In this nonfiction picture book, the tiny village of Janwaar in Madhya Pradesh, India, gets a new skatepark, which inspires Ramkesh and all the local kids to learn how to skateboard, putting them on the map and uniting their community. In this tiny town, the skatepark changed everything.
The remote village of Janwaar in Northern India has been the same for a long time, with the community strictly divided into castes. It's a quiet village… until the construction project begins.
Ramkesh can't tell what it will be-it's all ramps and hills. When it's done, he sees kids playing on it, on strange boards with wheels... Soon, he's invited to try, and he's hooked-practicing tricks and soaring on his skateboard. At first, it's all boys, but Ramkesh invites his sister, and other girls join too. Word gets out that the tiny village is a hotbed of skateboarding talent, and people flock from all over to see it, and to teach the kids new tricks. Ramkesh and his friends even get invited to travel, gaining the first-ever passports for their village. But most important, they come back home to tell of their journeys...and to lead the way for Janwaar into the future, with a newfound sense of joy and unity.
Key Selling Points
• When a skatepark is built in the tiny village of Janwaar, in northern India, Ramkesh and the local children begin to discover the joys of a new sport, regardless of caste or gender, which not only introduces their village to the world but also gives them a newfound sense of unity and hope.
• Based on a true story, this book highlights the concept of sport as an instrument of joy and shows its ability to unite people; it also showcases children's instincts to treat each other as equals, despite the imposed divisions of the adult world, and the concept of the younger generation leading the way to a brighter future.
• Rina Singh has a very personal connection to Janwaar, as she's visited there and met many of the skateboarding children and their parents (including Ramkesh), as well as the founder of the project, Ulrike Reinhard. Rina tutored some of the children online for a while, and she still keeps in touch with them to this day.
• Sophie Casson is an accomplished illustrator who brings her own unusual and eye-catching style to this book.
• A short film called Janwaar, by Danny Schmidt, was made about the Janwaar skatepark (officially called Janwaar Castle), and the Netflix film Skater Girl is a fictionalized version of the life of Asha, one of the skateboarders featured in the book.
Rina Singh is an award-winning children's author who is drawn to real-life stories about the environment and social justice. Her critically acclaimed and award-winning books include Grandmother School, winner of the 2021 Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize; Diwali: A Festival of Lights, nominated for the Red Cedar Award; and Once, a Bird. Rina has an MFA in creative writing from Concordia University and a teaching degree from McGill University. She lives in Toronto.
Sophie Casson has illustrated more than twenty-five books, including The Artist and Me by Shane Peacock, a finalist for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, and Helen's Birds by Sara Cassidy, selected as part of IBBY Canada's Silent Book collection. Her highly acclaimed illustrations are inspired by etchings, silkscreen works and Japanese woodblock prints. Sophie's award-winning work has also appeared in the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times and Nature, as well as in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Sophie lives in Montreal, Quebec.
