Anita Vachharajani
Writer, Editor, Library Consultant
Anita is an award-winning children's book writer based in Mumbai, India.
WORK
Amrita Sher-Gil: Rebel with a Paintbrush, 2018
Publisher: Harper Collins India Ltd
Written by Anita Vachharajani
Illustrated by Kalyani Ganapathy
Amrita Sher-Gil was one of India's first professional, modern, women painters.
What was it like to be born of an inter-racial marriage in 1905, to travel the world, to bridge continents and to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris? Read this award-winning book to find out all about how young Amrita grew and developed her art, and went on to paint 175 or more canvases during her brief lifetime. This Young Adult book won the Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar, 2021.
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Nayana and the Not-so-scary Owl, 2012
Publisher: Pratham Books
Written by Anita Vachharajani
Illustrated by Shilpa Ranade
A picture book about a little child and her utter terror of owls. And about how, finally, she rescues one! Nayana… has been selected as part of CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) India’s list of recommended picture books for primary schools across India.
The Puffin Book of Bedtime Stories, 2009
Publisher: Puffin, India
Format: Anthology
Anita Vachharajani: Look, a Nest! and The House that Wouldn't Stay Home
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A story about an itinerant house and a child who never knows where she will wake up. Also, a story in verse about a city child who spies on a crow building itself a nest.
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Ambili Meets the King, 2011
Publisher: Pratham Books
Written by Anita Vachharajani
Illustrated by Venkat Raman Singh Shyam
A baby elephant, a frog, and Kerala’s breathtaking monsoon! Illustrated by Venkat Raman Singh Shyam in the traditional style of the Pardhan Gonds of Bastar, this book about a baby elephant's first monsoon is a delightful parent-and-child read.
Amazing India: A State-by-State Guide, 2009
Publisher: Scholastic, India
Written by Anita Vachharajani
Illustrated by Amit Vachharajani
A treasure trove of facts and figures about India, along with information about its many art forms, ecologies, cultural expressions, practices and festivals. The books 250+ illustrations (both informative and funny) engage and delight the eye.
Nonie's Magic Quilt, 2009
Publisher: Mango Books,
Written by Anita Vachharajani
Illustrated by Anitha Balachandran
A delightful picture book that tells the story of little Nonie who wouldn’t sleep, and the quilt her magical aunt weaves her!
Puffin Book of Spooky Ghost Stories, 2009
Publisher: Puffin Books
Format: Anthology
Anita Vachharajani: B-U-R-P!
Could her far-from-loving-grandma have come back from the other side to haunt her? And what, if anything, could she do about the ghost's monstrous appetite?
The Tenth Rasa: The Penguin Book of Indian Nonsense Verse, 2007
Publisher: Penguin Books, India
Edited by: Michael Heyman, with Sumanyu Satpathy & Anushka Ravishankar
Part of an anthology of translations of some delightful nonsense verse from the different languages of India. Anita translated poems from the Marathi and the Gujarati into English.
Amazing India: A State-by-State Guide, 2009
Publisher: Scholastic, India
Written by Anita Vachharajani
Illustrated & Designed by Amit Vachharajani
A treasure trove of facts and figures about India, along with information about its many art forms, ecologies, cultural expressions, practices and festivals. The books 250+ illustrations (both informative and funny) engage and delight the eye.
Phoo-Phoo Baba and Other Stories and Uncle Know-All and Other Stories, Gijubhai’s Gujarati Folktales – Retold and Illustrated by Aabid Surti, 2010
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Publisher: Pratham Books
Written by: Gijubhai Badheka & Aabid Surti,
Translated from the Hindi and the Gujarati into English by Anita Vachharajani
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Writing in the 1920s, Gijubhai Badheka was more than just a children’s writer or a folklorist. He believed in the playway method of learning. His compilations have delighted Gujarati readers for years. Aabid’s illustrated Hindi version took the books further out into the world. With these new editions, the stories are now accessible in English as well.
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Editing, City of Fear, 2007
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2007
Written by Robin David
Edited by Anita Vachharjani
'An extraordinary account of ordinary people in troubled times. In 2001, a calamitous earthquake struck Gujarat. A year later came communal carnage. For Robin David, then an assistant editor with the Times of India, the two events engendered a tectonic shift in his own life. The earthquake left deep cracks in his ancestral home, while the riots undermined all the certainties of life. City of Fear documents the varied forms of fear that people in Gujarat experienced during that period, especially those of the author's own Indian Jewish Bene Israeli family.'
Contact
anita [dot] vachharajani [at] gmail [dot] com
