British South Asian KidLit Creators

I got tagged today by a friend for a question about who is writing books for South Asians in the UK. And we all tagged people we knew and then I realised, it was good to create a list we can all share.

As the aunt of mixed-raced kids whose cultures are meshed in and we feed them quite a lot of both Indian and British stories, it’s important for our children to see stories that are about them too.

So I’ve started a list here. If you have more people to add to this, please first check if they’re part of South Asian heritage and if they are British either by residency or by nationality. If so, do message me on twitter at @csoundar and I’ll add them to this list.

Also I’ve indicated ages the authors have books in. If you’re one of the listed authors and you want to change it, do let me know. This is just an indication for parents and teachers/ librarians. Authors are always experimenting and writing new things.

British South Asian KidLit Authors

Name Age-range of books written Twitter
Handle
Website
Chitra
Soundar
3 plus @csoundar www.chitrasoundar.com
Nizrana
Farook
9 plus @NizRite  
Nadia
Shireen
3 plus @NadiaShireen etsy.me/2E8Fo5h  
Smriti
Prasadam-Halls
0 plus @smritiPH Smirti.co.uk
Yasmin
Rahman
YA @YasminwithanE  
Swapna
Haddow
7 plus @swapnahaddow Swapnahaddow.co.uk
Sita Brahmachari 13 plus @sitabrahmachari Sitabrahmachari.com
Savita Kalhan YA @savitakalhan Savitakalhan.com
Bali Rai 9 plus @balirai Balirai.co.uk
Nikesh Shukla YA @nikeshshukla Nikesh-shukla.com
Ranjith Singh 3 plus @ranjiththeauthor  
Rashmi
Sirdeshpande  
  @rashmiwriting rashmisirdeshpande.com
Sufiya
Ahmed
YA @sufiyaahmed https://mbalit.co.uk/client/sufiya-ahmed/  
Jasbinde
Bilan
9 plus @jasinbath  
Sarwat
Chadda
9 plus @sarwatchadda  
Narinder Dhami 9 plus @narinderd  
Jamila
Gavin
3 plus @jamilaji http://www.jamilagavin.co.uk
Irfan
Master
9 plus @irfan_master http://irfanmaster.com  
Taran
Matharu
9 plus @TaranMatharu1 http://authortaranmatharu.com  
Zanim
Mian
9 plus@Zendibble http://www.sweetapplebooks.com  
Serena
Patel
9 plus@SerenaKPatel    
Leila
Rasheed
7 plus@LeilaR https://leilarasheeddotcom.wordpress.com  

British South Asian KidLit Illustrators

Name Twitter Instagram Website
Poonam Mistry @pmistryartist https://www.poonam-mistry.com/  
Rikin Parekh @r1k1n https://www.rikinparekh.com/  
Lucy Banaji @Lucy_Banaji lucybanaji.com
Baljinder Kaur@Ballyjinderbaljinderkaur.com
Jen KhatunJen Khatunhttps://www.jenkhatun.com/

Also check out http://www.speaking-volumes.org.uk/projects/breaking-new-ground/ for over 100 BAME creators in the UK.

Fantastic News!

Have you heard? We are celebrating!

Poonam Mistry, the illustrator of this gorgeous picture book published by Lantana Publishing, has been shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal.

This is her first children’s book and what a remarkable achievement. Congratulations!

Poonam Mistry at the Shortlist announcement

If you’re shadowing the Kate Greenaway judges or inspired to pick up this book and read, then here are some wonderful resources to add to your experience.

Read Poonam’s interview about her art here.

Get colouring sheets (created by Poonam), puzzles and word searches here.

And if you’re no longer scared of thunderstorms and want to read more about them, find two poems about thunderstorms here.

Are you a teacher? Here are some wonderful classroom resources created by the publishers Lantana Publishing.

So what are you waiting for? Get the book and start reading!

The Launch Celebration of You’re Snug With Me

Yesterday we launched the second book You’re Snug With Me in the You’re With Me series at Chestnuts Primary School in North London.

It all began when the librarian Tanya Efthymiou of Chestnuts Primary and I tweeted to each other about a school launch for the next book. It would be fantastic to share the new book You’re Snug With Me with children and parents, and teachers, we thought.

And the idea was born and we took it to the wonderful team at Lantana Publishing who embraced it with wholehearted support.

Then we decided on a date that worked for everyone, we designed an invitation, we planned the day and it all came together wonderfully yesterday.

First I met with Reception and Y1 children before the big event in the evening. Then we decorated the hall with the help of amazing library helpers who had read the book and wanted to be part of the launch.

Y6 had done a project on plastics and the ocean and had used art work inspired from both You’re Safe With Me and You’re Snug with Me. It was brilliant to see how the books transcend from the confines of its form and reaches the readers.

As the bell rang for the final time that afternoon, parents and children started filing in.

We started with a storytelling from the book in which children joined in enthusiastically and then Alice Curry, publisher of Lantana Publishing spoke about books for under-represented children and why reading the 1% was so important.

