Tara Books – förlag

Above the peaks of the Himalaya, Garuda, the divine eagle of the God Vishnu, sees the Lord of Death hastening towards an exquisitely beautiful little bird. He decides to save it, and hides the bird away - but can death be cheated? A haunting parable of love and destiny, printed and bound by hand, and illustrated in the delicate and ornamental Patachitra tradition of Orissa in eastern India.

The Night Life of Trees is an exquisite hand-bound and screen-printed book of paintings by three of the finest artists of the Gond tribal art tradition. The Gonds, a tribe of central India, are traditionally forest dwellers. They believe that trees are hard at work during the day providing shelter and nourishment to all. Only when night falls can they finally rest, and their spirits reveal themselves. These luminous spirits are captured in The Night Life of Trees, a fascinating and haunting foray into the Gond imagination. Each painting is accompanied by its own poetic tale, myth or lore, narrated by the artists themselves, which recreate the familiarity and awe with which the Gond people view the natural world. Screen-printed by hand on black paper, every page of this book is an original print. Each book in this limited second edition of 1,000 is individually numbered.

A unique picture book for adults where language, design and politics intersect. First published in 1905, German poet Christian Morgenstern's piece is a darkly comic linguistic caprice. This fun romp populated by punctuation marks as characters nonetheless suggests systems of control that go beyond language. This illustrated edition is a brilliantly inventive dance of text and image, translated faithfully by Sirish Rao, with typographic illustrations by Rathna Ramanathan.

An inspirational young adults' book, which celebrates an artist's passion for the creative lifeA visual tribute to active, mobile women everywhere, who are equal to all the situations they find themselves inPage after page of visual stories, asking to be decoded in diverse waysA playful inversion of the male gaze - a woman delighting in other women's lives, rather than setting herself up in competition with themAn exercise in fantasy, delightful and yet poignant, given the circumscribed life that the artist leads

Cat is fed up with her tail, and it never does what it should. She now wants a brand new tail, one that she can choose...

Chomp, chomp, chomp... who’s munching on their lunch?

Peek-a-boo... I see... who?

A cat on a tree, an apple for mewhat else can you see, on this tree?

In the light of continuing debates on Indian women’s mobility and choices, young Mithila painter from Bihar, India, Amrita Das offers a disarmingly fresh perspective on being female and an artist in the making.

Sita's Ramayana shifts the point of view of the Ramayana - the saga of a heroic war - to bring a woman's perspective to this timeless epic. Narrated by the heroine Sita, it is a powerful meditation on the fate of women, as they become pawns in the wars between men and kingdoms. But Sita is not just a patient victim of events - she endures her fate with fortitude, until the moment she decides to challenge it. The book unites two women from very different backgrounds: young urban writer Samhita Arni collaborates with Patua scroll artist Moyna Chitrakar. To read the Tara blog about the making of Sita click here

Waterlife features Mithila art, a vibrant and delicate form of folk painting from Bihar in eastern India. The artist Rambharos Jha grew up on the banks of the legendary river Ganga, and developed a fascination for water and water life. In this book he creates an unusual artist's journal, adapting the motifs of the Mithila style to express his own vision. He frames his art with a playful text that evokes both childhood memory and folk legend. 'The long awaited successor to the bestselling Night Life of Trees, Waterlife is silk-screen printed by hand on handmade paper.

This well-known folk poem from the 17th century is a form of trick verse. Included in classic anthologies of children's poetry, the verse appears nonsensical at first sight, but given a break in the middle of each line, begins to make perfect sense. At the simplest level, it is a lesson on grammar and punctuation. Even the youngest of readers will delight in the overturning of logic that nonsense entails, and the 'trick' with which meaning can be made to return. But as with most folklore, this poem is not just for children, it is meant for all ages. Adults will marvel at the ways it teases out the paths of meaning. Is the difference between fantasy and reality largely grammatical? Or are these inversions the very essence of poetry - by turns meaningless and profound - which overturn our habitual ways of perception? In this pioneering visual exploration of I Saw a Peacock, Gond tribal artist Ramsingh Urveti and book designer Jonathan Yamakami add a further layer of imagery and play to the poem's enigmas, reflecting and complicating its meanings in delicious ways.

