-wishers, partners, fans and children's book lovers everywhere. Have a great one!
December 30, 2011
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