Meet Big Beetle Books: books built for the fortieth reading
Big Beetle Books is an independent picture book imprint in Bengaluru, publishing board books and picture books in Hindi and English for children from birth to about eight. Nine stories, thirteen editions, four of them published in both languages.
Now the part that explains why.
Why we write for the fortieth reading
Nobody warns you about the fortieth reading.
The first is lovely. By the fortieth you are reading in the dark, from memory, while a two-year-old corrects your delivery.
The obvious suspect is the story. She loves it, so she wants it again.
No. She knew how it ended on the second night.
She is not waiting for the ending. She is waiting for the next word, the one she can shout half a beat before you reach it. Somewhere around the fifth reading a favourite book stops being a story told to her and becomes a script she is in.
Children don't reread a favourite book. They move into it.
So that is what the books are written for: the fortieth reading, the one where the plot is spent and the book has to work anyway. It changes three small things.
The sound comes before the sentence. A sentence gets old. A noise a child can make with her mouth does not. Ouchie Ouchie is built on the word you say when you fall off a scooter. Gaadi Ki Ek Aur Savaari has a tyre going papak papak. In Khane Mein Kya Hai? a pigeon says gutargu, because that is what a pigeon says in Hindi. The Hindi editions are written in Hindi, not translated into it on the way out.
The same child, twice. Several of the books follow one toddler, Laali: she falls off her scooter, hunts a mouse behind the door, helps fix the car, and tries extremely hard to befriend a baby buffalo (the buffalo is not interested). Small children are deeply conservative about company, so she turns up again and again.
Places a child can point at. A village where a monkey, a rabbit and a bulbul all have something to hide. A dry summer in Alwar. The animals are pigeons, sparrows, parrots, buffaloes and mice, because those are the animals outside the window.
What Big Beetle Books publishes
Three shelves.
Board books, ages 0 to 3. Short, sturdy, built on rhythm and sound words. Ouchie Ouchie and its Hindi edition Ooi Ooi Ooi take on small everyday hurts and the word you say when they happen. Mr Peekaboo Rat and Ek Hoshiyaar Chooha play hide-and-seek with a mouse. Gaadi Ki Ek Aur Savaari is Hindi only.
Picture books, ages 3 to 7. Longer stories, more mischief. A bored pigeon in What's for Lunch? disguises itself to steal better food. A farm boy in Who's Got the Scarf? chases his red scarf through a village of animal excuses. Chandu Chor Aur Hawaldaar Turram Khan is a Hindi thief-and-officer chase, read loud and fast.
Books with room to think, ages 2 to 8. Two siblings and one cardboard box in Boxy. A girl and a baby buffalo in Buffalo Baby, told without words, so the fortieth reading is never the same twice. And a boy in Alwar who swallows watermelon seeds and waits to sprout, in the comic-style A Tree in My Stomach.
One story, two languages
Four stories exist twice, once in each language, because many homes switch between them before bedtime. Which four, and how to read a pair, is in Hindi and English picture books.
Who makes them
Every title is written by Nandita Rao and illustrated by Charbak Dipta, Suraj Chaudhari or Mohan Perera. Each book is designed so the pictures carry as much of the story as the words, and in Buffalo Baby they carry all of it.
Baksa won the Binod Kanoria Award 2024 for Best Hindi Picture Book. Buffalo Baby was selected for the Parag Honor List 2024.
Where to start
- 0 to 3: a board book, Ooi Ooi Ooi in Hindi or Ouchie Ouchie in English.
- 3 to 7, a child who likes a laugh: What's for Lunch? or Chandu Chor Aur Hawaldaar Turram Khan.
- 4 to 8, reading alone: A Tree in My Stomach.
Big Beetle Books ships within India.
Buy the book for the first reading, by all means. It was made for the fortieth.
Key facts
- Imprint: Big Beetle Books, independent picture book imprint, Bengaluru, India
- Languages: Hindi and English; four stories published in both
- Ages: board books 0 to 3, picture books 3 to 7, longer books 2 to 8
- Catalogue: nine stories, thirteen editions
- Writer: Nandita Rao
- Illustrators: Charbak Dipta, Suraj Chaudhari, Mohan Perera
- Awards: Baksa, Binod Kanoria Award 2024, Best Hindi Picture Book; Buffalo Baby, Parag Honor List 2024
- Shipping: within India only
Frequently asked questions
What is Big Beetle Books?
Big Beetle Books is an independent picture book imprint based in Bengaluru, India. It publishes board books and picture books in Hindi and English for children from birth to about eight.
Have the books won awards?
Baksa won the Binod Kanoria Award 2024 for Best Hindi Picture Book. Buffalo Baby was selected for the Parag Honor List 2024.
Does Big Beetle Books ship outside India?
No. Big Beetle Books ships within India only.
See Ouchie Ouchie, Mr Peekaboo Rat or Buffalo Baby, or Join the letter.