My Science School

Emmett Atwater is one of the 10 teens recruited by Babel Communications to participate in what is advertised as “the most serious space exploration”. It’s a very, very lucrative proposal: $50,000 a month for each participant – too tempting an offer for Emmett to refuse. With an aim to help out his family – including paying for his mother’s kidney transplant – Emmett signs on. He’s put on a mission to mine ‘nyxia’ or black gold, a valuable substance from planet Eden. Babel Communications is committed to finding the fittest survivor among those who have signed on, because life in Eden isn’t going to be bliss. They pit the participants against each other with brutal, grueling tasks to be done. Nyxia’s power is that it can be turned into anything. Emmett turns it into a facemask that can translate languages, thereby allowing him to communicate with the others. It’s through these interactions that Emmett discovers that the only thing common among all the participants is that they’re broken. Each is escaping a trauma too much to bear. The leader of his team is a girl named Morning. Emmett and Morning begin a friendship that demands that one of them be sacrifice. Who will it be?

 

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Phaet (pronounced ‘fate’) Theta’s ancestors have moved to the Moon to escape the ill effects of climate change and the inhospitable living conditions on Earth. Life in the lunar colony is confined, regulated and controlled by an anonymous Committee and the Military. Phaet lives with her mother and siblings. Since her father’s death nine years ago, Phaet has withdrawn into a silence that she rarely breaks. She reacts to almost nothing, leaving people to wonder whether she feels anything at all. She’s most at home in the greenhouse where she works. She wants to become a bioengineer. Life goes on until her mother, a fearless journalist, is forcibly quarantined for ‘medical’ reasons. Suddenly, Phaet, whose name means ‘dove’, faces the tough task of protecting her siblings from the filthy environs of the Shelter. Intelligent and motivated, she begins working out with Cadet Wes Kappa. She forces herself out of her thoughts and starts to engage with the world outside. Will she be able to rescue her mother and overthrow the current regime?

 

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Seventeen-year-old Spensa lives alongside other humans on planet called Detritus, which is in ruins thanks to constant attacks by aliens known as the Krell. Spensa dreams of becoming a pilot, a much-revered group of people dedicated to protecting Detritus. However, she’s haunted by her father’s reputation: He was a pilot who was branded a traitor and killed by his own team when he sought to abandon an intense battle with the Krell, Spensa, seen as nothing more than a coward’s daughter, is determined to not allow anything to stand between her and the flight academy. She gets a near-perfect score during the entrance examination – despite it being rigged against her – prompting her father’s former wingmate to agree to train her. During the course of her training, Spensa bonds with her classmates, practises and perfects fighting techniques, repairs a crashed spaceship that has a computer with artificial intelligence, goes to battle, loses some of her friends, tries to abandon battle, is branded a coward and grounded. Instead of wallowing in her defeat and misery, Spensa climbs back into her spaceship and travels into space and intercepts some sensitive communication of the Krell.

 

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Archit Taneja was born in Bangalore, every different from the Bengaluru that we know of now. After living in different places throughout his childhood, he finally ended up again in Bengaluru for work. “One thing that hadn’t changed about the city, until very recently, was the big store for children’s clothes and toys. Men dressed in bizarre mascot costumes at the store traumatized me as a kid, and then as an adult. I think it finally shut down a few years ago. The memories still remain, but the closure helped,” says Archit, adding he is soon going to pen down his next – a young adult horror book based on this traumatic memory.

That’s Archit Taneja for you – building on experiences around him, bringing on humour by the tonnes, a scientific approach to case-solving and speaking in a tongue that has everyone from middle readers to young adults (YA) hooked. Wait. And gaming. Read him and you’ll know how important it is to his writing. He has the “Superlative Super Sleuths” series under his belt, featuring the super awesome duo Rachita and Aarti who solve cases involving candy bandits and careless aliens. The series is going to have author book by the year-end.

Archit says he started writing when he was 14 or 15, mainly to vent out the teenage angst that most kids have at that age. “It was mostly emo stuff and really terrible humor that I never dared to share with even those closet to me. Reading, strangely, didn’t inspire me to write. I recollect me and my likeminded friends pillaging through the horrible jokes section of books in the library, while our peers were busy either reading more serious stuff or doing other things that the popular kids did,” he says.

