Nosy Crow is delighted to announce a gorgeously illustrated gift book of ancient Indian fables, retold by bestselling poet and social media star Nikita Gill in her debut book for younger children, and stunningly illustrated in full colour by Chaaya Prabhat. Nosy Crow is excited to publish a book of exciting and enchanting animal fables for readers aged five and up based on Visnu Sarma’s Panchatantra, originally written in Sanskrit over two thousand years ago.
Nikita Gill, author of seven poetry collections and one novel in verse, and who has over 631,000 followers on Instagram, has chosen ten of the ancient Indian animal stories to introduce to a modern audience, including tales about a monkey outwitting a hungry crocodile, a family of elephants rescued by a group of courageous mice, and a lapwing who learns to listen to those he loves. Celebrating friendship, cleverness, love and wisdom, these stories have been thoughtfully updated for contemporary readers, and are beautifully brought to life by Chaaya Prabhat, with vibrant, irresistible illustrations on every page.
After hearing Nikita Gill talking on Radio 3 about her love for the Panchatantra growing up, Tegen Evans, Senior Editor at Nosy Crow, bought world rights to the text from Nicola Chang at David Higham Associates. Manda Scott, Senior Designer at Nosy Crow, immediately approached Chaaya Prabhat – who also grew up with these stories – to illustrate the retellings.
The untitled gift book will publish in hardback with sumptuous details including cloth binding, foil cover, full colour illustrations throughout, textured paper jacket, ribbon marker and head-and-tail bands.
Author Nikita Gill comments: “I’m so thrilled to be working with the wonderful team at Nosy Crow; the Panchatantrastories were such a big part of my childhood and I can’t wait for a whole new generation of children to discover and marvel at them!”
Illustrator Chaaya Prabhat comments: “I’ve grown up reading the Panchatantra in various forms –– stories, comics, and picture books. To be able to illustrate it as an adult feels like such a full-circle moment. It’s also such an honour to be illustrating Nikita Gill’s wonderful writing.”
Tegen Evans, Senior Editor at Nosy Crow, also comments: “We have long admired Nikita Gill’s poetry here at Nosy Crow and I couldn’t be more excited to be working with her on her debut book for younger children. Nikita’s beautiful, warm and witty retellings, with their focus on friendship and cleverness, will appeal to children everywhere, and Chaaya Prabhat’s stunning, vibrant artwork will bring each story to life in the most irresistible way.”
Nikita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet with a world-wide fan-base, who has the attention of 631,000 Instagram followers for poetry collections and plays that offer a largely female readership the chance to recognise the value of their own experiences. She has given a TEDx Talk, spoken at every major literary festival in the U.K., been shortlisted for the Goodreads Choice Award in poetry three times and has recently made her first foray into music having written for Anoushka Shankar’s newest single Sister Susannah. She has written for or been featured in The New York Times, The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Stylist Magazine, The Bookseller, Cosmopolitan, The Times of India, Eastern Eye and many more. Gill has written six collections of poetry, and a novel in verse which highlights Hindu mythology. Her newest collection, Where Hope Comes From, is out now.
Chaaya Prabhat is an illustrator and lettering artist from Chennai, India currently working out of Goa. She has worked on a number of picture books, including The Culture of Clothes (Templar Publishing), The Best Diwali Ever (Scholastic), Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers (Charlesbridge Publishing) and Hide-and-Seek History: The Egyptians (Little Tiger Publishing). She’s previously worked with several clients such as Penguin, Hachette, Facebook and Google on digital illustration projects. She has previously received awards for her portfolio and projects from Behance and Adobe.
