Deepa Agarwal

A writer with around forty books in English and Hindi to her credit, Deepa Agarwal's main contribution is in the field of children's literature. She has written mystery and adventure novels, ghost stories, stories of everyday life, picture books and biographies for children, retold folk tales and myths, and compiled textbooks.

Leading publishers like Puffin Books India, Scholastic India, Children's Book Trust, National Book Trust, Rupa & Co., Frank Educational Aids, Ratnasagar and Vikas have published her work.

Her series of picture books 'Little Friends' with titles like Lippo Goes to the Park and Squiggly Goes to School, published by Frank Educational Aids is extremely popular with beginner readers and one of the most widely circulated series for children published in India. She is also a regular contributor to children's magazines both in India and abroad as well as the children's pages of several newspapers. One of her stories was included in the anthology of best ghost stories That's Ghosts for You published by Front Court/Cricket Books U.S.A. Her recent titles include Not Just Girls, a collection of girl child stories published by Rupa & Co. Caravan to Tibet published by Puffin/Penguin Books, a historical adventure story based on her family history and folktales from Uttarakhand, published by Children's Book Trust. A translation of Chandrakanta the famous Hindi classic is a forthcoming title, to be published by Puffin Books.

Deepa has won several awards for her writing in the Children's Book Trust Competitions for Writers and four of her books have been listed in the White Raven Catalogue of recommended books brought out by the International Youth Library, Munich. Among other important honors, she has received the N.C.E.R.T National Award for Children's Literature for her picture book Ashok's New Friends published by Children's Book Trust, in 1992-93 and the first prize in The Asian Age short story competition for her story 'Cradle Song'. Her story 'Visitor's Hour' published in Cicada magazine U.S.A. was a runner up in the Magazine Merit awards of the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators, U.S.A.

Caravan to Tibet has been nominated for the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Honor List 2008 as the best book from India. It has also been translated into Korean.

She is also the founder-organizer of the Habitat Children's Book Forum, which meets at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi to bring children and books together and promote the reading habit. 

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