Friday, January 19, 2007

Kane Miller Publishing Company, Tulika Books, and Kali and the Rat Snake....

Kane/Miller Publishing Company - A great resource for multicultural literature

Kane/Miller is a small publishing company in the U.S. that publishes children's books that have been previously published in other countries. You can check their online catalog to find out the books they have published in the past, and the ones to come out this year. I recently ordered their free catalog online and got it by mail last week. It's a wonderful resource to have so I know what books to check out based on what they have published so far.

Thanks to Jen Robinson for providing me with the link to Kane/Miller. Jen has an amazing blog and a website - Growing Book Worms, and JKR books where she writes about children's books. Her passion for children's literature is seen from the dedication with which she writes on both her websites - very inspiring and an exceptional resource in the kidlit blogosphere.



Kali and the Rat Snake by Zai Whitaker is one of the books selected from India that Kane Miller has listed in their catalog. Sathish had mentioned Kali and the Rat Snake on his blog last year. Interestingly, Jen Robinson also has a review about the same book on her blog.

Here is Sathish's write-up about the book and other intersting titles by Tulika publishers.


Kali and The Rat Snake by Zai Whitaker -



Originally published by: Tulika Books, Chennai

Kali and the Rat Snake is a wonderful children's book by Tulika Books based in Chennai. We bought this book for Sooraj and I have probably spent more time admiring the illustrations than him. The illustrations are by Srividya Natarajan and story by Zai Whitaker. It is a story of a small girl named Kali, who is from Irula tribe, trying to join a mainstream school. It deals with the discrimination that she faces and circumstances that help her to overcome and become friends with her classmates is illustrated charmingly.

The book is affordable (costs Rs.100/- in India) and Tulika Books seems to have a pretty good variety of books for children of various age groups. Some of the interesting books that I found out about from their website include - All About Nothing (a story about discovery of zero), The Why-Why Girl ( a book by Mahasweta Devi ).

All the illustrations seem to be based on the story line. If the story is based in Rajasthan ( Eyes on the Peacock's Tail ), the illustrations would be based on the folk art of that region. In this case, the illustrations are based on the traditional phad cloth paintings of Rajasthan.

Almost all the books are translated into Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada. A few of them are also translated into other languages like Oriya etc. Some of the books are bilingual. The editors of Tulika have an interesting article on the concept of bilingual books.

Definitely a great collection based on regional folk tales. I plan to buy a few more of them at regular intervals for Sooraj (and partly to admire the illustrations!)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for your kind words about my site!! I'm glad that you've been having a positive experience with Kane/Miller. I liked the illustrations in Kali and the Rat Snake, too. I think that you and Kane/Miller are both doing great things!

Anonymous said...

Wow...I am a sucker for children books. Where can I find this book?

sathish said...

mythili, if ur in India, then, you can find them through tulika books publications (www.tulikabooks.com)
or at Landmark

if you are in US, try out the Kane/Miller publications as suggested by Praba.

Praba Ram said...

Jen - you are so welcome! THANK YOU!

Mythili - try amazon if you're here in the US...here's the link to the book...
http://www.amazon.com/Kali-Rat-Snake-Zai-Whitaker/dp/1933605103

If you are in chennai or even visiting, you can buy it from Landmark like what Sathish suggested, and might work out less expensive...

Tulika, the original publisher also ships, i guess..

thanks, Sathish, for your neat recommendation and suggestions!

Anusha said...

thanks for sharing this wonderful resource...I would like to browse thru all the Tulika titles, hope they ship - either to India or US.
thanks again

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with your assessment! A friend had her first child last spring, and I'd ordered a dozen books for her from Tullika. My mother-in-law picked them up from their Chennai office, and overall they were a pleasure to work with. I put in all my orders over email and did an online cc payment. Very convenient. They also ship to the US. My review here .

I also discovered Kane Miller at the International Reading Association show last spring and couldn't get over their wonderful catalogue. I picked up some of their other titles - a few of which I thought would also make wonderful gifts for adult book lovers. My favorites: Selma, by Jutta Bauer. It's about a ram's search for happiness. And, Learning to Fly, by Sebastian Meschenmoser, a fable about believing in the impossible. Both are translated from German.

Praba Ram said...

hi literary safari-

thanks for sharing your experience with Tulika...that's great they(tulika) have an online ordering process set up..

praba

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