A child’s room is one of the first worlds we create for them.
We choose its colours carefully. We find cushions that feel soft, toys they might grow attached to and objects we hope will remain part of their childhood. Yet what sits on their bookshelf may shape their inner world more deepy than almost anything else in the room.
Books introduce children to language, people, places and possibilities. They help them understand who they are—and show them that their family, food, faith and traditions belong within the world of stories too.
For Indian children growing up in the UK and elsewhere outside India, that recognition can be especially meaningful.
They may hear the names of Gods and Gurus at home, see certain foods being prepared in the kitchen or take part in festivals with their families. But without stories created for their age and understanding, those parts of their heritage can remain familiar without becoming fully known.
At āsmi london, we believe children’s spaces, and the things that fill them, deserve the same care as the rest of the home. Perhaps more.
Our collection of Indian children’s books brings together first words, mythology, prayers, food, art, Saints and the values that shape us. Some introduce beloved traditions; others explore universal ideas such as kindness, service, peace and emotional awareness.
Together, they give children another way to come closer to India—one page at a time.
Why representation in children’s books matters
Children notice who appears in their stories.
They notice the names characters have, the meals families eat, the clothes they wear and the celebrations that bring them together. They also notice when lives like their own are missing.
A bookshelf should open a window onto unfamiliar worlds. But it should also, sometimes, hold up a mirror.
For a child of Indian heritage, seeing jalebi, idli, Ganesha, Guru Nanak or the Hanuman Chalisa within a beautifully illustrated book can create a quiet sense of recognition: this belongs here. My family’s world is worth writing and drawing about.
That recognition matters whether a child visits India every year, understands only a little of a family language or has never lived there at all. There is no single way to be connected to a culture.
Books make room for children to discover that connection in their own time, beginning with curiosity rather than expectation.
For children without Indian heritage, these stories offer something equally valuable: a richer, more representative view of the world and an early understanding that there are many ways to live, worship, celebrate and belong.
Stories can make heritage easier to understand
Parents and grandparents often carry stories they would love to pass on. The difficult part is knowing where to begin.
How do you explain the meaning of a prayer to a young child? How do you introduce a spiritual figure without overwhelming them with history? How do you describe seva, ahimsa or inner peace in language that belongs in an ordinary childhood?
A thoughtfully written children’s book can become the bridge.
It does not replace family storytelling. It gives it somewhere to start.
An illustration can make an unfamiliar figure feel approachable. A rhyme can turn a complex teaching into something memorable. A story grounded in playgrounds, animals, meals and family life can help a child understand that an ancient value still has a place in their own world.
The best Indian storybooks for children do not ask young readers to memorise culture. They invite them into it.
Beginning with the world children already know
For babies and toddlers, India can first appear through the most familiar things: sounds, colours, numbers and food.
J is for Jalebi takes little readers through the Hindi alphabet using popular Indian foods. Khichdi, khana and jalebi become an enjoyable introduction to new letterforms and sounds, supported by colourful illustrations and pronunciation audio.
For parents trying to keep a mother tongue present at home, books like this make language part of shared play rather than a formal lesson. A child can point, repeat, recognise a favourite dish or ask what comes next.
1, 2, 3 Idlis in a Sambar Sea uses counting to take toddlers across Indian cities and their food traditions. Its rhyming, seek-and-find format introduces numbers from one to ten while allowing children to explore the extraordinary regional variety of Indian food.
These books work because they begin with delight. The learning arrives naturally inside it.
A plate of idlis can teach a number. A jalebi can introduce a Hindi letter. A food eaten at home can become the doorway to a larger conversation about language, place and family.
Introducing Indian mythology without making it feel distant
Indian mythology contains an enormous world of stories: playful Gods, courageous companions, journeys, friendships, dilemmas and lessons carried across generations.
For a young child, however, that world needs the right entrance.
A book such as Forever Friends! The Gods and Their Vahanas begins not with a complicated retelling, but with animals.
