Writing for Children
Mamata Pandya
I had a childhood which was filled with stories and books. From listening to Gijubhai’s stories with their colloquial Gujarati rhythm and rhymes, to reading voraciously in English, starting with the very ‘English’ Enid Blyton and moving through the classics, the funny, the scary, the nonsense, and the mystery and adventure tales. As I grew up, I fell in love with words. That love grew and matured as I did, leading to a continuing passion for reading and writing.
When I became a parent, the journey came full circle when I started reading to my children from the time that they were very young; not yet able to read on their own, but able to participate in the bedtime ritual of looking at the pictures, Touching and feeling the pages, and hearing the words. That is when I rediscovered children’s books, once again with the same passion and excitement, but also now, more analytical about the writing. At perhaps a subconscious level I was noting what made the book appealing to children—the story, the style, the use of language, the clever blend of fact and fantasy, and of course the illustrations.
It was around this time that when I talked with my children, or showed them something interesting, or as I observed their own responses to things that they saw and experienced, the words began to spontaneously compose themselves into small poems or short narratives. As the children grew, I discovered that I was doing this with more ease and enjoyment.
Around the same time I also started translating children’s books from Gujarati to English, and English to Gujarati. I found that this threw up a new set of challenges and learnings, and an opportunity to explore the different nuances of two languages. I continue to grapple with these challenges and opportunities even today.
Translating Children’s Books: The Challenges
This period of my life also coincided with my own professional journey as an environmental educator. As part of my work, a greater part of my writing involved developing material for educators on different aspects of the environment. Every project involved a lot of research to collect the appropriate and accurate content, and the challenge to communicate the science in a non-threatening and learner-friendly manner, so as to encourage a participatory teaching-learning climate.
One of the spin offs from this exercise was the opportunity to use some of the research to develop material which was directly for children. This necessitated both accuracy of facts as well as creativity to communicate these in an attractive way for children. As an educator the mandate was that the material led to the generation of curiosity, creativity, competence, and compassion, which would ignite the spark of conservation. As a storyteller the challenge was to make the material exciting, fun and engaging for children. This supported the exploration of many genres and approaches—from adapting folktales to inspiring real-life stories; from fantasy to humour, and poems and rhymes.
The interdisciplinary nature of environmental education provided a rich and diverse reserve to dip into. From trees to termites, oceans to ozone, plastics to pollution—almost everything around offered an opportunity to gift wrap and present to children. This has given me, over the years, the enriching opportunity to myself learn about so many facets of the world we live in. And, encouraging children, through my writing, to explore and discover this world for themselves has given my work a purpose and a sense of satisfaction. I can only imagine that this would have been what Gijubhai felt when he started writing for children a hundred years ago.
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