Kid you not

Indian writers of today are exploring bold and diverse themes for their young readers

- BY SHUBHANGI SHAH

Avantika, 10, lives with her amma, appa and younger brother Avnish in Chennai. While her parents and brother have smooth, straight hair, Avantika struggles with her curly, frizzy, untamed mane. She is teasingly called Medusa, the Greek mythic character who had live snakes for hair. Whenever she feels disliked, Avantika wonders: "Was it because of her hair that stood out like the rakshashis' in Amar Chitra Katha?" Despite this, Avantika doesn't want to get her hair cut short. They are her only link to her birth mother, who, she believes, has hair like hers. Avantika is an adopted child. This is the premise of Why Is My Hair Curly? by Lakshmi Iyer, published by Red Panda, the children's imprint of Westland Books.

For long, children's books available in India were largely those written by western authors, about white children having fun and adventure. The worlds created by the likes of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, although fascinating, were unrelatable for the gully cricket-playing Indian kids who wouldn't know camping. Then came the likes of Ruskin Bond and Sudha Murty, who wrote stories that were more relatable to Indian children. Now, Indian publishing is witnessing another change in the kid-lit space as more authors are exploring bold, diverse themes that would otherwise be considered heavy-duty for young readers. Everything from disability, communalism and gender identity to relationships, emotions and climate change are on the table.