School students take a write stand
Aged between ten to seventeen, these school-going kids may be new entrants to the publishing industry, but a conversation with them reveals that they mean serious business. The dialogue involves not only similar issues that one might discuss with veteran authors, but also similar arguments added with innocence and some exceptional insights.
Twelve-year-old Advaita Jairam, author of one of the ten award-winning stories that feature in For Kids By Kids published by Scholastic Nova, says that it’s becoming extremely difficult these days for kids to sustain reading habits. “Nowadays, they are confronted with so many options like movies, interactive toys and video games that it’s difficult for them to read. But I always loved reading ever since I was a kid,” she says. Isn’t she a kid now? “No. I’m 12,” she adds sternly.
For Kids By Kids is a collection of award-winning stories by kids from Scholastic Young Writing Awards 2013. The book was launched recently along with three-time award winning Rhea Kumar’s first full-length novel Born To Die.
Aprajita Kaul, whose story about IIT students also features in the book, believes that kids writing for kids is a novel idea. “The way older people perceive our generation is quite different from the way we see ourselves. We know what our peers are going through and what issues they relate to, their emotions and their aspirations. In that sense, I think it’s a great idea to have people from our generation write for us,” she shares.
Devika Singh, another contributor to the anthology, agrees as she adds, “My story is about an army child and the life of an army child is completely different from other kids. No one can understand it better than an army kid herself. So it’ll always be a more impactful and realistic story about an army kid if it’s written by one.”
Rhea Kumar shares similar thoughts on the issue but adds, “Though the younger generation does know better what they deal with, at the end of the day, the author’s age is not a factor that determines a book’s success. Eragon was written by a 13-year-old and yet it has many layers to it. And I remember reading a book called Battle for no. 19 by Ranjit Lal that captures se well the emotions teenagers go through. At the end of the day, a good book is a good book.”
Ten-year-old Sagnik Anupam shares what he feels is wrong with children’s literature in India. “The quality of imagination needs to improve as most books we read are based on borrowed ideas and usually similar to something we might have already read. The young authors should take the initiative to not pick ideas from written stories but real lives around them,” he concludes.
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