Monday, December 19, 2005

Kahani Magazine

David Mehegan talks to the founders of Kahani magazine today in the Boston Globe.

Kahani is "the first children's literary magazine for South Asian kids in the United States." The editors of Kahani, Monika Jain and Leena Chawla, founded and funded the venture together as they found, "there was nothing for their kids to read that acknowledged their appearances or family backgrounds."

Mehegan describes Kahani as, "a cheerful mix of short fiction, games, cartoon stories, reviews, and nonfiction articles for kids age 6-12, richly illustrated on glossy paper."

Jain and Chawla want to keep the magazine ad-free and to instead develop an subscription base and find sponsors to pay for its production. Their goals are clear: "''When our children read these stories,' Chawla said, ''it's nice for them to know that 'I may be the only brown child in my class, but there are thousands of other kids like me going through the same thing.'"

Take a look at the Kahani website for more information.