Anirudh Dinesh (13) can rattle off any number of his favourite children’s authors— Enid Blyton, J K Rowling, Franklin W Dixon and Roald Dahl lie cheek by jowl on his shelf at home. But ask him to name an Indian author writing for children and he puckers his brow in thought. Ruskin Bond is the only name he can come up with.
This reaction is not very surprising as we found out. “When it comes to reading, peer pressure and the media serve as big influences on children,” says Surender Kohli, proprietor of The Book Cellar, Bangalore. He explains, The Chronicles of Narnia (by C S Lewis) has been around for years but it was only when Disney came out with the film (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) that sales of the book skyrocketed. The same thing happened with the Harry Potter books. Before MGM brought out Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone, the books were not such a huge success. Indian children’s authors do not have such hype to help sell their books.” The Indian books that do sell, apparently, are the ones targeted at a younger audience such as— Tinkle, Tales from the Panchatantra and Amar Chitra Katha comics. These books are often selected by parents for younger children (aged 5 to 8), says Kohli. A fact corroborated by Krishna, Proprietor of Book Worm, Bangalore, who says that often it is the parents who select and buy books for their children at his shop.
Kohli adds that after the age of about eight, children start selecting their own books but the authors that this age group reads are mostly non-Indian, viz Enid Blyton, J K Rowling, Carolyn Keene, Judy Blume ect. Tintin and Asterix comics are also very popular according to him. “A few Indian authors like Ruskin Bond and R K Lakshman do sell,” he says. Sudha Murthy’s new book called How I taught my grandmother to read is moving pretty quickly, he reveals.
Kaveri Nambisan, author of a number of children’s fiction feels children’s literature in India is certainly more vibrant now than 10 years ago with many publishers who are actively soliciting young fiction. “Maybe the universal appeal and success of the Harry Potter series has something to do with it. The ground work in children’s publishing in India was done by Children’s Book Trust, the brainchild of S Shankar, the incomparable cartoonist of the early post-Independence era. The books were low-cost and very well produced,” she says.
However, she feels we still need to promote children’s books, create more low-cost libraries and make books affordable. “Translators should also be encouraged as there is plenty of imaginative literature in regional languages waiting to be made available to more children.”
Kohli, though, feels that writing for children is not easy— “At that age the mind is rushing everywhere and for a story to appeal, it has to be extremely interesting and well written.”
Mayi Gowda, proprietor of Blossom— House of Used Books, Bangalore, says that Indian comics dealing with mythology are very popular; so is the Tiny Tot series (published by Rupa) and Goosebumps by R L Stine. But when asked about Indian authors writing for children, he was unable to provide a single name.
Krishna points out that when it comes to Indian authors, even presentation does not make a difference. Books like Manjula Padmanabhan’s Mouse Attack are well illustrated but he asks— “What does it matter? Nobody has heard of her.”
Says Hemu Ramaiah, CEO, Landmark bookstore, “Indian fiction is not so big. There are not many writers, or let’s say few and far between.”
According to her, 25 per cent of their sale is from children’s books, that too mostly western publications. “In terms of units, Indian books also do well, since they are priced low. Also there is more demand for educational books, like counting books, picture books and folklore.”
However, if you are an Indian author, getting a book published does not seem to be very difficult. G S Dutt, whose children’s book— The Adventures of Nikki, was launched at the Oxford Book Store, says, “If you have the right connections and the right background, you can get published in India.”
“The scene in India is looking up and children’s fiction is a growing market,” he adds. And Paro Anand, children’s author and teacher, agrees wholeheartedly, “Even the look of books for young people, whether it is the illustrations that are no longer decorative appendages, but an integral part of the text, or the production values, things are looking up. Books like Penguin’s Modern Indian Stories, (edited by Mala Dayal) or titles from Scholastic, Tullika, Tara, Katha, Pratham rival foreign publications... Publishers, known for their general lists, are also venturing into children’s books and meeting with fair success, like Roli and Zubaan have.”    
Another good case in point is the Pratham Books, a not-for-profit venture set up to produce and publish high quality, low cost children’s books in multiple Indian languages. It was set up in 2004 to fill a gap in the market which primarily comprised of high quality, high cost children’s literature which was mostly in English and at the other end of the spectrum was poorly produced and low cost books in Indian languages.
Says Ashok Kamath, managing trustee, Pratham Books, “There is no organised data available on how many titles are published in India every year or the size of their print runs. One of the participants on a television news channel mentioned that the total children’s book market was about Rs 250 crores of which half was in English. This essentially means that the spend per child (assuming 250 million children in India in the 3–14 year age group) is Rs 10. If we all agree that reading is necessary for children, then this spend must be increased by a factor of 10 at the very least, or, there should be enough books and access to an efficient public library system.”
Liz Calder (publishing director of the books division of Bloomsbury) who was in India recently looking for talent to fill Rowling’s shoes, seems to think that Indian fiction for children is looking up. She has said that the next Rowling may be sitting in a cafe in Calcutta! With Rowling threatening to kill off everybody’s favourite boy wizard in her seventh book, let’s hope Calder is right.