Like every mother or grandmother, Author and Founder-Chairperson of Arghyam Foundation Rohini Nilekani told stories of the Moon to her grandson when he was three years old. And this is what turned into her latest book The Hungry Little Sky Monster, which has been published by Juggernaut Books and released this Children's Day. Rohini, who is also the Co-founder of Pratham Books, says, "The book is meant for kids aged between 2 to 5 years and it revolves around this little monster who eats up the Moon little by little. That's how it becomes smaller and turns into a half Moon and finally, disappears for a few days. But the story is about how we get the Moon back. The book explains the changes that this celestial body goes through phase by phase in the form of a story through beautiful illustrations by Megha Punater." She adds that parents can use the table given to draw the shape of the Moon and lead children to understand the science behind it all.
Unlike many of us, this author, whose life's wish is to see every child with a book, has found this year to be a rather productive one. She says, "This is the second book I've published this year. Early this year, I wrote a book in the Sringeri Srinivas series where the protagonist adopts a resolution during the COVID pandemic. This one was also written in a short span of time and I did it as soon as the lockdown was announced. This too is meant for 2 to 5-year-olds. I think for any writer, the lockdown period has been the most fertile time for us to think about life and the issues we are surrounded by."
Rohini, who has been always been a great storyteller, has been writing books for over 15 years but the first book she published was with Pratham books. She has written over 13 books for the NGO and The Hungry Little Sky Monster is her first commercial children's book. Aside from writing and being part of several webinars, Rohini and her husband Nandan Nilekani have been working extensively for EkStep Foundation that they co-founded with Shankar Maruwada in 2015. "Technology is a tool to empower people as it distributes the ability to solve problems and EkStep Foundation is one the best examples of this. Here, we provide learning resources in literacy and numeracy for students. And anybody can be part of this community to create and access thousands of pieces of learning content," says Rohini who hopes that kids will love to read her latest book.