But once he was in his 20s and slightly more confident about himself, he shared a couple short stories with a few close friends, one of whom suggested he do a writing workshop with the publishing house Duckbill. He attended it on a whim, and ended up really enjoying it. The rest, as they say, is history. Or rather mystery, since Duckbill went on to publish the “Superlative Super Sleuths” series.

Writing like Archit Taneja

Archit has some great tips for young writers and he dishes them out in his trademark style:

• Do not be discouraged if you feel your writing style doesn’t stand out or if you don’t have a fancy vocabulary. That is just one aspect to writing, and you can still tell a good story if you excel in other areas.


• When it comes to writing, you should embrace you weird. What makes you unique is probably what will reflect the best when written down.


• Children’s/YA books by Indian authors are still far from the limelight. Books by foreign authors still dominate Indian readers. We are still waiting for an Indian author who changes the landscape in this genre. You could be that author!


• Writing something can require a lot of labour. There would generally be a driving force that makes you want to continue working on the project. It could be something that inspires you, something that you really enjoy and want to put into words. It’s possible that the driving force dies mid-way and you don’t feel like finishing the thing. For example, if you’re a massive fan of a television show, and the new director ruins the show by messing up the plot or changing the character’s personalities in the next season, you obviously don’t relate to the show anymore, and just hearing its name makes you cringe. At such a critical juncture, you should remind yourself that your fan fiction is its own entity now, and it is independent of external events, so you should not stop. Also, you’ve spent so much time on it already, it would be just stupid to stop now. This example can be extrapolated to other scenarios.

The writer’s routine

Archit says he is not sure if he has a consistent writing style. “If I’m feeling profound, which happens if I have just read or watched something profound, or stayed up beyond 2 a.m., I try to write more descriptively. Otherwise, I just end up telling the story in simple words. In whatever style I write, I attempt to achieve goofy or quirky humour, with possibly a scientific/technological bent to it,” he reveals.

Archit mostly ends up writing on weekends. “If I think of something interesting on a weekday, I end up taking notes on my phone to expand on them during the weekend. The writing happens in one- or two-hour bursts, interleaved with unhealthy food snacking and random video-watching on the phone. A lot of web browser tabs are opened to search on topics,” he says.

Bet you didn’t know that Archit is obsessed with the cartoon “Adventure Time”. At one point, he was the No. 1-ranked player in India in the “Adventure Time” section of a popular quiz app.

 

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Recognition

At the Karadi Tales and Karadi Path offices in Chennai, the mood is ebullient ever since news came in that both – the publishing house and the education firm – have been shortlisted for three London Book Fair International Excellence Awards this year. The award, new in their sixth edition, is held by the London Book Fair in partnership with the UK Publishers Association. There is enough and more reason to celebrate. As many as 29 countries are represented in this year’s shortlist, and all three shortlists from India are from the Karadi Company. Karadi Tales has been shortlisted for Audio book Publisher of the Year, the other nominee being Penguin Random House, the U.S. Karadi Path has been shortlisted in two categories: the Education Initiative Award and the Educational Learning Resources Award. This is the second consecutive year Karadi Tales has been shortlisted for Audio book Publisher of the Year while Karadi Path is the only organisation shortlisted for awards in two categories.

Shobha Viswanath, co-founder and publishing director, Karadi Tales, says, “It goes saying we are delighted. We were very strong contenders, but to be shortlisted in three categories is very special.” For a company that started in 1996, the 24 years have been a roller-coaster ride. Karadi Path, the education arm of Karadi Tales, for instance, was envisaged in the year 2000 and research and development began almost immediately. The company formally came into force only a decade later. “It’s actually validation for a lot of things,” says C.P. Viswanath, co-founder of Karadi Path, adding, “That’s about two decades of work speaking.”

Filling a void

Shobha and Viswanath, along with the latter’s Brother Narayan Parsuram, founded Karadi Tales to fill the obvious lacuna in the children’s audio books space. “We were in Detroit (the U.S) when I used to take my son Kaushik to the nearest community library and get back audio books for him. He started reading by about two years. But when we came to India, we sadly saw no quality audio books available,” she says. Their son was five by then and the entrepreneurial bug had bitten them. “We thought of a music publishing house given that the entire family was so passionate about music. But the idea that finally took shape was of a publishing house for children’s books with a strong focus on audio books.” They got voices such as Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak, Tom Alter, Gulzar, Girish Karnad and more to join them, and soon Karadi’s became the most sought-after books and audio books around the country. The company was named Karadi Tales only in 2000 after the narrator became very popular; earlier it was named Sky music India.

