Tales of India: Folk Tales from Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu 
Cinnamon 
You’re Safe with Me 
The King With Dirty Feet
Rama and Sita: The Story of Diwali
Into the Jungle
Tamarind & the Star of Ishta
Ticket to India
The Girl Who Came Out of the Woods
Stories for South Asian Super GirlsCrime mystery set mainly in OXFORD in WW2
10 great children’s books set in India
21st October 2020
10 great children’s books set in India.
Here at TripFiction our database of many thousands of books can be accessed by searching for a location, a title or an author… or a literary genre.
By way of an example of combining two of these, our Kid’s Lit Writer in Residence has put together a listing of 10 great children’s books set in India. Many of these are beautifully illustrated and will prove a joy to come for many years – for children of all ages (and a few parents too!)
Tales of India: Folk Tales from Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu by Svabhu Kohli (illustrator) and Viplov Singh (illustrator)
A shape-shifting tiger and a pretentious rat.
A generous goddess and a powerful demon.
A clever princess and a prince who returns from the dead.
This collection of 16 traditional tales transports readers to the beguiling world of Indian folklore. Transcribed by Indian and English folklorists in the nineteenth century, these stories brim with wit and magic. Fans of fairy tales will encounter familiar favourites―epic quests and talking animals―alongside delightful surprises―an irreverent sense of humour and an array of bold, inspiring heroines.
Cinnamon by Neil Gaiman and Divya Srinivasan (illustrator)
In a hot, hot country, ringed with mountains on one side and jungle on the other, lives a princess called Cinnamon. Her eyes are made of pearls, which means that she is blind. And, for reasons her parents the Rajah and Rani cannot fathom, she will not talk. So they offer a reward to anyone who can teach Cinnamon to speak. People travel from far and wide to attempt it, but nothing works. Until a mighty tiger, huge and fierce, prowls into their palace and announces that he is here to teach the girl-cub to talk…
You’re Safe with Me by Chitra Soundar and Poonam Mistry (illustrator)
When the moon rises high and the stars twinkle, it is bedtime for the baby animals of the Indian forest. But tonight, when the skies turn dark and the night grows stormy, the little ones can’t sleep. SWISH-SWISH! CRACK-TRACK! FLASH-SNAP! goes the storm. Only Mama Elephant with her words of wisdom can reassure them, “You’re safe with me.
The King With Dirty Feet by Sally Pomme Clayton and Rhiannon Sanderson (illustrator)
There once was a king who hated bath time so much that he never washed. He was a very smelly king! The king is finally persuaded to bathe in the river but no matter how clean the rest of him is, his feet stay dirty. The people sweep away all the dirt in the land – but the air is choked with dust. The dust gets washed away but now the land is flooded with water. An enormous tapestry is sewn to cover the whole kingdom but now nothing will grow on the land… What is to be done? At last one old man steps forward with leather and a pair of scissors … and to the king’s amazement he creates – the first ever pair of shoes
Rama and Sita: The Story of Diwali by Malachy Doyle and Christopher Corr (illustrator)
The perfect picture book to introduce children to Rama and Sita and the story of Diwali, with text by award-winning author Malachy Doyle and stunning, colourful illustrations from Christopher Corr.
Rama and Sita live happily in the forest – until Sita is kidnapped by the demon king, Ravana. Can Rama and the monkey king Hanuman follow the trail she has laid for them and save Sita, or will she be lost forever? Whether you’re looking for a Diwali gift or a simple introduction to the Diwali story to share with your children, this beautiful book, now reissued in a larger picture book format, is ideal.
Into the Jungle by Katherine Rundell and Kristjana S Williams (illustrator)
Into the Jungle is a modern classic in the making, as Katherine Rundell creates charming and compelling origin stories for all Kipling’s best-loved characters, from Baloo and Shere Khan to Kaa and Bagheera. As Mowgli travels through the Indian jungle, this brilliantly visual tale, which weaves each short story together into a wider whole, will make readers both laugh and cry.
Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, first published by Macmillan in 1894, is one of the most enduring books of children’s literature, delighting generations of children. Katherine Rundell has taken this as the basis of her new and enchanting tale, sharing the early years of favourite characters and informing the creatures they become in Kipling’s classic, with stories about family and friendship, loyalty and jungle law, and a final battle which will decide the future of the forest.
A gorgeously produced paperback with a foiled cover and colour illustrations throughout by creative genius Kristjana S Williams, this is truly a book for all the family to treasure and share.
Tamarind & the Star of Ishta by Jasbinder Bilan
Tamarind never knew her Indian mum, Chinty, who died soon after she was born. So when she arrives at her ancestral home, a huge mansion in the Himalayas surrounded by luxuriant gardens, she’s full of questions for her extended family. But instead of answers, she finds an ominous silence – and a trickle of intriguing clues: an abandoned hut, a friendly monkey, a glowing star ring, and a strange girl in the garden who calls herself Ishta. Slowly, Tamarind unravels a mystery at the heart of who she is
Ticket to India by N H Senzai
A map, two train tickets, and a mission. These are things twelve-year-old Maya and her big sister Zara have when they set off on their own from Delhi to their grandmother’s childhood home of Aminpur, a small town in Northern India. Their goal is to find a chest of family treasures that their grandmother’s family left behind when they fled from India to Pakistan during the Great Partition. But soon the sisters become separated, and Maya is alone. Determined to find her grandmother’s lost chest, she continues her trip, enlisting help on the way from an orphan boy named Jai.
Maya’s grand adventure through India is as thrilling as it is warm: a journey through her family’s history becomes a real coming-of-age quest.
The Girl Who Came Out of the Woods by Emily Barr
Arty has always lived in the Clearing, a commune hidden in the forests of south India. But her happy life, separate from the rest of the world, is shattered after a terrible event.
For the first time, Arty must leave her home, and head into the intriguing but frightening outside world. On the streets of India, a chance encounter leads to her becoming an unwilling overnight celebrity.
As she embarks on her journey, she discovers she is being followed by thousands of strangers, who seem to know her every move…
Forced to fight against mysterious hashtags and being constantly photographed, how can she find the help she desperately needs?
Everything is changing too fast for this girl who came out of the woods… could she be running into a trap?
Stories for South Asian Super Girls by Raj Kaur Khaira
Through the inspirational stories of 50 famous and under-celebrated women from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, South Asian girls will have a chance to dream about lives for themselves that radically differ from the limited narratives and stereotypes written for them by their culture, wider society and the mainstream media.
Bringing together illustrious entertainers (Meera Syal, Jameela Jamil, Mindy Kaling), pioneering business leaders (Indra Nooyi, Anjali Sud, Ruchi Sanghvi) and a host of other, equally remarkable yet less well known, figures (including the British Muslim spy, Noor Inayat Khan, and fearless activist, Jayaben Desai), Stories for South Asian Supergirls seeks to redress the imbalance for young girls of colour by empowering them to break new ground for themselves and to inspire others in the process.
Illustrated with striking portraits by ten international South Asian female artists, this is a book for all ages the perfect gift that will be treasured by parents as much as their children will enjoy reading them.
A big thank you to Fern (aka The TripFiction Kid’s Lit Writer in Residence) for this brilliant selection!
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