I am a Child – how will this platform help me?
11 years ago
Pratham Books is a finalist in the Google Impact Challenge. Our idea is to create an open source platform for children’s books. We need all our readers and supporters to VOTE FOR OUR PROJECT IDEA so that we can win this grant and make this dream a reality.
Our project will build collaborative web platforms that solve the three major problems that affect children in India – a very low number of books available for them, a lack of linguistic diversity of books and a lack of access to funding for libraries and books so that children can experience the joy of reading.
The ‘I am …’ series written by Mala Kumar will give you an insight into how this platform can be useful to you – as an author, an illustrator, a storyteller, a publisher, etc. Today’s post is from the viewpoint of a child.
I am a child – how will this platform help me?
Welcome to this platform, if you are a child. This is like a magic cave where you get many many stories to read. All kinds of stories. Each story with many illustrations. If you are a fast reader, you will be able to read many stories. If you are learning to read, you will soon pick up speed once you start reading the stories here. You can read it in different languages too. Can you copy a story and submit it as your own story for a class assignment? Yes, you CAN, but of course you MUST not! Because we do not encourage copying. However, you can take a story, say it has been written by this author, and that you have changed to story like this. That is called a remixed story. You can remix the illustrations available on this platform to make up a new story. You can use the illustrations in your project work and other school assignments. If you like to write stories, or illustrate a story that you find on this platform, then you can definitely do so! Your work will be seen by hundreds of people on this platform. You could download a story, print it, and share with with children who cannot read, or who do not have books to read. This is an excellent place to brush up your language skills since you can read the same story in the language you know well first, and then, in a language you are trying to improve on. You can use the prints of the illustration to play games with friends. As a child, you are sure to find many many uses for this platform which no adult may have thought of yet!
The posts we are sharing about the project will help you understand our vision as well as the scope of this project. Related posts:
1. Introduction
2. Let a Thousand Tongues Speak – Increasing language diversity in children’s books
You can also spread the word by :
4. Writing a post on your blog about why you believe in our mission and why you want readers to vote for us. Here’s an example from one of our champions.
Illustration courtesy : Rajeev Verma ‘Banjara’ ( from the book ‘My Family’)
