Take yourself back to those years when, as a child, you wondered if adults lived in a different world.
When, after reading your Noddie and Heidi, you wanted to peep into those sections that strictly told you to keep off.
It makes one wonder, is there really a rule to observe when you write for children?
“Not really. We have been pushing boundaries all the time,” says Ed Vere, who started churning out picture books for children after studying art in London.
“My books are meant for kids aged between four and eight. So there are certain subjects you don’t talk about like violence. But I don’t try to carry a message in my books. I write to entertain children. My books are character-driven and children are fascinated by certain characters like ‘Mr Big’. It is a big and intimidating gorilla who is unable to connect to others, and later does it through a piano. There could be certain times in life, when standing in a playground, children suddenly find themselves lonely. So when they read Mr Big, they understand things don’t always have to be happy.”
Founder of Chennai-based Tulika publishing house, Radhika Menon believes children can read anything as long as they are not badly written books. “It needn’t be simple language or direct narration. If they come across as taboo subjects, they will switch themselves off if they are not interested. Children will always pick up things and they can consume whatever they want to.”
She says, “In Kerala, I see a certain difficulty to accept anything new. Since there is already a culture created by the kind of childrens’ books published before, they are suspicious of anything new. There needn’t be any bounds with respect to culture or which part of the world the children are from. A child in rural Chennai can easily connect to what he/she reads in a Punjabi book.”
Award-winning children's writer from Iceland, Gerdur Kristny, believes that children should read everything that makes life worth living.
"I used to read ghost stories as a child and get scared. But then I would turn on the light and know that everything is fine. I try to sneak in a message in my books that if there is something wrong, you need to fix it yourself."there is something wrong, you need to fix it yourself."
Radhika Menon
Chennai based publisher Radhika Menon of Tulika Publishing House says that there is a reluctance in Kerala to accept anything new. Since there is already a culture created by the kind of childrens’ books published before, they are suspicious of anything new.
