Pratham Books are excellent. The stories are accessible to readers at every level (i.e., beginners to proficient readers) and across languages; the bilingual books are especially useful for children who are just starting to learn one language (or two) and for teachers, too. Additionally - and this is something not a lot of children's book publishers can boast of - Pratham Books are extremely affordable, making them a favourite with novice teachers like myself. I can't recommend these lovely books enough - for children and adults alike! :)
Pratham Books help us achieve our objectives ! Children who have not seen books at home, or fun books, books they can touch, and learn from, relate with - when these opportunities are not there for students, we see how well Pratham books fills this gap -and how ! It gets children interested in reading, in knowing, in connecting and to pick up another book. In India, there are few books relevant to Indian milieu, especially for the lower economic backgrounds - Pratham books comes in beautifully for all children with their books! The books have been affordable and are beautifully illustrated. The number of languages Pratham books publish is also an advantage - and the Level one, English books, become a stepping stone for children learning English. I have found Pratham books great way to express, and encourage children to read and know. Keep going !
The books are well-produced, extremely affordable and Indian in sensibility, something we could have more of. The multi-lingual versions are a treat. It's not just about producing nice books, they do so much more to take the products to disadvantaged communities and to encourage reading. Pratham Books are my favourite gift for children. I've bought at least 50 Pratham books so far!
Pratham books are interesting,simple and classy.It encourages children to read more and more!.
Great Initiative.
I have always been a fan of Pratham Books. There are a lot of things that Pratham does, but their books are very special. The cost of the books is so less that even a huge pile costs a very reasonable amount. I like how their vision makes them publish books in so many languages. Their social media group is active with a blog post published almost daily! Maya especially is always so warm, Purvi and one more person on the team who are have always been so kind. They take other smaller organisations and people with them to make a bigger impact. Their PBC is one such initiative where everyone gets together- I have rarely seen organisations who do that. Once as PBC conducts a story telling session, they are given a small gift which tends me extra special! They are quick at responding and always accommodate requests and people. Their library in class project ensured so many students get access to books easily. Their books reach on time, in case an order is placed. I can go on about my love for Pratham books and especially about the professional way in which they work as I have known them for 5 years now! I am in awe of them and only wish they get bigger and bigger!
If it were not for Prtham Books I would have never been able to reach out to rural children and give them the joy of reading and learning. Not only are they themselves working passionately to spread the joy of reading among the underprivileged children, they have given volunteers like me a wonderful platform and opportunity to do this and love specially their beutifully illustrated picture books!
I was involved in Pratham's effort to promote the reading habit among Indian children for two years by having my school, Al Qamar Academy participate in the International Literacy Day celebrations. I've been very impressed by their dedication, organised approach and thoughtful selection of book titles.
Pratham Books brings out bright, colourful books with beautiful artwork. More than the art, the tidbits of information and concepts, and subtle morals conveyed in the story are good for a child's soul. I have volunteered as a storyteller for Pratham Books for the past five years. Their co-ordination of the worldwide storytelling event on one particular day, usually International Literacy day, is excellent. The excitement starts right from the time we receive books, banners, tips for storytelling and more. Pratham Books has a Champions Blog in which they record all the storytelling events. The reach of Pratham books is very good, more so because of the different Indian languages their books come out in.
My kid started reading passionately through Pratham books from the age of 4. For the book challenge, I nominated my 8 year old and was surprised that the ones which topped her list were from Pratham. For me, Pratham settled it :)
The write up at the back page of the book is quite pleasant and eye opening, conveying a sweet message to kids across the different strata of the society in their own terms. It is quite an epiphany for younger kids who don't get much chance to interact outside the closed community they live in.
Pratham Books is a non-profit organisation dedicated to its mission of giving a book in every child's hand. In a country like India where income gaps are manifold, a book is not priority for low income families, where children lend a hand with household or other work.
But Pratham now helps these children live their childhood. Through its committed volunteers, Pratham takes these children into a different world through its varied kinds of books. It helps them enjoy, learn, imagine, dream and aspire.