"The book’s innovative accordion design illustrated in the Bengal Patua style of scroll painting is just one of the sumptuous design elements that distinguish it as a remarkable offering. . . A gorgeous re-envisioning of an old, old story." — Kirkus Reviews Starred Review"This striking version is illustrated by Joydeb Chitrakar in a Bengali style of scroll painting—with rich colors, strong black lines." — The Wall Street Journal"The stunning illustrations—which really constitute one continual image—reflect an openhearted, instantly accessible folk art aesthetic . . . a glorious example of storytelling’s universality."— Publishers Weekly Starred Review"An arresting first image—God’s huge, baleful eye—is the visual source of all that follows. . . provocative" — The Horn Book Magazine"This beautifully designed and intelligently produced retelling of the flood expands the bounds of bookmaking." — Shelf AwarenessIn this Indian version of the Biblical tale, talented Bengali Patua scroll painter Joydeb Chitrakar leads the reader from a deluge of water to a rainbow of hope. A book that can be leafed through in the traditional way or unfolded out as an accordion, the vibrant illustrations and concise text provide a singular approach to an ancient, universal story. Suitable for children ages 6+.US Grade Level Equivalent: 3, US Guided Reading Level: O

"What's my colour book about? If you ask me, I would have preferred to colour quietly, instead of talking. I'm marking this great white page with blue ink, but ideally, I would rather not have written any words at all. Colour speaks for itself better than words can - you can 'feel' colour, and it goes straight into your heart...So what I'm hoping to do here is to let you actually get to know colours. Meet them face to face, by yourself. Not just through words, but by playing around them. That's the only way to become friends. My words are going to take you on a kind of dance around colour - I've even made up a word for this dance, I'm calling it THE COLOUR DANCE." - Sophie Benini Pietromarchi In this much-anticipated sequel to the bestselling 'The Book Book', artist and educator Sophie Benini Pietromarchi takes children into the world of colour. Illustrated in remarkable collage artwork, and written in an intimate, easy tone, 'The Colour Book' is an exciting journey from childhood memories and the feelings that colours can create, to the practicalities of mixing shades and creating a personal colour diary.

From a fish waiting to be born, to the beginning of art and the necessity of death...lore from the Gond tribal community in central India abounds with stories of origins, transformations and ends. Celebrated Gond artist Bhajju Shyam now gathers together these tales for the first time. By linking the cosmic with the everyday, he expresses the essence of each myth in ten sequential images. This extraordinary visual narrative of cyclical time takes us from the germinal moment to the turnaround point, where death once again transits into renewal.

Neela and Peela are excited about Bhagoria, a wonderful carnival that the Bhil people of central India celebrate every year. An intriguing map that also tells a story, innovative signage that keeps them from losing their way, a series of wondrous sights, including a surprise that pops-out - the children discover these and more as they wind their way through the carnival grounds. Subash Amaliyar, Bhil artist from India, paints the carnival in his traditional style. Collaborating with him are writer Gita Wolf and designers Catriona Maciver and Oliver Mayes - who turn this joyous rendering of celebration into an interactive children's book.

Sunny cats, sad cats, grinning cats, bad cats, cats with scowls and cats with jowls ...hand-bound with a silk screened cover, "I Like Cats" features a gallery of irresistible feline characters from some of the best-known tribal and folk artists of India. A delight for cat lovers, art lovers, and artsy cat lovers!

Where s my bear? asks a little girl as soon as she comes home from school. But...he s missing! Where could he be? So she sets off to find him, knocking on the door of each apartment in her building. As she climbs higher and higher, she meets all kinds of people, makes a lot of new friends, and sees some strange sights but what about her bear? Will she find him?A child s quest turns into a wonderful adventure that literally unfolds, step by step, into a building full of life. Knock! Knock! is book architecture at its inspired best."

Part of everyday life, yet rich in symbolic meaning, renderings of the sun and the moon are present in all folk and tribal art traditions of India. They are always in relationship with each other. Agrarian societies keep track of time by referring to markers in the seasonal variations of the sun, moon, and the planets. Over the course of time, they have also woven wonderful stories and myths around them. Here, for the first time, is a collection of unusual stories and exquisite art from some of the finest living artists, on this most universal of themes.

This book calls for a re-imagining of global picture book history: with the former Soviet Union at the centre of this narrative web. The result of an unusual collaboration between India and Lithuania, the book looks at two different global impacts of the Soviet picture book enterprise. At a particular period in Indian history, cheaply available Soviet picture books, in English and vernacular translations, changed the way Indian children read. This was part of the Soviet Union's efforts to spread 'socialist' culture across the world. Meanwhile, a different and more problematic kind of cultural 'globalization' was underway in the regions governed by the Soviet State, and Lithuania is a rich case in point.A sumptuous and unusual archive of art has been mined to go with this history: from socialist realist art to classic examples of the Lithuanian primitive-modern, many of the images in the book are featured in an English language publication for the first time.

People from the Rathwa tribe in Gujarat create a ritual wall painting as a way of worshipping their gods Pithora and Pithori, depicted as horses. The creation of Pithora paintings is considered a form of worship, to keep away ill-luck and invite good fortune. To paint is to mirror — and honour — all that has been created in the universe. This sophisticated conception of the transformative power of art has been rendered into a deceptively simple children’s tale by Rathwa artist Harsingh Hamir.

"Did we take more than our due?" Weaving his tale around a Gond fable about water, artist Subash Vyam muses on the history of our relationship to this most primeval of elements.