Children Publishing

An outstanding event on children’s literature

At the get-together of Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC) held recently, the future of children’s literature in India was discussed profoundly.

“It is a matter of concern that India continues to accord primacy to the use of English,” said Aditi Maheshwari-Goyal of Vani Prakashan in a stimulating interaction with members of the AWIC. “Children’s literature in Hindi is a victim of a dire postcolonial hangover,” she said. She spoke extensively on the sad state of Hindi literature for lack of interest in its propagation.

She stressed the need for a new approach to popularising the language at the grassroots level, at the same time giving it an international push. At a young age of 32, Aditi has made an impressive mark in publishing in less than a decade. She is Vani’s Publisher and Festival Director, and also heads its Department of Copyrights and Translation.

Fauzia Dastango, another pathbreaking young woman endeavouring to revive the oral traditions of Hindi and Urdu, backed Aditi’s emphasis on evolving a new promotional narrative. She regretted that original works in Hindi find few takers, with families no longer encouraging its use right from childhood.

BBC Muzzy comes to India with Eupheus Learning

BBC, one of the oldest and most respected creators as well as producers of English learning and broadcast programming and Eupheus Learning, a Delhi-based Ed-tech company, have joined hands to bring BBC’s Muzzy, an awardwinning multimedia, multilingual, multiplatform language learning course to India. Eupheus Learning will bundle BBC’s Muzzy along with its new English book series – Wow! English for grades 1-4 for CBSE schools.

The acclaimed BBC language course, BBC Muzzy uses the awardwinning video character Muzzy and his friends, compelling stories and delightful songs to bring language to life. It’s fun, interactive and builds foundation of learning a new language the way a child learns to speak his or her mother tongue.

Animated stories and engaging music surround the kids with a second language. New vocabulary and usage are presented through humorous and dramatic stories.

Speaking on the partnership, Sarvesh Srivastava, Co-founder and Managing Director, Eupheus Learning said, “The collaboration with BBC Muzzy will be an addition to the curated product line that the company already offers such as Sanako’s Language Lab, reading programs from Fiction Express and ETS’s TOEFL Primary and Junior assessments to help kids learn English in an interactive, engaging and fun environment.”

Muzzy’s multisensory teaching technique appeals to reading and non-reading kids alike through participation in all kinds of activities like games, songs, printed games, flash cards etc. It has the capacity to teach 5 times the words taught by other programs.

Commenting on the association, Federico Mallo, M. Ec, producer of Muzzy BBC language course said, “Since its launch, Muzzy’s unique methodology has introduced millions of children in over 100 countries to a second language and is the most respected children’s language course in the world.”

Successfully held at Mumbai & Delhi

Organised by the German Book Office New Delhi, the South Asia node of the Frankfurt Book Fair, JUMPSTART was founded with the objective of building an exchange platform for the creative community and facilitate capacity development in the children’s content space. Since its inception, JUMPSTART has completed 9 editions with over 211 Speakers from 14 countries and over 21 industries, and has conducted 32 Masterclasses on various topics, establishing itself as the space for creative ideation and collaboration.

This year JUMPSTART celebrated a decade of bringing together the community of children’s content creators in India.

It was also for the first time that JUMPSTART travelled to Mumbai where a two-day programme was held successfully at the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan on November 27-28, 2018. Following the Mumbai event, JUMPSTART was also held in Delhi on November 30, 2018 at the Crafts Museum at Pragati Maidan.

Seeing the increasing consumption of content across myriad mediums, JUMPSTART 2018 was conceptualised to look at how book content can transcend the print form. With the idea of ‘Get Future-Ready’ the programme traced the trends and explored the future of content creation and consumption across media. It was an opportunity for writers, artists, educators, publishers and many other key players in the content industry to become futuristic with their previously published as well as upcoming content; a chance to interact with other dynamic producers and publishers.

The first-ever JUMPSTART in Mumbai, curated by Lubaina Bandukwala, followed the signature JUMPSTART format of Inspiration and Perspiration. The first day was power-packed with talks, panel sessions and a networking mixture — all focused on gaining knowledge and catching up with the industry trends. The second day had in store three masterclasses which helped the participants put into practise what they had learnt on the previous day. In Delhi, JUMPSTART ran on two parallel tracks — a set of sessions especially created for young publishing professionals, and the other set of sessions conceptualised keeping content creators in mind. The day concluded with an hour of networking at the Rights Market.

JUMPSTART this year was not just limited to the plethora of sessions, masterclasses, skillbuilders and mixers that took place over 2 cities and 3 days. This year, JUMPSTART also went digital as an app. A selection of masterclasses on topics curated as a result of brainstorming with creative content professionals – JUMPSTART is now only a click away.