Children's literature on a high

The Indian book market may not yet be able to boast of dough-raking bestsellers like the Harry Potter series or The Chronicles of Narnia, but experts from the field agree that it is adorning a new avatar gradually. And to tap this increasing potential, the annual Crossword Book Awards will be introducing for the first time an entirely new category to award and recognise authors of children’s fiction and non-fiction. The annual award event will review not only those with a creative pen, but also those who have picked up the paintbrush to add colour to the authors’ dreams — the illustrators.

R Sriram, founder of the bookstore says, “When we opened in 1992, our bookshop was small. The children’s section was just a couple of racks with a limited range of books available. We wanted to devote 20 percent of our entire store space to the kids. Today, it has become one of the largest selling categories.”

The market for children’s books has been growing along with works catering to the teenage readers. Anita Roy, commissioning editor, Young Zubaan, says, “Globally, the market for young adult books has grown enormously in the last 10-15 years, and we’re seeing lots of new exciting work particularly for Indian teens.” Translator Arunava Sinha says, “Indian writers are doing great work in genres like fantasy and adventure.”

With every passing year, experts agree that young readers are becoming more discerning given the influence of media around them, whether be it the Internet or television that makes news available to them at their fingertips. Urvashi Butalia, director and co-founder of Kali for Women points out, “Publishers now do not only think of producing ‘moral’ books for children, and don’t think children need to be talked down to or taught only ‘good’ things. Also there is an awareness of the importance of quality both in content and production.”

Gautam Padmanabhan, CEO of Westland India, however points out, “Judging by the success of imported titles, it is the young adult segment that is the fastest growing and Indian authors need to address this market.”