Alternative Book Stores for Children in Mumbai

The last few years have seen a glut of children’s books in city stores with fantasy, mythology, thrillers and vampire books even topping bestseller lists. But if you’re looking for an offbeat title – a Tara book or a Robert Sabuda popup book, for instance – there’s a good chance you won’t find it at a chain bookstore. But you don’t have to scour the city for them anymore. Here are some shops that are most likely to stock those elusive or unusual children’s books.

The ACK Store
Stepping inside the ACK Store is like walking into the pages of an Amar Chitra Katha omnibus. The store is packed with staggering piles of comics – the range includes mythology, history, fables and folk tales. For younger children, there’s a sizeable collection of Karadi Tales audiobooks, mythology DVDs such as Young Hanuman and Krishna’s Conquests and Indian rhyme VCDs. Other books include the Tinkle Treasure series, which introduces children to iconic figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Charlie Chaplin and the Tinkle Junior Animated Series that acquaints them with animals.

Learning Ladder
The Comet Media Foundation’s Learning Ladder Resource Centre is known for its traditional wooden toys such as wooden cars and jigsaw puzzles. But the Learning Ladder also keeps books by publishers such as Tulika, Tara, Children’s Book Trust, Katha, Young Zubaan, National Book Trust and DC Books. It is also one of the places where you can find bilingual books as well as Pratham Books, an affordable range of books for kids aged three to 14 . “These are books from alternative publishers, not readily available in the market,” said Chandita Mukherjee, the foundation’s director. “Since we liked them and appreciated the efforts put in by the publishers, we thought we would help in disseminating them further.”

Read the entire article and find the entire list of alternative bookstores here.