Not only that, Pratham has made high quality books possible at a low-cost, allowing people to donate entire libraries to schools totally deprived of books.
Pratham's books are available in several Indian languages that encourage children to remain connected and be proud of their mother tongue. Children all over the country can read the same book in a language they are comfortable with.
Pratham Books has inspired even grown-ups who seek to give back to the community, making them 'Champions' of the cause.
Finally, Pratham has kept up with current technologies by digitising some of its books and making them available in a freely downloadable format.
As a former pre-school teacher, I have used the digital version of some of Pratham's stories in the classroom. The beautifully illustrated stories that encompass a variety of topics, both fiction and non-fiction, brought delight to the children, many of whom are not read to in their homes.
I think the Pratham Books team has come a long way in its ten years of existence. They continue to work hard in their mission of 'a book in every child's hand'.
Hi... Pratham Books gave me a chance to write in a retell remix... & I fell in love with the concept... Now my nephew & other children around me are in love with aloo-maloo-kaloo, takloo, cap on a moon... They like to see the colors of nature, listen to the sounds of their body, they try to find the missing something.... This gives me Joy... & whenever I look into the books I feel innovative...
Pratham Books is doing a great job in bringing about a reading revolution in india, starting with the kids. Kudos to their great initiative !!!
Pratham Books : appealing, simple, affordable...
What more can you ask of books??
The very well illustrated story, wonderfully written in simplicity with a very nice background which you can relate to very easily...
Pratham Books is also doing a phenomenal job in the field of education...
Kudos to all their hardwork and team work....
Good Luck!!
One word - Fabulous !
Pratham had filled the gap of providing wonderful pieces of work at amazingly affordable prices. Their books are simple yet cover a plethora of concepts. Hence they are great tools for teaching too. Their annual initiative on International Literacy Day of 'One Day One Book' is indeed remarkable. Wish their books be included in regular school curriculum in all schools !
Tell your story here and help others understand this charity
Their books are wonderful and very well illustrated. Their books are very different and very interesting for children. Above all the books are not expensive at all. I will highly recommend their books.
The beauty of Pratham Books lies in the simplicity of their books. It is this simplicity that makes a child into a reader. When I introduced my 3 year old to Pratham's hindi books, she wanted to continue reading only those books throughout the week. She enjoyed them so much that she would go through them herself and try to read the story a loud. These books have and still are helping me tremendously to encourage my daughter to speak and read our national language and it makes me a proud mom to see her do that. Thank you Pratham Books! Keep up the good work!
I have been using Pratham books for the past 7 years for filling the growing years of my kids. The books are simple, attractive, wonderfully illustrated and set in a native backdrop. Kudos to the NGO for making reading so affordable and celebrating the joy-of-reading and book-in-every-hand among millions of children.
Personally, Pratham Books have also been very very handy in my case to teach and encourage reading to my kids in their mother tongue which is not formally taught. On most occasions like birthday-part-return-gifts, birthday-gifts, farewell-gifts, I have resorted to hundreds of Pratham books. I have enjoyed participating in the world-literacy-day events for last 2 years. Some of the books/illustrations which I particularly enjoyed / moved me are city-of-stories, susheela's-kite, my mother, sedna-the godesss of sea, journey of cauvery, little painters, asian splendor, chuskit goes to school.
It is wonderful to see some of the Pratham books get translated in Sanskrit and multilingual videos including french in BookBox. Definitely makes language learning more fun. Kudos and Way to go Pratham Books...
They are doing amazing work. Unseen concept anywhere else. Bringing back storytelling...just amazing. Reaching out to children who are our future - inculcating reading habit, imparting education, having fun and broadening their horizon. Just phenomenal.
I have been observing work of the pratham in field of education. They have identified problems and also evaluating them too. Through Pratham books they are trying to addreaa problem now. Books by pratham are return not only for entertainment but for cultivating science understanding n views in children. Easy to read...
