BOOKS FOR YOUNG MINDS

Here is a list of books on important topics written for kids by

What I really want is for Children's Day to become an occasion on which children's rights—to be free of violence, to be able to access education, and to grow up in a world in which climate change will not kill them in their prime—are the focus. But unlike Women's Day, which began as a socio-political observation and has been unrecognisably corrupted, Children's Day has always been about gifts and celebration.

Among those gifts, then, could be books. Every child deserves to have a library within her reach—whether a community one, or one in her own home. I think of picture books as books for all ages (including yours and mine), so here is a list of a few beautiful picture books by Indian authors that talk about important issues in creative ways that encourage empathy and awareness of the world. There is so much contemporary children's literature from India that is wildly imaginative, visually stunning, forward-thinking and not at all preachy even when talking about important topics.

This is only a tiny selection.

Puu (written by CJ Salamander, illustrated by Samidha Gunjal, Scholastic): This is first on my list because it is a book that I believe every single child with the privilege to read or be read to in English, in India, should experience. It deals with immense subtlety about an inhumane reality in this country: manual scavenging.