Not Yet! is a picture book published by Tulika Books, written by Nandana Sen, and illustrated by Niloufer Wadia. I was not planning to be at this book launch but for the fact that I was at Jaipur Lit Festival, and had met Nandana Sen the previous evening and of course the book was published by Tulika Books who also published two of my stories.

Not Yet! is a classic bedtime picture book where the child and parent tussle for control. In this imaginative story in rhyme, the child brings to life the animals in her imagination and the mother tries to remind her of bedtime. And of course all naughtiness has to end in niceness and it does.

The story has also been translated into Bengali by the author herself, with a little help from her mother, the legendary poet Nabaneeta Dev Sen.

It’s a great book to read aloud and children could of course even act it out – as long as they do get into bed with a little kiss – as weary parents would know. Nandana Sen had invited kids from a local school and from the audience to the stage and they did have a wonderful time acting the animals out.

I’m hoping to read it to my nephews and I’m sure they too would enjoy it given they have a menagerie of animals in their room. Who knows – they might make up new play about their donkey, meerkat and more.