India, December 15, 2020: Subhadra Sen Gupta, and Rajiv Eipe, have been honoured with the Big Little Book Award 2020 for their significant contribution, through their books and illustrations, to Indian children’s literature.
This is the fifth edition of the Big Little Book Award; the chosen language this year was English. In the previous years, the award considered children’s literature in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and Kannada.
Sen Gupta has authored such popular books, like The Constitution of India for Children, The Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Cook, History Mystery Dal Biryani, Let’s Go Time Traveling, Girls of India? A Mauryan Adventure. Eipe’s illustrations have mesmerised children in titles, like Dive, Pishi and Me, Ammachi’s Amazing Machines, Oh No! Not Again!, Dinosaur as Long as 127 Kids.
The total number of nominations received this year was 318. Winners were selected based on the quality of their body of work by jury members.
As mentioned by the Jury, “Subhadra is a prolific but a particular writer and takes a route that is not an easy one. She writes thoughtfully, well researched books. We can count on her rigour and her background research to stand by her content and always find her positions are balanced and enable the reader to arrive at their own decisions. Something very few writers for children in India in English can add to their list of qualities in writing.”
“One of the finest illustrators in this country, Rajiv is brilliant with his skills and his illustrations tell stories of their own. His illustrations have a wonderful way of entertaining the reader. His work stands out in originality and his observations of the world around us is sensitive and full of humour. A book with Rajiv’s illustrations is visually attractive, informative with details that are delightfully quirky and takes a reader to a world of imagination and fantasy effortlessly”, the Jury said.
The Big Little Book Award was instituted by Parag to recognize and honour significant contribution of authors and illustrators to children’s literature in Indian language(s). Instituted since 2016, the award is given under two categories –author and illustrator/artist. Every year, one Indian language is chosen for awarding an author. The language for 2020 is English. Authors writing extensively for children in English but not limited to it are eligible for nomination. The award for illustrator is not language specific and nominations can come from across languages. The Big Little Book Award aims to create a platform for young readers, parents, schools, publishers and other stakeholders to meet and read the work of authors/illustrators. The goal is to ensure every child experiences the joys of reading and reading good children’s books.
Subhadra writes fiction, nonfiction and travel books and scripts comic books illustrated by Tapas Guha. Keeping in touch with children is one of the joys of her life and over the years her young readers have guided her in the way she presents the many aspects of Indian history and culture. She was awarded the Bal Sahitya Puraskar of the Sahitya Akademi in 2014; the Comic Con Award with Tapas Guha in 2012 and three of her books have been chosen for the White Ravens Selection at the Bologna Book Fair.
