Dear Torchlighters,
While it is true that most bookworms develop their reading habits in the golden summer of childhood, it is only during adolescence that they start coming into their own as readers. This is the time when read-alouds and dadi-nani stories give way to independent reading; when choice is exercised and genre preferences are formed; when the seeds of lifelong interests and obsessions are sown.
And thus, this issue.
In Spotlight, we present the stories of three people who traverse through the topography of their lives to reflect upon the bond between adolescence and books; sometimes this involves delving deep into their own pasts, other times it entails a reaching out to others. Editor and YA aficionado Bijal Vachharajani puts on her hiking boots In Search of the Great Indian YA Book. Teacher and professional enthu-cutlet Isha Purkayastha sits down with some of her brightest high school students to discuss reading in the times of Snapchat in They Touch Me in a Way Smartphones Never Could: Teens on their Relationship with Books. Smita Vanniyar of Point of View tells us about growing up queer and bookish in the UAE in their podcast Queering Goodreads and Other Adolescent Adventures.
Chiaroscuro features A Library for All: Growing Up in a Faraway Land where historian Divya Kannan shares with us the stories of the Afghan refugee kids who make weekly visits to Delhi’s Community library in Sheikh Sarai. Rekha Raghunathan reflects upon how YA lit has come a long way from the days of her own girlhood in Chennai to her daughter’s young adulthood years in The Kids are All Right: An Intergenerational Tale of Living and Loving YA Fiction. Samina Mishra reviews Siddhartha Sarma’s new YA book Year of the Weeds, the story of a marginalized tribe’s heroic battle with the bureaucratic might of the Indian state, an essential tale for our troubled times. In Bosom Buddies, singer-songwriter Caroline Fernandez takes us through her immigrant experience as a young bookworm in late 80s-early 90s Canada. Four talented students from VIDYA tell us in पुस्तकों से प्रेम about their budding relationship with the library space and how the books therein hold the key to both play and growth. Finally, Isha Purkayastha takes us, along with reluctant muse/model Titash Sen, on a visual tour of some of Mumbai’s most gorgeous reading spaces.
In addition, we have our regular features – On the Same Page where Beena Choksi tells us about intrepid librarians-cum-soccer coaches who are advocating for the union of fitness and reading, and A (Youthful) Readerly Problem where Alia Sinha’s comic strip renders a scenario sure to find resonance with everyone reading the page.
We hope you will bask in the glow of book love this issue offers. The theme for the next quarter’s issue is Libraries- Personal and Communal. Do join this growing community of Torchlighters!
Isha and Neha