Odia story and rhymes books for early-learners released

BHUBANESWAR: In an attempt to bridge the gap of attractive books for early-learners,

Bakul Foundation

, an organisation promoting library movement, released six Odia books on popular rhymes and stories.

“When Bakul set up libraries, we realised that there are very few picture books in Odia moreover very few among them were again for children learning to read. So we decided to start a publishing line by the name of

Bakul Books

to address this gap in children’s publishing in Odia,” said secretary of Bakul Foundation, Sujit Mahapatra.

These books have very little text on each page with lots of pictures and graphics and the books have also been priced non-commercially so that children studying in government schools can afford them, he said.

Of the six books, two are on popular Odia rhymes that a child learning to read is already familiar with in the oral tradition. “These rhymes have never been properly documented and are popular through words of mouth from generation to generation. There are many such rhymes in English that help a child learn during early days,” Mahapatra added.

The rhymes have been beautifully illustrated by two young engineers with a passion for art, Nikkie Gargi and

Debsha Patnaik

.

Two of the titles are based on environmental theme created by an eminent Singapore-based illustrator

Debasmita Dasgupta

. ‘A Mini Fish Tale’ and ‘Gulmohar’ are bilingual books in both Odia and English. “These illustrations bring a different flavour to picture book illustration in Odisha, which has been mostly realistic,” he added.

Interestingly the rest two titles have been co-created by children. One of them is a retelling of the popular Italian story titled Pinocchio and the other book ‘Pinaki’ is created by children that gives message on handwashing habits.

The books were released by school and mass education secretary

Ranjana Chopra

in the presence of Dash Ben Hur, chief editor of Bakul Books and Swagatika Sethi, the editor, who is a freelance writer and Bakul volunteer among others.

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