Focus on learning

That very year, they also started exploring avenues to revolutionize English language learning. “We responded to a Dharavi-based NGO’s feedback and that helped us take the initial steps towards Karadi Path. They were using a lot of Karadi books to teach the English language and we realised the children were responding to the non-verbal drama in the story. When we went there to see how we could teach them English, we realised they already knew three or four languages. Nobody sat down and taught them these languages. Likewise, English can’t be really taught.” Karadi Path took the route of prediction and discovery to facilitate language and learning. “We realised that just like Artificial Intelligence, language learning depends heavily on these two principles.” The learning programme is running successfully in 3,500 schools across the south and the west of India.

While they are waiting eagerly for March 10 for the awards to be announced, there is a bigger party planned for the next year when they celebrate their silver jubilee. Plans are underway for newer products and delivery innovations for audio books. An app is being tested for launch next year. “It is good to go!” says Shobha viswanath.

The challenges

Asked about the challenges faced by independent children’s publishing houses in India, she says it is the lack of support. “Take parents’ awareness, government support, library support, price points, marketing, distribution... independent publishing houses are being hit everywhere. But the heartening thing is how established publishers are starting off children’s imprints. We need that right now.”

 

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In this award-winning story of hope, Jessica Carlisle, a born runner, loses her leg in an accident that also kills her classmate. The doctor thinks that the young and athletic Jessica will make a complete recovery. But for Jessica, the loss of her identity as a runner is devastating. She spirals into depression, gets addicted to painkillers, and becomes resentful of her friends and family. Trying hard to cope with her handicap, she returns to school with her disability. People are kind but obviously awkward around her, not knowing whether or how to react to her disability. Her best friend Fiona never leaves her side. Her coach and track team really want her back. Rosa Brazzi, on a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy and with a razor-sharp mind, offers to help Jessica with Maths. The new friendship changes Jessica’s outlook to life. Soon, Jessica undergoes therapy and tries out a prosthetic leg. Slowly, she begins to walk and eventually, run in it. Soon, she is thinking of participating in the 10-mile River Run. But not alone. She wants Rosa with her. She wants to teach Rosa to love running the way Rosa taught her to love Maths. Together, they draw attention to differently abled people as people rather than their disability.

 

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Andrew (Drew) Lawson is an African-American who leads his high school basketball dreams. It’s his ticket to an admission in college because his grades aren’t great. Growing up in Harlem, one of the poorest and most dangerous suburbs of New York, exposes him to challenges and various bad influences. Drew, however, is focused and committed. His dream is to play in the college team and eventually be drafted into the NBA. This dream blurs when his coach begins favouring a new player recruited to the team and cuts out Drew’s playing time. How does Drew protect his dream and his future? Does he win the place he thinks he should?

 

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Nate Brodie is called “Brady” because he’s every bit a star like his idol Tom Brady. Because he’s the most talented player in the team, his team relies on him to win games. But the 13-year-old is grappling with more problems than other kids his age. With a moody, distant and inaccessible father and a mother working two jobs just to put food on the table and keep their house, Nate feels insecure and lonely. Adding to his misery, his best friend Abby is slowly losing her eyesight. The only bright spot is Nate’s chance to win a million dollars for throwing a football through a target at one of the games. Will Nate, crack under pressure and lose his touch or will he make the money his family desperately needs?

 

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Every four years, 12 of the best female gymnasts from the U.S. compete with each other at the USA Gymnastics Women’s Olympic Trials. Those who win make it to the U.S. Olympic team. “Tumbling” follows Grace, Wilhelmina, Monica, Camille and Leigh over the two days of the trials. The story is told from the these five women who are at different stages in their careers. Some of them are veteran athletes while some others, seemingly from nowhere, are vying for Olympic glory. For Grace, gymnastics is her very life breath. But success eludes her. Every single time. On the contrary, for Leigh, her best friend, everything seems perfect both in gymnastics and in school. And perfect it will remain until her secret remains a secret. Camille is in gymnastics to please the people around her while Wilhelmina has a score to settle with her previous self. She would not allow what happened four years ago to repeat itself. And Monica? She is terrified because nobody believes in her. Which of these has what it takes to make it to the U.S. Olympic team?

 

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