Here is a snippet of South Asian focused children’s literature, from the website of the dedicated magazine Kahani:
Kayan’s grandfather walked in. He held something shiny in his hand.
“What is it, Ajoba?” Sarika said. Their grandfather held up a silver coin.
“It’s just a coin,” Kayan said.
Ajoba shook his head. He placed the coin on one palm and rubbed his hands together quickly. Then he held up his hands. The coin was gone.
“Wow!” Sarika said. “Neat.” Kayan’s eyes widened.
“A magic coin,” Ajoba said.
Another snippet and some illustrations are available at the magazine’s website. One of its contributors is SM regular Pooja Makhijani, who has a nice personal essay on the topic of desi children’s lit at PaperTigers.org, a website on Asian-American writing for kids:
As I was growing up, I would search library shelves in the hopes of finding a character “like me”. I never had much luck. One day, my elementary school librarian excitedly handed me a tattered copy of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. “It’s set in India,” she squealed. “It’s the perfect book for you!”
Shockingly, Pooja did not find herself identifying with Mowgli. But one day at the library, she ran into a book called Dancing Princess:
Dancing Princess was a historical novel set in 16th century India during the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar. Although Allaedi, the main character, wasn’t exactly like me, she was close enough. We were both brown haired, brown eyed, brown skinned girls and we both loved to dance. I renewed that book again and again, carefully scrawling my name onto the index card pasted on the inside back cover each week.
Now, Pooja tells us, there is a growing profusion of desi children’s lit. This is perhaps simply because the generation best placed to produce this literature has come of age. The themes are becoming more and more sophisticated:
Anjali Banerjee’s forthcoming novel, Looking for Bapu (October 2006), the story of eight-year old Anu and how he comes to terms with the loss of his beloved grandfather. Like Budhos’ Ask me No Questions, Looking for Bapu takes place in a post 9/11 United Sates and bravely recounts the experiences of South Asian young people in a very politically-charged America. I am also looking forward to Uma Krishnaswami’s picture book, Bringing Asha Home (September 2006), which is about a biracial Indian-American boy who finds his own way to bond with his sister while his family awaits her adoption from India.
Kahani instructs would-be contributors as follows:
We encourage short stories that focus on adventure, humor and mystery. They should have an appealing plot and children of South Asian descent growing up in North America must play a significant role in the stories. Characters must be well developed without resorting to stereotypes and conflicts should be resolved through positive example. Draw parallels between the readers life and that of the protagonist, so that the child feels an instant affinity with the character. Stories should be based in North America, but where relevant, can also take place in the characters native country.
Back in the infancy of Sepia Mutiny (post #239!) Abhi blogged about Kahani with the title “Like brown kids aren’t ALREADY freakishly smart!” Smart they may (or may not) stay, but they won’t feel so freakish anymore thanks to the work of Pooja and her peers.