From Ganesha’s tiny mouse to Durga’s fearless lion, children meet the vahanas—the animal companions associated with Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Told with warmth and adventure, their stories introduce figures including Shiva, Saraswati, Indra, Ganesha and Vishnu through friendship, empathy and the perspectives of the animals themselves.
For older children, Neel, Krishna Through Art offers a different way into mythology.
Rather than presenting Krishna through one visual style, it follows his many forms through Indian art. Children encounter classical, courtly, folk and modern interpretations, including Gond, Pichwai, Patachitra, Kerala mural and miniature painting.
This helps them understand something important: stories do not remain alive by being repeated in precisely the same way. Artists reinterpret them across regions, generations and traditions.
Indian mythology books for children can therefore do more than explain who a God is. They can introduce symbolism, art appreciation and the vast cultural variety within India itself.
Helping children understand prayers—not only repeat them
Many prayers reach children first as sound.
They may hear them being recited by grandparents, played in the home or spoken during worship. A child might remember the rhythm long before understanding the meaning.
There is beauty in that familiarity. But understanding can deepen the relationship.
My First Shloka Book: Ganesha brings together the original Sanskrit, English transliteration, accessible translations and individual word meanings. An accompanying audiobook helps children hear how each shloka is pronounced.
The book introduces Ganesha not simply as a familiar elephant-headed figure, but as a beloved God associated with wisdom and the removal of obstacles.
For children aged eight and above, My First Hanuman Chalisa makes a prayer recited by Hindus around the world more accessible. It includes the original Awadhi in Devanagari, English transliteration, a simple translation and word meanings, as well as audio and activities.
A book cannot prescribe what faith should mean to a child. What it can do is give them the language to ask questions.
What does this word mean? Why do we say this? Who was Hanuman? Why is this prayer important to our family?
Those questions are not a sign that tradition is becoming weaker. They are often the beginning of a more personal connection to it.
Bringing Sikh teachings into everyday childhood
For Sikh children growing up outside India, a book can help connect the language of home and the Gurdwara with situations they recognise in everyday life.
Ik Onkar offers a simple, child-friendly translation of the Mool Mantar, the opening passage of the Guru Granth Sahib. Its illustrations and accessible language help young readers begin to understand Guru Nanak’s words, rather than encountering them only through recitation.
That distinction matters. A sacred text will naturally hold layers of meaning that deepen over a lifetime. A children’s translation does not attempt to contain all of them. It offers a first point of understanding.
Service with Guru Nanak introduces the principle of seva through situations children can recognise. Helping friends and family, caring for animals and looking after the environment become practical ways to understand service through body, mind and spirit.
This is what makes thoughtfully written Sikh books for children so useful. They connect spiritual teachings with the choices a child can make today.
Seva stops being only a word heard at the Gurdwara. It becomes helping someone, sharing, caring and contributing to the community around them.
Teaching values through stories rather than instructions
Children are often told to be kind, calm, generous or helpful. Stories can help them understand what those ideas look like.
Kindness with Mahavira introduces Mahavira’s teaching that all living beings, however great or small, deserve compassion. Through an illustrated story, children see kindness expressed by noticing the needs of others and responding with care.
Peace with Buddha explores inner calm and the idea of finding contentment without always wanting more. Its rhyming format translates a large philosophical idea into situations suitable for young readers.
These books introduce spiritual figures, but the values within them are universal.
A family does not have to follow Jainism to speak about compassion towards living things. A child does not need to be Buddhist to learn about calm, mindfulness or letting go. Guru Nanak’s message of service has meaning far beyond one community.
Stories give these ideas a face, a situation and a feeling. They move the conversation away from “You must be kind” and towards “What might kindness look like here?”
Making room for children’s emotional lives
Understanding heritage is important, but so is learning to understand oneself.
Are Your Emotions Like Mine? follows a young girl and her lion companion as they explore happiness, sadness, anger, fear and courage. It gives toddlers language for experiences they already have but may not yet know how to express.