Then it was party time – colouring in masks and colouring sheets kindly given to us by the illustrator Poonam Mistry, who couldn’t make it to the launch (we missed you!). I signed loads of books for parents and children, the school and the library too.

What a surprise, I had an author friend Paul May who came to celebrate the launch with me too!

All in all, a wonderful way to celebrate the publication of a new book. My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Chestnuts Primary School who came to the event, helped us make it a success. A special Woot-Woot to  the head-teacher Mrs Katie Horwood and librarian Tanya Efthymiou who hosted us.

An Interview with Frané Lessac – Illustrator of Pattan’s Pumpkin

janetta-and-frane-copy
Frané Lessac with Janetta Otter-Barry at Edinburgh Book Festival just before she was commissioned.

Pattan’s Pumpkin was published in the UK, Australia and NZ on 1st September 2016. It was conceived as a book in 2013.

The book waited over two years for the perfect illustrator. It waited for Frané Lessac.

Frané is an award winning American artist who has exhibited her paintings in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles. From film school in California she went on to live on the Caribbean island of Montserrat where she began her career as an author and painter. She loves to travel and create books based on her journeys. Frané has published more than forty children’s books and has won many international awards including the Muriel Barwell Award for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature. She joined the National Year of Reading initiative as a State Ambassador in 2012 and a Room to Read Ambassador in 2014. She currently lives in Fremantle, Australia.

Janetta Otter-Barry, our publisher extraordinaire, was looking for the perfect illustrator who could bring the pumpkin to life. Click here if you haven’t read about how Pattan’s Pumpkin came to be. Unlike other picture books where the illustrator goes away for a few months and the comes back with a Ta-Da, Frané gave us a little peek at various stages and discussed key cultural aspects throughout the creation of the art. So I thought I should interview Frané Lessac for my blog (and hers) to find out more about her process and how Pattan’s Pumpkin came to be.

Here are my questions and Frané’s answers with show and tell of illustrations!


Pattan’s story is from southern India. Have you visited this part of India before? What kind of research did you have to do for the landscape and the animals?

I’ve travelled several times throughout India including the south coast of Kerala, but I’ve never visited the Western Ghats mountain ranges. It’s now at the top of my list. To research the flora, fauna and landscape, I looked at rare books and online resources.

Pattan is from a tribe indigenous to the Western Ghats mountain ranges. What kind of information did you need to know before you start drawing him and Kanni?

I researched the Irular people from southern India, who regard themselves as descendants of Pattan and Kanni. Their story that has been passed down from generation to generation and Chitra captured the complete essence of the story. Her retelling was a visual feast for my imagination. Creating a picture book is always a collaboration and with the “team”, editor, art director, Chitra and myself, we communicated throughout about our main characters. We needed to ensure we had overall cultural authenticity.

I like your little secret message of the ants and the two white birds in each spread. Do you decide on these little details early on or does it happen as you start drawing.animals-on-and-under-bed-copy

I add little details in my painting at the very end. When I was a child, I loved books with lots of details to explore and being able to discover new bits on each returned reading. I got a kick out of painting the bird and the frog asleep on Pattan and Kanni’s bed and all the other animals fast asleep under the bed. The portraits on the wall are funny too.

 

Can you show us a sample of your roughs and your step by step process?

The first step was to create thumbnails of every scene with sometimes 2-3 ideas for each one. The team decided which was their favourite. working-on-roughs-in-my-studio-copy

prelim-5-copyNext, I sketched up sloppy copies, also known as preliminary drawings, to size and made a dummy book. The team went over the drawings and we tweaked further. 

 

spread-7-art-copy

The palette to create the final art, was inspired by the many colours of India. I also used opposite colours side by side which made the art stand out. I then rendered each scene using gouache paint, taking up to 3 days to complete each one. 

Do you love pumpkins? Was it different for you to visualise pumpkins in a non-Halloween scenario?  

I love pumpkins and have the best pumpkin soup recipe and make a mean pumpkin pie! Growing up in the United States, the only pumpkins I knew were orange. We’d carve the biggest one we could find every Halloween. It wasn’t until I moved to the Caribbean that I discovered that orange ones weren’t readily found in the rest of the world.

When I wrote the story of Pattan’s Pumpkin, and learnt about how the region of Western Ghats is protected as a UNESCO heritage site, it got me thinking how Pattan’s message about conservation is an important one. What did you take away from Pattan’s Pumpkin? Did Pattan tell you a secret?

fullsizerender_withlotsofpumpkins
Frané dreaming about a crop of pumpkins…

Pattan’s secret message to me was to plant pumpkins. Lots of them. My garden will soon be taken over by hundreds of pumpkins. I want to grow one as BIG as the one in the story! Wish me luck.

 


Thank you Frané – we enjoyed seeing the work in progress, and amazed that each rendering took three days to complete. Wow! Pattan and Kanni would love the book for sure. You should share your pumpkin pie recipe with us sometime. Find out all about Pattan’s Pumpkin here.