Life is sweet growing up in Aizawl, with his family and friends, and all the narrator wants is a peaceful life. But the independence movement in Mizoram means that regardless of what he wants, he is drawn inexorably into a world where everyone has to choose where they stand …
Set in the initial stages of the two-decade-long struggle for Mizoram’s independence and against the backdrop of the 1966 bombing of Aizawl, this stunning debut novel is an universal story of how individual dreams and lives are shattered when larger conflicts arise.
This book is part of the Not Our War series, which looks at the lives of children in conflict zones.
Everything in this book is absolutely true, including the things that happened, the things that didn’t really happen and the things that would have happened if history had been more interested in telling an exciting tale!
Gandhi and his followers intend to set out on their long walk to Dandi to protest a salt tax, but little do they know of the dangers that stand in their way. They mustn’t despair, for a group of fearless sparrows are ready for self-sacrifice and derring-do. They’ve made a resolution, you see, to protect Gandhi from any foe-bird, mutt or Britisher.
Open this book to join the ranks of the Mahatma’s Guards-heroes six, with India’s greatest poet in the mix-as their adventure takes wing!
Madras, 1944
While World War II rages in Europe and the Japanese army draws closer to India, Raji and her sisters are sent off with their mother to stay in Manikoil, her mother’s family village. But with her brother now a soldier in the British Indian Army and refugees fleeing from Malaya, Burma and other eastern countries back to India, Manikoil is no longer the peaceful haven it once was.
And while there is hope of Independence in the air, Raji is uncertain whether it will come to pass-and what it will truly mean for her and her family.
The Songs of Freedom series explores the lives of children across India during the struggle for independence.
The series complements school textbooks about the independence movement. As the stories are told from a child’s point of view, these stories bring the facts of the independence movement to vivid life in settings all over the country—and inspire each reader to engage with the idea of India.
Bombay, 1942
With Mahatma Gandhi’s call to the British to Quit India, the city has become a hotbed of revolutionary activity-student protests, secret magazines and even an underground People’s Radio which broadcasts news that the British want concealed.
Sakina and her friends Zenobia and Mehul desperately want to be part of this struggle for freedom. But there is little that they are permitted to do. But at least, they are trying to do something useful, while their mothers are only running a cooking club …
The Songs of Freedom series explores the lives of children across India during the struggle for independence.
The series complements school textbooks about the independence movement. As the stories are told from a child’s point of view, these stories bring the facts of the independence movement to vivid life in settings all over the country—and inspire each reader to engage with the idea of India.
A hilarious, mystery and action-packed children’s book, sixth in the award winning History Mystery series will have children hooked to reading!
Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Dihli, is outraged. Someone has stolen his favourite dessert, the sugared melons from Khurasim. What’s worse, people are questioning his plans of torture and punishment. Who can help the Sultan solve this mystery?
The History Mystery series are historical fiction books for children that are packed with facts and fun history trivia. The story features Ibn Battuta in a lead investigator’s role, volunteered into it due to a bum on his boil. Will Tughlaq’s Thunderous Three find the thief for the Sultan to stew him in sugar syrup? Travel back in time and share Ibn Battuta’s wonder at the amazing food he ate when he got here. Discover the horse and foot postal system that existed way back then and read on in awe about the court magicians.
WHO’S YO GRANNY?
What would you do if you wanted to watch your favourite show, but someone mean and cranky and scary was hogging the TV?
Deepu is the biggest fan ever of the great Ninja Dragon Morimori, and knows he must behave as nobly as that great cartoon hero.
Which is why he is grappling with his cranky old grandmother for the remote control, when
ZZZZAP!
Nani has super ninja powers and is swinging from the ceiling and backflipping across the living room! When Nani disappears out the window, Deepu has to follow.
Will Deepu survive this crazy night? Will he end up in a smelly beast’s belly or the little boys’ jail? More important, will he get back home before Mummy suspects anything?
Rohin is fifteen and, despite his father’s wishes, wants nothing to do with science in school. But what does he want to do instead?
On vacation at his grandparents’ rambling haveli in Lucknow, he stumbles upon the secret diary of fifteen-year-old Hassan Ali, or Hasnu, reluctant cook’s apprentice, the despair of his father and black sheep in a long line of illustrious chefs to the nawabs of Lucknow. As Rohin reads the story of Hasnu’s doomed culinary career, he decides he has to track down Hasnu and find out what happened to the Bekaar Bawarchi. Did he escape the kitchen? What did he do instead? And how did he tell his father he didn’t want to be a cook?
Rohin’s search unearths some hilarious stories-of spotted eggs; how a famous actress demanded a hot meal; the disappearance of a khandani khazana; of friends and kitchens!
And one day Rohin realizes what it is he wants to do with his own life.
990 CE, Tanjore, India
Twelve-year-old Raji is growing up during the reign of Rajaraja Chola in south India. Raji is a girl of spirit—brave, bright and bold. She is also a dancer, a warrior and a sculptor who models kingdoms in stone. Raji, however is not happy: she misses her family. Her mother is in exile and her father has left home in grief.
On a dark night as a storm rages, Raji rescues a Chinese sailor at sea. This sets off a chain of events with unforeseen consequences.
A Shiva statue goes missing, a prince disappears and there is a murder inside a temple. As Raji and her friends, the prince Rajendra Chola and his cousin, Ananta, try to help the Chinese mariner, they realize that he may have some of the answers Raji has been looking for.
Will the Criminals be brought to justice?
Will Raji’s family be reunited once again?
Will peace be restored to the mighty Chola Kingdom?
The year is 1939. In the little village of Shona Gram in Bengal, Neela hears about how the freedom fighters will stop at nothing till they send the British back. The day after her sister’s wedding , her father goes to Calcutta to join a protest march called by the Congress. He promises to be back in a week. But when three weeks go by and there is still no sign of him, Neela decides to take matters into her hand. Dressed as a wandering minstrel, she arrives in Calcutta. There she befriends Bimala, the rich daughter of a judge and cousin of Samar, a young freedom fighter Neela had rescued from the police in her village. They begin a desperate search for her father and get to know he is in jail and that he will be deported to the Andaman Islands in a few days. Neela has to free her father before that . But can a twelve-year-old girl outwit the mighty British empire? Set in a dramatic period in India’s history, this racy adventure will have you turning the pages to find out if Neela finally manages to succeed in her mission.
8 August 1942: As Gandiji and prominent leaders are put in jail, Babu and Manju suddenly find themselves a part of the larger protests–their schools close down and their father is put behind bars. Their daring brother Mohan goes underground and the rest of the family moves to Narayanpur, a sleepy little village seemingly untouched by the turbulence in the country. But Narayanpur is seething within and it all comes to a head when a group of children dare to confront the police.
