Saffron Stories

Learning Indian history when growing up was like eating an Indian meal – the life you live now is the rice in the middle and you have these little cups on the side with lots of little offerings – never a lot, and never in depth

As a kid I read a lot and as an adult I still read a lot. No one had to tell me reading was fun. But I think I missed out so many different things that could have enhanced my reading.

Couple of years ago, I started doing school visits, told stories to children and of course met some creative, craft-loving, singing-dancing mums and aunts and grandparents who inspired me to make reading absolutely more fun than anything else.

So here are some ideas on how to make books, stories and reading the centre of your universe.

I have always been drawn to stories told by ancient communities. Whether they are stories from Native American communities or the Maori tribes. I seek out stories from India’s ancient communities – be it from Andaman islands or from the hills of South India.

The Irular community is a tribe that inhabited and still inhabits the mountain ranges of the south-west. These communities are nature loving and were tribes who lived off the land, nurtured it and cherished it.

The only way our children and their children are going to understand the past, dream the future and shape this world’s destiny is by reading books. Books that tell them about distant worlds and cultures, 

Saffron Stories has been setup by Chitra Soundar, Indian-born British author of over 20 books for children.

Saffron Stories would curate a list of children's books

• written by writers of South Asian descent in the UK / US
• Or set in South Asia
• Or has characters of South Asian origin

South Asia includes the following countries

• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Maldives
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• & Sri Lanka

From time to time, we would blog about new books being released, books published in South Asia that should not be missed and/or topics that are relevant.

This list is aimed at librarians, booksellers and teachers who are interested in bringing diverse reading to their classrooms / customers / readers. 

We invite visitors to suggest books that we might have missed as long as it meets the criteria.

We would collect suggestions for other diverse reads periodically so if you have a book that you want to suggest, stay tuned for the various blog posts.

Keep reading!