If you want to meet different people from across the world, then ‘My Facebook Friends’ is the right book to look out for !
‘My Facebook Friends’ is a 44 pages picture book given a comic style by Transmedia Artist and Co-Founder of Underground Worm Studio, Kavita Singh Kale, a BFA degree holder in painting from College of Art, New Delhi and Post Graduate Degree Holder in Animation Film from National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad.
Kavita started her journey way back in 2006 with her first book ‘Avneet Aunty’s Mobile Phone’, written and illustrated completely by her. With constant self-exploration through video art, painting, sculpture and photography that gets extended to prospective commercial projects, Kavita is always on her toes for bringing out something fresh and best. As a filmmaker, illustrator, author and a visual artist, she believes in learning and experimenting- creating links with ideation and technique in conjunction with science and technology.
Her works have been recognized at coveted art shows and film festivals including video art at VAF@The Guild at The Guild in Mumbai, Film Festival at Hera Gallery in Rhode Island, Video Wednesday II at Gallery Espace in New Delhi; Sculpture/Paintings at Thinking Spaces at Exhibit 320 in New Delhi, Now Asia Contemporary at Uijeongbu Arts Center in Seoul, Circling the Confluence at Indigo Blue Art in Singapore, Roti Kapda Makaanat Ojas Art in New Delhi; and animated shorts at Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, SIGGRAPH Asia in Singapore.
Targeted at audiences above 10 years and published by Tulika publishers, this book is composed with 10 stories about people who are Kavita’s friends and revolves around stories including a young monk who likes playing football, a professor who has been studying earthworms for 40 years, a textile designer with a passion for tap dancing and wedding planner, school teacher, filmmaker and several more.
Till date Kavita has worked on eleven books by different publishers with ‘My Facebook Friends’ being her second book as an author.
Speaking to Animationxpress.com’s Zeenia Boatwala about the driving factor behind ‘My Facebook Friends’, Kavita Singh Kale, shares, “My Facebook Friends” is about my ten friends. I am lucky enough to meet some very interesting people from around the world in different places, within the country and overseas. The idea of making a book for children emerged when I started compiling all the details of some friends, who were from diverse background doing very interesting things and more over – trying to push the limits of what they were really passionate about in life.”
The idea of creating this book struck Kavita in the year 2010 and the actual production of the book was started by the end of 2011.Kavita feels that My Facebook Friends is different because it talks about real stories of real people in a comic book format to 10+ kids and the core idea of this book is to give children a holistic view of selected individuals with the main emphasis on ‘People, Places and Objects.
Kavita informs on the process of executing ‘My Facebook Friends’, “With everything falling in place, production began where the layouts of all the pages were sent to the publishers. This included making thumbnails for each story, keeping in mind the importance of composition of the visuals that had to be supported by space allocated for speech bubble. Using the right word and sentences within each speech bubble helped in telling the story in the right manner- was another bit of challenge. The colored pages were sent across to the publisher as and when each story was completed.
Adding more on the inspirational aspect behind ‘My Facebook Friends’, Kavita, shares, “My painting named ‘Facebook’ inspired me to write this book and the entire format of the book is new.”
Kavita has executed the entire designing of layout and illustrations for this book with Niveditha Subramanian, who has been the editor for the book , Adds more, “ the overall look of the book touches the graphic novel feel, I’ve made use of watercolors to hand paint all the illustrations.”
The most attractive element of ‘My Facebook Friends’, according to Kavita is showing the daily activity page of each character, which takes the reader through a wonderful journey of different people.
Priced at INR 200, ‘My Facebook Friends’ is available at all bookstores in India and abroad where Tulika Books are available. Also, you can buy it from Flipkart by logging on to: http://www.flipkart.com/my-facebook-friends-8181468244/p/itmddhmdrhnmwcac?pid=9788181468246&ref=beaaf1a8-c799-4bee-8990-a22057eccbd9&srno=m_1_1&otracker=from-search
Tulika Publishers express their view on the book by saying “My Facebook Friends, comes from Europe, America Africa and Asia, from big cities, from small towns and from tiny villages. With an appeal that cuts across countries, the book draws from the ubiquitous social network media, which young people everywhere relate to instantly. This book colorfully maps diverse lives and stories and explores the lives of real people beyond walls and status messages. For young readers who are free-spirited tourists of the world and need no passport to cross borders, this book has much to offer!”
“The reader can travel the world with ten stories of this book. All 10+ kids and young adults will discover many new things about different places and culture in it. It will also inspire them to travel and follow their heart to do what they really want to do in life”. Concludes, Kavita.