Books about emotions can help create a little distance between the child and the feeling. Instead of being completely overwhelmed by anger or fear, a child begins to recognise: this is a feeling; it has a name; other people feel it too.
Reading together also gives parents a natural opportunity to ask gentle questions:
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Have you ever felt like this?
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Where do you feel anger in your body?
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What helps when you are sad?
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What made you feel brave today?
These conversations do not have to happen only when something is wrong. Books allow children to build emotional language during calm, connected moments.
Why Indian books are particularly meaningful for diaspora families
Raising a child away from India often means making deliberate choices about what remains present.
A festival that happened naturally around you while growing up may now need to be explained. A language once heard everywhere may exist mainly through telephone calls with grandparents. Stories everyone seemed to know may no longer arrive through neighbours, cousins, television and school.
This can leave parents feeling responsible for passing on an entire culture—often while navigating their own complicated relationship with it.
Books make that responsibility feel gentler.
You do not need to explain everything at once. You can begin with one story, one prayer, one plate of food or one figure a child is curious about.
A book on the shelf also gives the child agency. They can return to it, notice something new, choose it at bedtime or set it aside and rediscover it later.
Cultural belonging grows through repetition. It lives in the story read many times, the word a child finally learns to pronounce and the moment they recognise a familiar character somewhere beyond home.
How to choose the right Indian children’s book
Age guidance is useful, but it should not be the only consideration. The best choice is usually the book that meets your child where their curiosity already is.
For babies and toddlers, look for sturdy pages, clear illustrations, rhyme, repetition and concepts such as counting, food and emotions. Books like J is for Jalebi, 1, 2, 3 Idlis in a Sambar Sea and Are Your Emotions Like Mine? are designed for this early stage.
For children between approximately two and eight, illustrated stories can introduce mythology and values through accessible language. Forever Friends!, Service with Guru Nanak, Kindness with Mahavira and Peace with Buddha all connect larger ideas with childhood experiences.
Older children may be ready to explore prayers, translation, history and art in greater depth through books such as My First Hanuman Chalisa and Neel, Krishna Through Art.
You may also wish to consider:
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Whether the book can be read aloud or independently
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Whether pronunciation guidance would be helpful
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Whether it includes transliteration or bilingual elements
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Whether the illustrations invite close observation
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Whether its subject connects to an upcoming festival or family conversation
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Whether it represents a part of their identity they do not often see in books
A child does not need to understand every layer immediately. A good book can grow with them.
Supporting the people who create the stories
Choosing diverse children’s books is also about recognising who gets to tell stories.
Alongside celebrating Indian subjects, āsmi london is committed to supporting Indian writers and illustrators—including first-time creators who believe in the importance of bringing these stories to young readers.
Many of the titles in our collection are award-winning. But awards are not the only reason we choose them.
We look for books that respect a child’s intelligence. Books with illustrations that do more than decorate the words. Books that make complex traditions accessible without emptying them of meaning. Books that are culturally specific while speaking to feelings and values children everywhere can recognise.
Supporting Indian writers and illustrators allows children to encounter India through voices and visual languages that emerge from within its culture—not only through interpretations made at a distance.
It also helps make room for new perspectives. There are still countless Indian childhoods, traditions, regional stories and family experiences waiting to find their way onto the page.
Build a bookshelf that feels like home
A child’s bookshelf does not need to represent every part of their identity at once.
Like a home, it can grow slowly.
Begin with the foods they recognise. Add a story about a God whose name they have heard. Find a book that explains a prayer spoken by their grandparents. Choose another that helps them understand kindness, service or their own feelings.
Over time, the shelf becomes more than a collection of books. It becomes a record of conversations, questions and evenings spent reading together.
At āsmi london, we want children to find India not as something distant or fixed in the past, but as a living world of stories, ideas, art, language and imagination.
Explore our Kids’ Collection to discover Indian children’s books about mythology, Sikh teachings, prayers, food, first words, art and the values that help young minds grow.
Because the stories children live with become part of how they understand the world—and their place within it.