The best kids and YA books from India that are universally appealing and have a great slice of Indian culture and life

Just a Train Ride Away is a wonderful, simply written book, a very quick and profound read, and it carries a lot of lucid and clear language.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy the book.

The plot is full of deep insights and comments on Indian society. The plot is straightforward: A boy, Santosh, travels by train, from Mumbai to Kolkata to meet his father.

What happens on the way, and conversations he has, leaves an indelible impression on him.    

Nature and wildlife are something I always enjoyed, and loved from my school days.

Flute in the Forest is a truly memorable story, mesmerizing and beautiful, rooted in the landscape of South India’s forests.

It focuses on Atiya Sardare, a daughter of a forest officer, and her treks into the forest. It is on these treks she hears the sound of a flute playing, and resolves to learn to play it.

Atiya’s flute playing calms a rogue elephant in the forest, Rangappa. I recommend it to anyone who loves a moving story. 

Who among us as, as kids and not so kids, has not dreamt of running away from home? We all have, let’s be frank. 

But in Zai Whitaker’s Andamans Boy, Arif actually does it. Arif is sick and tired of the oppressive and shabby treatment by his aunt and uncle. He is also tired of life in a major city like Mumbai.

One night, he decides to run away, far far away to the deep south city of Chennai, from where he catches a boat to Andaman Islands. These islands are full of a large tribal population, and he quickly discovers nature of tribal society.

Full of frolic and fun, it also asks the fundamental question: what is development and how do we define the word “civilized”? 

Ranjit Lal’s writing is always quirky, fun-loving but contains a touch of mystery. In That Summer in Kalagarh, all these qualities are visible. 

The main character is always teased as ‘elephant’ by her cousins. Ironically, on a holiday in the jungles of Uttarakhand in north India they encounter many real and not so real elephants! 

What is the legend of the dead elephant, also called Gitanjali? Why does Gitanjali hear sounds nobody else can, deep inside the jungle?

A spine-tingling adventure, laced with dollops of keen observations and descriptions. 

As a child, I loved—and still love—reading the stories of Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, and the Hardy Boys.

But my favorite was Feluda, a series of mystery stories or novellas created by ace filmmaker Satyajit Ray.

Ray’s Feluda stories revolve around a fictional detective called Feluda, who travels across India’s vibrant landscapes, from the caves of Ajanta Ellora in the west, to Jaipur in the north, to Chennai in the south, to many more, and outside India too.

Ray’s detective stories are well rooted in Indian culture, very clean, and virtually without any “Adult” content, and only a bit of violence but make for interesting and gripping reading despite it. 

Written originally in Bengali language, it is translated very well. It is eminently suitable for readers of all age groups.