Pratham books has made a turning point in the education field . I found Pratham books recently and was stunned with the ideas and work . I have been an ardent follower since then . They help in educating kids and improve the quality of life of little children . I love the books . - Sailakshmi Rajagopal
Pratham was a great initiative when it started. And like most successful initiatives, it has begun having greater faith in itself and allowed the emerging opportunities in the field of education to pass it by.
With initiatives like One Laptop per Child, Pratham's activities have become less attractive in order to produce what is possible, here and now, for the same amount of effort.
In teh same amount of money that Pratham spends on a child, OLPC can transform the child's future by an order of magnitude.
Using Pratham when OLPC became possible with the effort made by Negroponet to raise $250 million and collect some of the best minds in teh world in the field of education and technology to create a revolutionary initiative embodied in a laptop that works everywhere regardless of infrastructure and teaching resources, is a bit like using a landline phone to communicate when the cell phones have become widely available.
Pratham does not address the potential of a child. It only looks at what the government set as a guideline half a century ago.
Meanwhile, the world has changed. The needs of learning have changed. And Pratham continues to chug along the same old way when imagination has begun to fly and created greater and deeper divides between those with resources and those without.
Its time Pratham uses OLPC to improve its own effectiveness or winds down to let more modern approaches lead the world to bridge the divide.
OLPC has demonstrated in Uruguay that in 19 months 500,000 children, EVERY SINGLE CHILD in Uruguay can start learning like the best in the world do.
Pratham helps a child become a domestic help who needs to be trained.
OLPC helps them become critical thinkers, problem solvers who can hold to their own in any environment.
Time to rethink folks!
With the arrival of enthusiastic and competent young publishers like Pratham Books (started in 2004), the children's book industry in India finally seems to be getting its act together! As a writer, translator and reviewer of children's books for 4 decades, this gives me tremendous pleasure.
Pratham Books aims to put a book in the hands of every Indian child.There are 300 million children in the country, speaking at least 21 languages. And many of them live in dire poverty, in remote, inaccessible areas.Getting good books to these children is a monumental task which Pratham Books seems to be tackling
with both creativity and vigour. In the last year Pratham teams have been reaching out to state governments and NGOs across the country to make books available not only through libraries, shops,schools and book fairs, but also through village post offices and at bus and train stations.
Realizing the enormity of the task ahead, they are also reaching out to other publishers and organizations so as to jointly produce rich and varied fare for children. In 2010 Pratham Books published 'Nono, the Snow Leopard' in 4 Indian languages, in collaboration with the Nature Conservation Foundation and the Snow Leopard Trust.
Recently they adopted the Creative Commons framework - making their stories and illustrations available under an open licence model. This has meant that their books are reaching children not just as written words but also as audio books, books in Braille for the visually handicapped, as well as iPad and iPhone applications.
All these excellent initiatives go to show how an organization can fly while remaining firmly grounded!
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Pratham Books' aim of putting a book in the hand of every child is a most laudable and much needed objective for an Indian publisher. There are millions of children in India and yet most books for them sell only in thousands. This means far too many children are deprived of books.Whatever be the reasons,and there are several, this is both sad and shameful. And it has been this way for the almost forty years that I have been associated with children as a writer, translator, reviewer and storyteller. To do justice to the children of our country,particularly the under-privileged, we need many,many more high quality,low priced books for them in all the Indian languages. And we need to reach these books to them. Pratham Books has made an excellent beginning.In the five years of its existence, its bright, well-produced, very reasonably priced books - and its story cards(which are shortened but still illustrated versions of their books, priced at just two rupees each)-have been read with pleasure by millions of children all over the country. May the efforts of Pratham Books go from strength to strength! And may many more 'Prathams' bloom and grow! The gratitude of India's young will bless them.
Awesome books
I use them for the school with special needs that I volunteer with.
Parents take one look at the books, especially age group 3 to 6 years, and they say...want want want!!
Topics are so relevant and child friendly....and Indian!
Only wish you could reach many many more...especially special schools....
Any books for special children specifically would be more than welcome...I know Chuskit Goes to school....but perhaps for slightly smaller kids too!
