Karadi Tales is an independent children's publishing house based in Chennai, India focusing primarily on picture books and audiobooks. It was started in 1996 with an intent to create a space for Indian culture in the world of children's publishing, by a group of writers, educators and musicians. Since its launch, Karadi Tales titles have been consistently one of the largest selling publications in India. Many titles have sold more than 100,000 copies and most titles have crossed 20,000 copies. The audiobooks are narrated by a roster of celebrities and set to classical Indian ragas which are performed by trained musicians. In 2010, the Karadi Path Education Company was founded. It is an offshoot of Karadi Tales.

Concept

Karadi (which in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil etc. means 'bear') is a bear who tells stories from his life. The first voice of Karadi the bear was the acclaimed Indian actor

Naseeruddin Shah Naseeruddin Shah (born 20 July 1950) is an Indian actor. He is notable in Indian parallel cinema. He has also starred in international productions. He has won numerous awards in his career, including three National Film Awards, three Filmfare A ...

Series

Picture Books

Karadi Tales picture books for kids cover a wide range of topics such as gender, stories about the environment, animal stories, Indian folktales, stories about kindness, and concept books on counting, colours and shapes. Authored by gifted writers they feature stunning illustrations in a variety of styles including Indian folk art like

Warli The Warli or ''Varli'' are an indigenous tribe (Adivasi) of western India, living in mountainous as well as coastal areas along the Maharashtra-Gujarat border and surrounding areas. They are considered by some to be a sub-caste of the Bhil tribe ...

, Gond and Madhubani.

Folktales

This series feature folktales from different parts of India. With illustrations and music representative of the region, these stories form a complete cultural experience of different parts of India. The initial four folktales in this series from Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Bihar were narrated by Usha Uthup. The mantle of sootradhar and storyteller has now been taken over by

Nandita Das Nandita Das (born 7 November 1969) is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth'' (1998), '' Bawandar'' (2000), '' Kannathil Muthamittal' ...

Bilingual Picture Books

Popular books from around the world in bilingual English/ Hindi and English/Tamil editions to promote multilingual learning among children. These include books of

Eric Carle Eric Carle (June 25, 1929 – May 23, 2021) was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book ''The Very Hungry Caterpillar'', first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold ...

, the best-selling author of ''

The Very Hungry Caterpillar ''The Very Hungry Caterpillar'' is a 1969 children’s picture book designed, illustrated, and written by Eric Carle. The book features a hungry caterpillar that eats a variety of foods before pupating and emerging as a butterfly. It has won m ...

.''

Board Books

Karadi Tales board books for babies offer sturdy pages, important concepts, and vibrant illustrations. They have one title so far called ''One Rainy Day.''

Audiobooks

Karadi Tales Mythology

Karadi brings to life a world of gods and demons, kings and queens, a universe of times past. Stories from Indian mythology are woven together and sung by Award winner and celebrated film and theatre personality

Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the ...

, who plays the role of Karadi, the bear and sootradhar. The script, lyrics and direction is by Shobha Viswanath.

Thota Tharani Thota Tharani is an Indian film art director and production designer who has predominantly worked in Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam cinema and Bollywood. As of 2013, he has won two National Film Awards, two Filmfare Awards South and four Tamil ...

adapts his unique style to communicate art to children, which exposes children to illustrations that are not childish, yet are appealing to the child. Like the art, the music steers away from the childish nursery rhyme format and incorporates Indian aesthetics. The acclaimed group, '3 Brothers & A Violin' have created the songs and background scores for the audiobooks.

Charkha Audiobooks

Charkha Audiobooks presents biographies and Indian classics for young adults. Mahatma Gandhi, Dalai Lama and A.P.J Abdul Kalam are some of the eminent personalities whose biographies have been adapted for this series.

