New Delhi, December 15, 2020.

Subhadra Sen Gupta, and Rajiv Eipe, have been honoured with the Big Little Book Award 2020 for their significant contribution, through their books and illustrations, to Indian children’s literature.

This is the fifth edition of the Big Little Book Award; the chosen language this year was English. In the previous years, the award considered children’s literature in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and Kannada. 

Sen Gupta has authored such popular books, like The Constitution of India for Children, The Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Cook, History Mystery Dal Biryani, Let’s Go Time Traveling, Girls of India? A Mauryan Adventure. Eipe’s illustrations have mesmerised children in titles, like Dive, Pishi and Me, Ammachi’s Amazing Machines, Oh No! Not Again!, Dinosaur as Long as 127 Kids.

The total number of nominations received this year was 318. Winners were selected based on the quality of their body of work by jury members. 

As mentioned by the Jury, “Subhadra is a prolific but a particular writer and takes a route that is not an easy one. She writes thoughtfully, well researched books. We can count on her rigour and her background research to stand by her content and always find her positions are balanced and enable the reader to arrive at their own decisions. Something very few writers for children in India in English can add to their list of qualities in writing.”

“One of the finest illustrators in this country, Rajiv is brilliant with his skills and his illustrations tell stories of their own. His illustrations have a wonderful way of entertaining the reader. His work stands out in originality and his observations of the world around us is sensitive and full of humour. A book with Rajiv’s illustrations is visually attractive, informative with details that are delightfully quirky and takes a reader to a world of imagination and fantasy effortlessly”, the Jury said.