Pratham is making a serious dent into the 'Children's Books' scene in India. They certainly have made a huge difference to the reading habbits of our 4 year old. The books are not pedantic, they are usually written from the perspective of a child, the publishing quality is outstanding and all this for just Rs25/- or so. I wish Pratham was available at more stores and libraries.
Very colourful, rooted in Indian tales. My 18 month old daughter loves seeing the pictures while listening to stories of crows,grandmoms and fireflies :-) The low cost is an added incentive, cos you can buy so many more books! More power to them and their good work!
With a mission and commitment to enabling children to read, and to creating a reading country, Pratham Books has done pioneering work that has reached children across the country with its pre-school, in-school and out-of-school programmes that aim to ensure that every child is in school and learning well. Pratham Books is a not-for-profit trust that seeks to publish quality books for children at an affordable cost in a number of Indian languages – reaching books to children who otherwise would not have access to good quality material. The books are beautifully designed and their content is among best one can find in publications for children – the text or story of each book usually contains a meaningful insight for children but it is one that is subtle, not patronizing or beating down with a high moral tone. So children enjoy the stories, are fascinated by the design and artwork and what they read gives them learning for life. The books are so reasonably priced that the libraries can afford to have multiple copies of the books. This means that an entire class can read as one and the children can share their thoughts and ideas about the stories. Even library periods have become more interactive as the children read the same titles together, and then move into discussion, reviews and other follow-up activities that make learning hands-on. As the books cover a wide range of subjects, the themes lend themselves to social studies, environment studies, and value education. I work with a number of schools as a consultant in education, and my focus area of work is curriculum design and lesson planning. Having been introduced to Pratham Books, teachers often replace textbook chapters with stories from Pratham Books or else use them to add value to the subject matter. In the light of current trends in education – particularly the development of life skills – Pratham Books are among the best resources available to educators today – particularly educators in middle and low income schools, as they provide excellent content and design at easily affordable prices. I have also seen first hand the outreach work that Pratham does as part of its Read India project. At one of the schools that I work with, a library and learning center was started in April with about 18 children from low income families who come in to read every afternoon. Pratham allowed the use of its systems and assigned a trained volunteer to assist the staff and student volunteers of the school to run the library. Each child who comes to the library is given a personal library card and a target is set of a common minimum objective of 70 books read by each child annually. The children are screened and ranked according to levels of literacy, ranging from symbol recognition to sentence level and book level. Then they are divided into groups: the beginners at a Learn to Read level and the more advanced at a Read to Learn level. Volunteers apply an accelerated learning method developed by Pratham in which an unlettered child soon starts reading and computing basic mathematics. Through the books it brings to children, Pratham Books brings about a transformational change in their lives.
I run a Library for young children in Delhi, and was on the lookout for books that are simple in text but have great content and Pratham books absolutely fit the bill. I have had many moms come back to me and say that their children loved the books, looked at the pictures and enjoyed the story.Our library is well stocked with the Pratham collection and we keep adding more. We have been handing the books out to children living around our area and these books have been a first for almost all of them and many have come back for more.
Pratham Books is a real world example of what happens if you combine a super-charged team with great intentions! The work they are doing to promote literacy is truly amazing. As a parent of a three and half yr old, I'm always on the look out for interesting books that bring a contextual connect, so I just love the fact that these books are about every day Indian lives. Makes it very easy for my daughter to relate to them as opposed to the Enid Blyton's we were used to. I also feel great that buying these books helps put a book within reach for so many more children. In fact it's the kind of idea that makes me say - why didn't I think of that! Kudos!
Pratham Books does exactly what it sets out to do: bring out beautifully produced,extremely relevant,engaging books for children at a price that make the books universally accessible.Literacy is the need of the hour in India, and Pratham Books is doing a wonderful job of planting the seed of curiosity and interest in children from various sections of society.
