Jericho author creates children’s media with diversity and empowerment

When Jericho resident Akshata Nayak couldn’t find the books she wanted for her young daughter Ava, she created her own.

“I wanted to teach my daughter my native language, Konkani,” Nayak said. “I’m from India and that language doesn’t have a written script, so there aren’t many children’s books. So I decided to make a book for her.”

This project has expanded over the past two years to a children’s media company called Little Patakha — a name inspired by Ava.

“I gave her her name because when she was born, I told her: ‘You are a little patakha, you are a little firecracker. One day you are going to have such a huge impact,” Nayak said. “And so when I had to name the company, I couldn’t think of anything else.

Little Patakha produces and sells original children’s books, toys and games that promote diversity and empowerment.

One of these games is “Different cuts“, a puzzle to be combined with a face piece, a torso piece and a leg piece. The different pieces can be arranged to correspond to the face of a young girl with a torso wearing a firefighter costume, or the face of a a young boy with a torso wearing a chef’s apron.

“The idea of ​​this puzzle was to take like 10 common professions, and to draw the illustrations [with] either a race or a gender or an identity that is not usually associated with this profession,” Nayak said.

Another Little Patakha product is a collection of decorative cards called “me unstoppable“Affirmation Cards. The cards feature illustrations of children of various races, genders, and abilities with affirmative phrases, including “I dream big,” “I’m remarkable,” and “I’m a good friend.” The final card features a child with an insulin pump, which Nayak says meant a lot to the child she met who also has diabetes.

So far, Little Patakha has two picture books for children, “Planet Pathrado” in Konkani and “Planet Pichkari” in Hindi. The books teach children new vocabulary with large pictures that often feature illustrations of Ava. In real life, Ava loves books so much that she started to invent her own language, Nayak said.

“We’ll see where it leads. Maybe it’ll be a new book one day,” Nayak said.

Contact April Fisher at amfisher@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AMFisherMedia