Every year we curate a listicle of the new releases largely from India (especially the ones we get as review copies from publishers/authors across the country).
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Here are the new releases we discovered in 2026!
PICTURE BOOKS
The Wonder: Joy Starts Small by Tom Percival. Tom Percival is the god of big emotions. This book seems to be a part of a new/different series. It’s about seeing joy in small things, especially when you are going through a bad day! For 3-6 years (32 pages)
Where Did She Go?: A heartfelt story to help children understand loss by Tom Percival for 3 years+ (talks of death of grandma)
Many of Us by Falguni Gokhale for 5-8 years (24 pages)
What’s the Point of KIKI? by Nandita da Cunha for 5-8 years (28 pages)
THE TRICKSTER One time I wanted two moons by Meenakshi Bharadwaj (40 pages)
TRANSITION BOOKS
My Name is Khadija (Hook Books): Story of a Girl Who Wants to Change Her Name, Set in Uttar Pradesh | Ages 5+ (40 pages)
The Race for Rugda (Hook Books): Story of a Young Girl’s Quest in Jharkhand | Ages 5+ (40 pages)
Jivya’s Talking Hands: How Jivya Soma Mashe Found His Voice Through Art (The Magic Makers) | Picture Book Biography | Ages 7+
There’s a new series of books that bring corporate grade online safety tools to little people. Meet The Adventures of Cyber Ved series by Neha Agarwal and Amit Chitnis for 5-9 years (28 pages): Instead of fear, the stories focus on empowerment. The authors use superhero narratives and fairytale analogies to keep it fun, engaging and relatable.
Cyber Ved and the Password Gobbler
Cyber Ved and the Friendly Fraudster
Cyber Ved and the Phishy Prankster
Cyber Ved Trilogy (3 books) – get the above 3 books for the price of 2!
Popeye The Sailor comic book series published by Westland for 8 years+ (32 pages)
EARLY CHAPTER BOOKS/SHORT STORIES
Stories That Celebrate India | Illustrated Stories for Children Celebrating Indian Culture, Heroes & Festivals from Champak Magazine | Ages 6+ (144 pages)
The Greatest Bedtime Stories | Easy-to-read, fun-filled collection of illustrated stories from Champak magazine | Perfect for ages 6+ (144 pages). Kiran has shared her review and inside pages here in the kbc fb group. Excerpts:
“The book is an assortment of 16 tightly knit stories each written by a different author having his/ her own fervour and message. The biggest plus of the collection is that all the stories have been written with fairly relatable backgrounds with realistic character descriptions.
The graphic illustrations are vivid, elaborate and animated making the read more engaging and amusing. The compilation is a great mix of human as well as animal characters ensuring proper engagement for young readers of distinct tastes.
The stories like ‘The special yellow flowers’, ‘finders, keepers’ and ‘the bitter magic’ create beautiful setup for readers to understand values and emotions just through the chain of events. Similarly, ‘the deep winter sleep’, ‘journey through imagination’, ‘chinki’s sweet misadventure’ and ‘mystery of the egg’ tickle the imagination of the kids enabling them to think free.
Adi got very drawn to the yellow flower story. He was intrigued that how wuffy was not realising his own potential and was relying on the yellow flowers to pass his maths exams. And it was his friend browny who made him realise that he had it in him and didnt need anything externally to succeed.
Each story reflects a different flavour of kids’ life and has a unique style of storytelling making the collection methodically stimulating while instilling subtle moral messages for the young readers to imbibe without being lectured upon. So, to conclude I would say that the book is a win for the young readers of 6 to 10 age group who have started to discover the fun of reading and for the parents of the curious listeners of 3 to 6 years who like to sleep with a good story as well.”
Nami and Jhalak: Stinkypur Guardians by Varsha Seshan (80 pages)
Duckbill hOle books:
The Pink Dress by Shabnam Minwalla | Story of a Girl Who Wants a Pink Dress for Her Birthday | Ages 7+ (80 pages)
CHAPTER BOOKS
Moin and the Monkey Monster (Book 3): A Funny Story of Friendship Between a Boy and a Monster | Age 8+ (124 pages)
The Amazing Generation: Packed with facts, stories and secrets to help kids break free from phones for 8-12 years (240 pages). Amardeep has shared a detailed review with inside pages here in the kbc fb group. Quoting her:
“Sometimes, you come across a book that feels like a true gem – that holds the power to change an entire generation merely by explaining reality in simple, easy to understand words. The Amazing Generation is one such book, and it holds to power to make our children (and us) realise how technology and the tech giants have hypnotised us!