I'm the executive director of Literacy Bridge, a U.S.-based nonprofit that develops a low-cost audio computer to improve literacy in India and other countries throughout South Asis and Sub-Saharan Africa. I've worked with Pratham Books for two years. I have personally reviewed about ten of their books and have been extremely impressed by their content. We have their books in our U.S. office, and visitors often request copies for their U.S. programs. I've worked closely with senior members of the staff and am constantly impressed by their innovative approach to making high quality content available to the children who need it most. This is a high-quality organization that I look forward to working with as long as possible.
I had heard of Akshara foundation, but I came to know of Pratham Books a couple of months back through a friend whose mother works as content manager for Pratham and who has herself illustrated couple of Pratham books. I found the quality and content of the books far more superior to a lot of children books found in bookstores. I promptly ordered a set of 40 books in a mix of English and Hindi for my four and half year old daughter. When the books arrived, initially I was a little skeptical about whether my daughter will like them. But, how wrong I was! The books instantly clicked with her. She has just started reading and was simply delighted with the books. I cannot describe how thrilled she was when she could read an entire book on her own from cover to cover. The books are simple, beautifully illustrated and attractive for young kids and the content is just apt for early readers. Not to mention the pricing which makes them affordable for such a large section of the society. The organization is doing a great service in the field of education by providing quality supplementary education material.
I Came to know about Pratham books 2.5 yrs ago accidentally while searching for books for my 3yrs old daughter.I purchased 15 books for her and she enjoyed to see the books and she was asking me daily to read.The books are very good and the qualityb of books and the content is very appealing.I am purchasing books onthe eve of my daughter's birthday and i'll present these books to all her classmates as return gift.I have a plan to donate these books to the schools in my husband;s village.This ia great work done by akshara foundation. Thanks Bramara.S
Pratham Books is an excellent organization that I have had the pleasure of working with as an external research collaborator. I consider them to be one of the top education NGOs in India, and they are hugely deserving of additional recognition and support. The first thing to notice about Pratham Books is that their content is wonderful. I have shared their books with educators and researchers alike, and they are consistently delighted by the quality of the illustrations, the text, and the stories. High-quality children's books are vitally important in India, for promoting literacy and also enabling children to learn second languages (such as English) as a portal to higher education and employment opportunities. The quality of books at Pratham is second to none. At the same time, Pratham Books produces and distributes content at very low costs. That they are able to offer books as low as Rs. 25 each is a testament to their diligence, ingenuity, and hard work. In addition, their movement towards releasing works under a Creative Commons license is rare amongst publishers in India, and will pave the way for many innovative applications of their content. One such application is one that we are working on, to help distribute libraries of books on interactive DVDs for viewing on television. Finally, I am always impressed when I interact with the staff at Pratham Books. They are extremely capable, responsive, and professional in all of their undertakings. This is reflected as well in their close relationships with other partners, including the Akshara Foundation libraries which extend the reach of their books to children who need it most. To summarize, Pratham Books has my strongest support. I am convinced that they will play a central role in enriching the landscape of children's education in India, and will continue to have a major impact in years to come.
I have been associated with Pratham Books for over a year and I find the books very engaging for little children. The books have a way of teaching kids in a very playful manner. I also appreciate their willingness to share their books with people with print disabilities who cannot read books in print format. Awesome work in reaching out to the under privileged. Viji Dilip
I bought the entire series of English books from Pratham and was very happy with the price, content, and presentation. They have succeeded in producing attractive and interesting books at very low cost -congratulations!
I recall my sense of exaltation at seeing a set of 20 books on my table of the "TELL ME NOW" series of Pratham books in 2004.this was the time and moment when as Director,Education MCD i was frantically searching for more books to augment the collection of books available with each municipal school of Delhi.It was a challenge to buy books for Early readers. The only sparse help available was from CBT and NBT but it was not sufficent to meet our need of feeding 10 lakh primary school children on interesting books for increasing their reading skills and also to ignite their imagination.Pratham books came on the scene not only as a breathe of fresh air with its simple theme , colourful get up,contolled vocabulary , easy on the eye font size and excellent paper quality.Eversince it has been a pleasure seeing it grow with new titles each year.KUDOOS!!! Keep it up. INDIRA YADAV Director,Education(retd.)
