New children's books on the way

We have three new original Nepali children’s books ready for the printing press! They will be published by our partner organization in Nepal, Kakshyalaya, in early 2024.

We need your support to distribute these books, conduct future workshops for writers and illustrators, sponsor children’s literature festivals, and develop even more engaging stories for children in rural Nepal, where school libraries are scarce.

Just like the three books we published in 2021, these new stories are culturally relevant and appropriate, written in Nepali, and include expressions and details that reflect life in the countryside. All of our books are written and illustrated by Nepali authors and artists.

Our partner schools read aloud to their students every day. This helps children acquire early literacy skills, nurtures cognitive and emotional development, and inspires creativity. Not just fun to read and look at, these stories also encourage family and community connections.

Here are the three new books coming soon:

Dashain 

When children think of Dashain, the biggest festival in Nepal, the first words they think of are chutti (holiday) and changa (kites).

The book features 16 words – mostly simple, everyday terms that children associate with the Dashain festival. A single word appears on one page accompanied by an illustration on the facing page. The illustrations are done in just two colors: black and red. Dashain is associated with the color red; elders often put bright red tika on the foreheads of children as a blessing.

Like everywhere around the world, festivals in Nepal inspire families and communities to gather together and share their traditions. It’s a time of generosity, compassion and unity (ekata), another of the words in the book.

This is the first children’s book illustrated by Rajani Gajmer, a senior at Kathmandu University majoring in arts and design. She enjoyed the experience: 

“I had to imagine the Dashain festival through the eyes of a child, which brought back many warm, nostalgic memories. When children read this book, I hope they feel the same joy and happiness I felt while working on it. As adults, we often forget to appreciate the small moments of joy we share with our loved ones. Working on this book made me realize where I am currently and what I aspire to be in the future.”

Mandir           

Pritha Poudyal, who also happens to be the vice chairperson of Kakshyalaya, has written a personal story based on a trip to a temple with her father and her daughter. In Nepal, it’s common for grandparents to take their grandchildren to temple every week. 

Nepali temples are a sight to behold – colorful Shikhara (mountain peak)-style temples with wooden architecture and stone sculptures, their courtyards filled with statues, icons and ever-present monkeys (the living kind) keeping watch. The smell of incense and the promise of tasting a sweet treat (offered as a blessing called prasad in Nepali), make it a vibrant and fun place for children to visit.  

Daraz 

This story imagines a boy’s world inside his closet, which grows to the size of a ship. As he explores a new world, he encounters a spinning top, a soccer ball and board games as well as hidden books and notebooks filled with homework floating around him. The primary reason for the chaos inside the closet? The boy is always in a hurry for more playtime.

It's an engaging story written by Sudha Ojha, with beautiful illustrations by Ubahang Nembang, who also illustrated one of our first books, about the life of bees. 

Bookmobile update

The goal of our 2022 fundraising campaign was to raise $25,000 for a 4x4 bookmobile. Besides delivering copies of our original children’s books and other great stories to children in rural Nepal, the vehicle helps us make more frequent trips to our schools and reinforce the strong bonds we’ve forged with teachers, students, parents and other members of the community.  

“I’m really excited to realize the potential of how much more we can serve the communities that we work in. The 4x4 sure is doing its job and more.”

—Niranjan Khatri, executive director of Kakshyalaya, our partner organization in Nepal

Since the purchase of the 4x4 last spring, Niranjan has made more than 20 trips to our partner schools to conduct teacher trainings, read-aloud sessions and planning meetings with teachers, parents and local leaders.

Last summer, Niranjan drove out to the countryside to run a geography workshop, which included 3-D terrain models of the Annapurna region of Nepal for teachers to use in their classrooms. He frequently picks up teachers on their way to a workshop, and even gives rides to subsistence farmers who otherwise will walk for hours to save a dollar.

Prior to purchasing the 4x4, each trip (which consisted of renting a truck for two days) would cost $200, a savings of more than $4,000 so far. 

Since 2019, Santi School and Kakshyalaya have trained 237 teachers from 49 schools and set up 107 classroom reading corners. Thank you!