 New Delhi : Writer Shubhadra Sen Gupta said that it is a tough job being a children's book author, but the heartening news is that the number of young readers in India has increased in the last decade.
She added that the heartening news is the number of young readers has increased in the last decade. Marketing phenomena like 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight' series of books have been bringing children to bookstores, helping them experiment with new children's literature.
Sen Gupta is a former advertising veteran and the creator of the pictorial book version of Satyajit Ray's famous private eye "Felu da" series.
She puts the burgeoning number of young readers to well-read Gen X parents, who can advise their children".
Sen Gupta, who is a well-known Penguin-Puffin imprint writer, has scripted three "graphic versions of Satyajit Ray's detective series", a series on great lives and on the Indian freedom fighters.
She said that two more graphic versions of Satyajit Ray's thrillers, 'The Killers of Kathmandu' and 'Danger in Darjeeling' will be published in August while another title about the smuggling of temple antiquities ('Kailashe Kelenkari') will be ready for release in December. Her historical titles include a collection of short stories, "The Sword of Dara Sikoh" (1991) and two historical thrillers set in the time of emperor Ashoka -- "Karthik's War" and "Karthik and the Lost Gold.
Sen Gupta whose family has lived in the capital for the last 100 years and was part of the freedom struggle, is working on a new young adult mystery series for Young-Zubaan imprint, the "Foxy Four". The second book in the series will be published this year.
The writer said the stories revolve around four smart tech-enabled boarders, Charu, Jahan, Padma and Mandy, all multi-faith friends, who sneak out of their boarding schools to solve mysteries. It is written in first person - narrated by Charu.
She said that the series - also a covert comment on women's empowerment and secularism - has been inspired by a Bengali serial thriller, "Goenda Gondalu" that appeared in "Sandesh", a children's magazine in Bengali, founded by Upendrakishor Roychowdhury in 1913
Sen Gupta Saturday held a group of nearly 100 children in thrall at Penguin-Puffin Lives and Habitat Book World children's book reading and quiz session in the capital to promote the culture of reading quality literature among school students with her "behind-the-scene" stories about her books on Emperor Ashoka, Mahatma Gandhi and Indian freedom fighters.
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