Will You Read With Me? series

The 'Will You Read With Me?' series is a personal invitation to all children to read along with their favourite icons. Each narrator takes the child through a delightful visual and auditory journey, as they simultaneously listen to the story while browsing through the clever and quirky illustrations in the books. Narrators and musicians for this series include well-known personalities such as

Vidya Balan Vidya Balan (pronounced ; born 1 January 1979) is an Indian actress. Known for pioneering a change in the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema with her roles in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including a National Fi ...

Soha Ali Khan Soha Ali Khan Pataudi Khemu (born 4 October 1978) is an Indian actress who has worked in Hindi, Bengali and English films. She is the daughter of veteran actress Sharmila Tagore and former Indian cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, and th ...

Rahul Dravid Rahul Sharad Dravid (; born 11 January 1973) is an Indian cricket coach and former captain of the Indian national team, currently serving as its head coach. Prior to his appointment to the senior men's national team, Dravid was the Head of ...

, and Javed Jaffery.

The Mouse Series

The Mouse series is a series of four books featuring the character 'Mouse' narrated by Karthik Kumar with music by Anil Srinivasan.

Karadi Rhymes

Featuring Indian rhymes for Indian kids, these rhymes are set to simple Indian ragas. The rhymes are sung by

Usha Uthup Usha Uthup Iyer (born 7 November 1947) is an Indian pop, filmi, jazz, and playback singer who sang songs in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. "Darling", which she recorded with Rekha Bhardwaj for the film ''7 Khoon Maaf'', won the Filmfare Award ...

Tactile Books

Karadi Tales has two tactile books for preschoolers – ''ABC Touch and See'' and ''The Very Hungry Caterpillar.''

Translation Rights

Karadi Tales picture books have also sold translation rights all over the world, with editions in Thai, Chinese, Bahasa, German, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, Nepali, and Spanish.

Television

A 26 episodes Animated series premiered on 5 April 2010 on

Disney Channel India Disney Channel is an Indian pay television channel operated by Disney India. The channel is the Indian equivalent to the original American network which was launched on 16 December 2004. Disney Channel is available as a pay television channel ...

directed by Soumitra Ranade. Animated characters and backgrounds are uniquely stylized along the lines of the Indian mask-making tradition, which gives the series a distinct look and feel that is sophisticated and very Indian.

Animation

The Karadi Tales Animation episodes feature stories from Indian folklore. The character design is based on the rich visual traditions of India and rendered in a unique animation style inspired by Indian mask making and puppetry cultures and textured with vibrant music and songs.

Awards and recognition

Karadi Tales has got several national and international accolades such as The Hindu Young World Goodbooks Awards, the Dr Toy Award, the NAPPA Award, the Jarul Children’s Choice Award (three years in a row), the

Comic Con India Comic Con India (CCI) is a series of annual comic-based conventions held in India. The first edition was held in New Delhi in 2011 and over the years has expanded to other major cities in India such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahm ...

Award, and the South Asian Book Award. Regularly reviewed by

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with ...

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

and Brain Pickings; our titles can also be found in many prestigious lists such as White Ravens,

International Board on Books for Young People The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is an international non-profit organization committed to bringing books and children together. The headquarters of the IBBY are located in Basel, Switzerland. IBBY history In 1952, Jella Lepm ...

, the New York Public Library’s Best Children’s Books, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Program, and more. Karadi Tales was also shortlisted for the Best Publisher Award (Asia) at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2017, and in 2019 for the International Excellence Awards for publishers at the

London Book Fair The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and di ...

, in the category ‘Audiobook Publisher of the Year’.

Citations

External links

The official website of the company, Karadi Tales Company Pvt. Ltd.

Contact the official company, Karadi Tales Company Pvt. Ltd.

channel on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

.

Buy Karadi Tales books online. *{{Cite web, url=https://www.karaditales.com/catalogues/, title=Catalogues, website=Karadi Tales, date=25 October 2016, language=en, access-date=2019-12-04 Karadi Tales catalogues. Companies based in Chennai Book publishing companies of India Indian companies established in 1996 Oral tradition Storytelling Indian literature Indian folklore 1996 establishments in Tamil Nadu Publishing companies established in 1996