New Delhi, Feb 22 (PTI) The Parag initiative of Tata Trusts has come out with its ‘honour list’ for 2023 that features 52 books for children and young adults including titles by Ruskin Bond, Gulzar and Musharraf Ali Farooqi.
The list, announced on Tuesday, has 31 books in English and 21 in Hindi from 33 Indian publishers.
There were over 250 submissions for a place in the list which comprises books for early readers, young readers and young adults in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry categories. The books are on a variety of themes including arts, environment and climate change, gender, history, and even lesser explored subjects like philosophy for children.
The English jury consisted of children’s writer Mini Srinivasan, storyteller Prachi Kalra and book curator Thejaswi Shivanand. The Hindi jury comprised poet and essayist Arun Kamal; educator Gurbachan Singh and theatre personality Shaili Sathyu.
“Curated recommended book lists are widely developed and used internationally and help readers and libraries to access quality collections. Parag Honour List is the first of its kind effort to carefully curate, select and recommend outstanding original books published in Hindi and English in the past one year in India,” said Amrita Patwardhan, head (education) at Tata Trusts.
According to Lakshmi Karunakaran, lead at Parag Initiative, “Through this list we celebrate the commendable work done by over 85 authors and illustrators and 15 publishers who bring to you the very best that children’s literature has to offer this year.” Shivanand said the selection process was an exciting and absorbing one. “The time frame of the process gave me the space to deep dive into each book, share it with children, investigate their responses and document my thoughts.” Besides Bond’s “The Enchanted Cottage” and “Monster Folktales from South Asia” by Farooqi, other books in the list include “Who’s Afraid of Z? Not Me!” by Lubaina Bandukwala; “History Hunters: Chandragupta Maurya and the Greek Onslaught” by Shruti Garodia and Archana Garodia Gupta; Nandita da Cunha’s “Pedru and the Big Boom”; “Grandfather’s Tiger Tales” by Anjana Basu; and “Tipu, Sultan of the Siwaliks” Amirtharaj Christy Williams Among the books in Hindi are two titles by Gulzar – “Duniya Meri” and “Agar Magar”.
Parag’s honour list aims to curate a comprehensive collection of remarkable literature each year to bring them wider readership and also make it accessible to librarians, teachers, and parents.
The list was first launched in January 2020 at the New Delhi World Book Fair. PTI ZMN BK BK
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