Little Tiny's Big Adventure

“She had learnt that she could do anything she put her mind to” – was the penultimate line of Tiny Jumps In, a children’s book authored and illustrated by Inshra Sakhawat Russell. The book was launched at last year’s Dhaka Lit Fest.Tiny Jumps In tells the story of a little girl named Tiny, who, overcoming her fears and doubts, and banking on her practice, decides to plunge into the water of a mysterious lake. She discovers marvellous creatures underneath the water. The deeper she dives, the more interesting creatures she comes across. Her adventure teaches her an important lesson about self-discovery. The inspirational book, published by Guba Publishing, is filled with a combination of hand drawn illustrations with digital colouring and texturing, and is for children aged 5 to 10. A reading session of the book was held on January 20, at Gourmet Bazar in the capital’s Banani. In the interactive session, children were read the story by Russell and Rushnaf Wadud, free-form artist and producer. The children enthusiastically participated in the session, where they were asked questions in between the reading. Following the reading session, the children participated in a fun game where they were required to spin the wheel one after another, and make a sentence with one of the two words they got, collectively making a story. Similar sessions were conducted on January 19 and 20, at Pathak Shamabesh, Ben Bengal Boi, and Fantasium. Inshra Sakhawat Russell, when asked about what inspired her to write the book, said, “I was inspired by David Lynch, one of my favourite directors, and author of the book Catching the Big Fish, where he talks about when you jump into the water body of inspiration, if you are in the shallow waters you get fish, and the deeper you go, you come across more and more interesting fish. By fish, here, he means different ideas. I found the book amazing. It’s about transcendental meditation, but I looked at it as an inspirational book.” “Also, colour theory was something I was always interested in. In the story, as Tiny goes deeper, the colours change and mix together. So, it was a combination of these two things,” Russelll further added. It’s her first published book.Tiny Jumps In, or Tiny Jhaap Dilo is available in both Bengali and English for purchase in bookstores now. One could also visit Guba Publishing’s Facebook page (facebook.com/gubapublishing/) to place orders, and visit the publisher’s website (www.gubapublishing.com) for more information. Inshra Sakhawat Russell, mother of a 10-month old, is the creative director at Guba Publishing. Besides being a writer and an illustrator, she is also a filmmaker and photographer. She lives with her husband and their son in London.