News & Reviews

Purple Turtle lands in Sri Lanka

Sarasavi Bookshop, Colombo has launched Purple Turtle story books in Sinhala and these stories have won the hearts of Sri Lankan children. Originally introduced in 2012, the Purple Turtle books have been published in 27 countries including USA, U K , C h i n a , Russia, in six regional languages in India with over one million copies published to date. The Purple Turtle (78 X 7 min, 3D HD) animation featuring the world’s cutest turtle, a little guy who stands out of the normal crowd because he tends to think differently than others, better yet, a bit ‘out of his shell’ is in development.

Sarasavi Bookshop (Pvt) Ltd is a division of the Sarasavi Group of Companies in Sri Lanka. The bookshop first commenced business over 65 years ago in the rural township of Padukka. Today they have more than 14 branches including bookstores in some of the major cities in Sri Lanka such as Kandy, Matara, Gampaha and Colombo.

While, Aadarsh Pvt Ltd is the owner of brand “Purple Turtle,” India’s first & true Indian animated character that has gone global and created success stories in 27 countries and is mainly involved in IP creation, publishing, printing and licensing services of toons & Characters focused on school genre.

Get set for Jumpstart 2015

Two cities, three days, four master-classes, eight speakers, insight talks, presentations, slamathon, transmedia mixer, panel discussions…what more can you expect?

Jumpstart 2015, an annual conference for children’s content, is back with a dynamic, new theme and international experts. Organised by German Book Office (GBO), it is a must-attend event for writers and illustrators. The conference will take place on August 18 at India International Centre, New Delhi and from August 21-22 at Max Mueller Bhavan, Bengaluru.

At New Delhi, there will be a panel discussion – STORYDUST, where the panellists will explore the elements of a good story. The panellists will include Nicki Greenberg, Leonie Norrington, Julia Regul Singh and Motti Aviram, while moderator will be Sayoni Basu. At Bengaluru, there will be a panel on WINDOWS: Open up your imagination, panelists will open up a flight of fantasy, a dance of creativity. The panellists – Nicki Greenberg (Illustration); Arundathi Venkatesh (Writing); Aruna Ganesh Ram (Theatre) and Motti Aviram (Film) – are experts in world-building. Through effective storytelling, whether it is writing, illustration, theatre or film, they play with the ways in which history, mythology and stories are relayed to children, how these ways are enriching and, invariably, a lot of fun. It will be moderated by Manasi Subramaniam.

The session on MIRRORS: A reflection of reality, is all about providing specific insights into specific fields. This will be broken up into three simultaneous sessions. Each participant can choose one session to attend- Reflections: Leonie Norrington on books (conversation managed by Manasi); Through the Looking Glass: Anand Ramachandran on interactive digital narratives (conversation managed by Prashasti) and Prism of Ideas: Deeptha Vivekanand on story-based learning (conversation managed by Ameen). Another session on KALEIDOSCOPES will focus on successfully managing a brand in important children’s content industries, and bringing out some valuable insights when it comes to building a financially viable property.

A glimpse of Jumpstart 2014.

Stories are memory and magic, escape and entertainment, language and learning; and at Jumpstart this year, attendees can present their story to the panel of experts, who will give their feedback and critique at Slamathon, JUMPSTART in Bengaluru on August 21.

At both venues, the conference will feature Writers’ Masterclass with Leonie Norrington, Illustrators’ Masterclass with Nicki Greenberg, Masterclass on Storytelling Techniques by Ameen Haque and Masterclass on Screenwriting for Children by Motti Aviram.