Madhuri Purandare Wins the Big Little Award 2016 for Best Author

Earlier this week, we received the happy news that our author Madhuri Purandare had won the Big Little Award for Best Author for Children’s Literature in Marathi. 

Parag, an initiative of Tata Trusts, announced the winners of the ‘Big Little Book Award 2016’ for Best Author in Marathi language as Madhuri Purandare and Best Illustrator across languages as Atanu Roy in the Children’s Literature Category at the 2016 Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest.

Given that children have limited access to original Indian writing in English and other languages, the Big Little Book Award, instituted by Parag, drives home the crucial need of children’s literature that introduces and ties them to Indian culture, heritage and tradition in a fun and engaging manner while remaining contemporary. The idea was to create awareness not just among children and parents but also the publishing industry to promote recognition in this genre. Children are the future, and the more we reward and award children’s books, the richer we will be as a society.

Madhuri Purandare has written and illustrated more than 23 story books including the Yash Series – a series of six books that take us into the utterly enchanting everyday world of little Yash. Others include Radhache Ghar, Chitravachan, Hana’s Suitcase (translated into Marathi), Babachya Mishya, Aunty Jui’s Baby and The Hundred and Thirty-seventh Leg. Her books are about regular, ordinary things that children encounter in their everyday lives illustrated with great detail for small things. She has conceived and edited ‘Vaachu Aanande’ – a thematic anthology of Marathi literature and Indian Art for children between 10 to 15 years of age. Because of her keen interest in language and grammar, she authored a three-volume book containing a series of Marathi language exercises for school children titled ‘Lihave Netke’. She is vocal about the need for literature to be context appropriate and her stories give a ‘voice’ to children who could well be from any part of India by tackling simple, daily ‘issues’ of interest to them. She has a degree from JJ school of Arts and studied ‘Painting and Graphic Arts’ in Paris for one year. She teaches French, is versatile artist who has performed on theater apart from writing and illustrating.

Have you read Madhuri’s books yet?