Last year Pratham Books published an inspiring story book for children based on one of our sportspersons - Virdhawal Khade. The story book is called 'From Kolhapur to Beijing - Freestyle!' and tracks the progress of a young swimmer from a small town in India who goes on to realize his dream of representing his country at the Olympic Games. The team at Pratham Books was extremely professional throughout and it was a pleasure engaging with them. Since then they have been keeping track of the Virdhawal's progress and are a constant source of encouragement.
Pratham Books gives wonderful value for money, and enjoyable books for kids. As I do write children's books (for other publishers), I know how difficult it is to maintain quality, content, readability and the price. Pratham seems to be managing everything beautifully. and the icing on the cake is, they do it all on a not-for-profit mode, which makes even the simple the book buying experience feel very nobel. I love reading / presenting their books to everyone I know
The quality of books for the price on stand is excellent. Even the face to face contact with the Pratham employees/volunteers have been excellent for me. Its a pleasure to read their books and the simplicity of their writing is unique. It was very nice to see their idea of sharing traditional stories of one region with another through their apt translations. I have read up on their other activities as well and what amazes me most is that in such a short time Pratham, unlike a number of other not for profit organisations, has managed to understand that for any large scale impact they have to work with and 'through' the government. They showed an excellent example of this with their work in Bihar. I wish them the luck for the future and hope to see many more successful projects by them.
I think Pratham is doing a fantastic job in bringing out such good books at such a reasonable price. The content, the illustrations and presentation are very child friendly. Pratham has shown us a way in fulfilling the dream of bringing books to every child in India...and along with it education, imagination, wonder and hope in him. I wish Pratham all the best. Sonali Pota
I started to help the Govt. primary and Middle Schools after I retired fully from IIT kanpur as Professor, CSIR and AICTE in India.I was made Secretary of HIMWATS.org. I donated Rs 2 Laksfor the SAvidya upsamiti ( see "Ashanet .org SAVIDYA" and started to adopt one school (GPS) for support in 2005-6. We provided Uniforms to children, extra teachers , games and sports material, Computers, Light/electricity in the school, one class room per class, learning and science resource Center with 2400 books and >250 experiments. This we are trying to make as a Model school. The schools Library books are being rotated in alll the 7 adopted schools in Champawat, Uttarakhand ,India.
I consider Pratham books is really touching people. They are doing an excellent job. My kid loves those books. All the very bext to them.
I came to know Pratham Books through a social networking site where I met one of their staff members. He introduced me to other staff members. I have followed the magnificent work of Pratham Books from afar. It is through their website, facebook, blog, emails and twitter account I have been able to follow their work. I have seen many pictures of happy faces of the children they are reaching with their beautiful books. They are making a huge difference in many young lives. Their mission, to place a book in the hands of every child in India, has reached further than India. It has reached across the globe. Some of their books are touching the hands and hearts of children in America. Their books have wonderful stories with beautiful illustrations. They have shared some of their books with our children and they have also given of their time to listen to our children practice reading. The caring people that make up Pratham Books have touched the hearts of many young students in our Elementary school in Pennsylvania. When reaching out to a child their generosity and love knows no boundaries. The beauty is that it isn’t done with an ulterior motive. It is done with a genuine concern for the literacy of all children. We thank them for all they have done for us and wish them the greatest success in obtaining their mission goal. “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” - Dr. Seuss
I have been following the progress of Pratham Books for more than a year now. As someone who believes in the power of books in young lives, I have been impressed by the work they have done. It is especially laudable that they are bringing out so many Indian books for children. When I was a child growing up in India, I had to resort to non-Indian readers after a certain age. I am glad that for my children, I will have the option of buying more Indian books. Also, children's books tend to be so expensive and it is great that Pratham books has managed to make so many of these fantastic books so affordable. Moreover, they have played an instrumental role in increasing general awareness about children's books - the need, the possibilities and the opportunities - by reaching out to a wide audience, especially making use of new media such as blogs, twitter etc. Kudos to them for their great work, and I wish them the best in the future too.