India, we all know, is a land known for its traditional folktales, fables, myths and legends. When it comes to showcasing the stories and story-telling traditions to children growing up in contemporary India, one lively character is certainly not a stranger in many Indian households. And that would be Karadi, the Bear. From Panchatantra to Jataka Tales, Indian rhymes and a host of tales from mythology, epics and puranas, Karadi, the bear through its mesmerizing music and stories has captured the hearts of many children in India and abroad with a range of audiobooks, picturebooks and videos.
Since its inception in 1996, the growth of Karadi Tales has been quite astounding. Pooling in some of the best talents of India in theatre and music for their audiobooks has been Karadi's unique way of reaching children. Having carved out a musical-storytelling niche for themselves, Karadi is fast expanding into other arenas in audiobooks. Thanks to their commitment to the world of children's literature, today, the pioneer in the Indian children's book industry for audiobooks, has three other imprints working to bring lot more stories for us.
Through its imprint called Charkha Audiobooks, in 2004, Karadi Tales launched its first audiobook titled Wings of Fire, the autobiography of President Abdul Kalam for young adults and aduts. Karadi Tales second imprint includes Chitra that publishes a series of exclusive picturebooks for young children in English-Hindi. And that is not all. Karadi's "inclusive" approach to creating books has led to a very special imprint called Dreaming Fingers, which makes tactile picture books with Braille text for children with visual difficulties. Creating "beautiful picturebooks so the books can be seen, read and touched by all children" speaks for the very beautiful hearts at work in Karadi. One of their first books include the most endearing character in the world of modern children's lierature. And that would be "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". The creation of tactile version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar is impressive and details about the book can be found here. ABC Touch and See and I feel a foot are two other titles published by the same imprint.
With such exciting stories happening at Karadi Tales through all the different imprints, it is indeed not surprising that its magical journey has continued. Recently, Karadi Tales has launched a set of books as part of their Will you Read With Me? series. In the coming week, we at Saffron Tree, will take an indepth look at the stories in the Will you Read With me? series, the latest from Karadi Tales. Please stay tuned!
5 comments:
Karadi Rhymes and Karadi Tales audiobooks have been relished and appreciated by us from a long time and we have gifted them to many a friend who has also enjoyed them.
Didn't know about the rest of it at all, so thanks! Will fwd this to parents of two visually impaired children I know.
Looking forward to next week's reviews!
Yes, Chox. They seem to be re-doing some of Eric Carle books. I was pleasantly surprised watching an interview with Shobha Vishwanath, the founder on googlevideos - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1245523026357770939#.
Okie dokie! :-)
It is a very nice and good post. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for writing such a lovely post! Looking forward to the reviews!
Thanks all for your comments!
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