Hold your breath, bite into a lemon, drink water so fast that you can’t breathe in between the gulps, have someone scare you out of your mind — the suggestions one has when hiccups hit you often go borderline ridiculous. So, how does one cure their hiccups? Narrating the story of a young girl, who is caught in a similar situation, celebrated author of children’s books Anushka Ravishankar, is bringing out all the ways one can try to cure the diaphragm spasms through her latest book, Hic!
“Everybody has their own solution to hiccups, if one starts hiccupping people give out all kinds of ways to stop them. So I put together some ridiculous and unlikely ways to get rid of hiccups. There’s a girl who’s hiccupping throughout the book, and she’s trying out all the various ways to get rid of the hiccups. It’s just a book of silly verse,” Anushka shares about her picture book, which is published by Tara Books and will be released in Chennai, along with a book reading with the author on May 13.
With illustrations from acclaimed German illustrator Christiane Pieper, the author says for a picture book, the weight of the book is dependent entirely on the text and illustrations and hence becomes very important. “But, the notion that pictures are only for children’s books is changing. You do find pictures in books for adults as well now.”
Dubbed as India’s Dr. Seuss with over 20 books like Catch that Crocodile, To Market! To Market!, Excuse Me, Is this India? to her credit, Anushka says the publishing industries catering to children have witnessed a sea of change over the years. “There’s been a huge change since I started off. Children’s books that are in the market today in India are comparable to books anywhere in the world. I find it extremely heartening that schools are becoming much more pro-active about getting children to read. I feel that there is a larger measure of children reading today than ever before. But there’s still a big problem of visibility of kids’ books in bookshops,” she opines.
With a number of children turning into authors themselves, Anushka believes that “a book should not be judged on the age of the author but on its own merit.” She says, “I always tell children to keep writing, not with the idea of publishing, but with the idea of thinking and writing as the child is still developing those skills, although there are kids who are doing some brilliant books.”
From just a handful of writers writing for children years ago, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of authors, Anushka feels. “Now, there’s a mix of interesting, young authors writing for kids. But, we definitely need more writers, and a wider range of books — which is only gradually expanding. In English at least, the focus is very elite, and it needs to shift. We should have more stories set in our villages, represent children with disabilities, talk about taboos in our books. It’s all happening slowly and it’s an ongoing process,” she concludes.