The authors explain through a fairytale of glowing stones, and gems how wizards cast a spell to make us believe that social media, video games and watching videos will give us friendship, fun and entertainment.
Then through real life stories of teens, and adults who spent their teens gaming, they explain what it actually gives – loneliness, anxiety and the inability to explore oneself!
The greatest problem? The apps and games are designed such that one spends maximum time and money on them- 5 day streak, rewards to lure you back, codes and hacks for double points, and if course spend money to advance more.
The most startling revelation for Neil was that the very tech giants who make these apps and games, know how bad and addictive they are and have banned them for their own kids, while profiting off of other kids in the world!
What I liked the most in the book is how it introduces the concept of being a rebel – not having a smartphone, not having a social media account, using technology for your benefit instead of letting it use you! Further it also explains how you can do that, by going out and making actual friends, developing actual hobbies, and pursuing actual interests.
If you buy just one book this month, it should be this one. Buy it, gift it. It’s life changing, and guaranteed to make your child think twice about screen time.”
Rocket Champs by Niyatee Sharma for 8-12 years (96 pages). This book can be ordered from Scholastic India via our kbc storefront as well.
Kanmani And Co.: Five Friends (And A Cat) Tackle The World by Lalitha Ramanathan for 8-12 years (160 pages). This book can be ordered from Scholastic India via our kbc storefront as well.
Maithili and the Minotaur: Isle of Insanity (Book 4 in an Outlandish Graphic Novel Series)
The Secret of the Star Sapphire: A Daring Treasure Hunting Adventure for 10 years+ (248 pages)
The Curious World of Uncle Tarini: All 15 stories of Satyajit Ray’s iconic creation now in English | Mystery, Adventure, Horror stories | Ages 10+ (192 pages). Sritama has reviewed this book and shared inside pages here in the kbc fb group. Excerpts:
Uncle Tarini is an elderly bachelor who has spent his life working in numerous professions having failed to stick to one for not very long. This has taken him all over India over a span of forty five years. Now, after retirement, he has settled in Beniatola Lane in North Kolkata. Every day in the evening, he walks upto Poltu’s house in South Kolkata where other than Poltu, four other boys from his neighborhood assemble to listen to Uncle’s numerous stories of his ventures while working in several fields throughout the country.
The book is a complete collection of all the fifteen stories featuring Uncle Tarini arranged in a chronological order according to their original year of publication. Some of them have even been translated by the legend himself, though, the stories that have been translated by the other two translators have done equal justice to retain the spirit of Bengali literature. As I have mentioned earlier, every story is a tale within a tale where Uncle Tarini narrates stories of his various adventures to a group of five children while sipping his favourite black tea and smoking his favourite export-quality biri. The children have no idea whether the stories are about his actual experiences or mere tales concocted by him, but they enjoy them thoroughly and eagerly wait for them. They are a mix of adventure and supernatural elements where there is always a twist at the end which is bound to make the reader astounded. They also give us a taste of colonial and post-independence India.
This is a complete page turner where after finishing one story you will not be able to stop yourself from reading the next one and even after finishing the book, you will be thinking about them. A foreword by the author’s son, Sandip Ray, helps us to learn about the story behind the creation of Uncle Tarini and an introduction by Indrani Majumdar, gives the reader an idea about what is to be expected in the book. Each story contains the original illustrations done by Ray himself and there are also several pages of colourful illustrations printed in high quality paper which makes the book even more attractive.
I would highly recommend this book to all fans of adventure.”
A-Z of Indian History: 80 Fun Stories from Ancient India to Independence | Cool Trivia, Bright Full-Coloured Illustrations | Ages 10+ (168 pages)
NON FICTION
Unstoppable Us, Volume 3: How Enemies Become Friends, from the author of the multi-million bestselling Sapiens (Unstoppable Us, 3) for 8-12 years (208 pages)
Lightning Kid by Viswanathan Anand for 9-14 years (264 pages)
History Unpacked: The Why, When and What of Medieval India (Not Forgetting the Who and Where): A Fun Way to Learn History from the Chalukyas to the Early Mughals | Ages 10+ (320 pages)
YOUNG ADULT – YA
The Great Indian Tiffin Box: Food, Stories and Flavours from Across the Country | A Celebration of India’s Regional Recipes from All States & Union Territories (192 pages)
[Note from Team Kids Book Café: For your convenience, affiliate links (MARKED IN PINK) to some of the book titles & images have been added to enable you to buy the books from AMAZON, should you wish to! A very small amount of money comes to kidsbookcafe.com when you purchase a book via the amazon affiliate link provided (at absolutely no extra cost to you!). Do let us know if you need information about other children’s books by writing to asha@kidsbookcafe.com.]
