Episode 43 - Ultimate Superstar: Rashmi Sirdeshpande on her new books Hari Kumar and Super Uma

In this episode we are joined by author Rashmi Sirdeshpande about her new books - Hari Kumar Ultimate Superstar (illustrated by Mamta Singh) which is a diary style middle grade and Super Uma (illustrated by Nakul P.) which is picture book with lots of sparkle and the all important unicorn.

Rashmi is as ever super busy with a number of new books coming up (details of the books mentioned below). She is also out and about doing festivals and events. The event she mentioned at the London Schools Literature Festival can be found here. She is also at the Brighton Festival on 17 May. There is a free online Super Uma event on 8th May with Puffin Schools and she is doing a free online event for the British Library about guidebooks, and discovering fascinating and delightful ways to explore place.

Books mentioned

Hari Kumar Ultimate Superstar (illustrated by Mamta Singh)

Hari Kumar Ultimate Superstar: Going for Gold (illustrated by Mamta Singh) out 13 August

Super Uma (illustrated by Nakul P.)

Amazing Asia (illustrated by Jason Lyon)

This is who I am (illustrated by Ruchi Mhasane) out in paperback 7 May

Never Show a T-Rex a Book (illustrated by Diane Ewen)

Transcript

Ali 0:11

Hi, I'm Ali.

Katy 0:13

Hi, I'm Katie,

Ali 0:14

and welcome to episode 43 of the amazing podcast, Mostly Book Talk.

Katy 0:20

We have Rashmi Serdesh Pandi with us, who is going to talk to us about her new middle grade, Hari Kumar, Ultimate Superstar, and also her upcoming picture book, Super Uma. Enjoy.

Ali 0:37

We're very pleased to welcome Rashmi Serdish Pandi, who's written picture books including Dojati's Paintbrush and Never Show a T-Rexer book. A non-fiction including Amazing Asia, which we interviewed you about back in December 2024. So you can go back and listen about that, which was a beautiful book. She now has not just one, but two books out. Her first middle grade fiction, Hari Kumar, Ultimate Superstar, which is a doodle-filled diary-style story of friendship, identity, and big dreams, and also a new picture book, Super Uma, which is all about teamwork and empathy with the superhero twist. So welcome, Rashmi.

Rashmi 1:15

Thank you for having me back.

Katy 1:16

Welcome. Can we start with Hari Kumar and just give us an overview of the book and just give an idea of what goes on?

Rashmi 1:24

Sure. So this is the first in a Shiny Near series. It's a funny doodle diary illustrated by Mamta Singh. It's a sort of seven, eight plus, and it is all about this kid. He's smart, he's cheeky. Like me, he's autistic and has ADHD, and he's got some big feelings and some really, really big Bollywood dreams. Um, and this is his journal, his way of exploring his thoughts and feelings, suggested by his learning support teacher. But really, Hari's using this journal to document his rise to greatness for his future fans. That's his thing with this. It's just a lot of fun.

Ali 1:59

Yeah, and the format is obviously diary style with lots of illustrations. And why did you choose this as the format for this new series?

Rashmi 2:06

I just love diary style books. I love them. And every school I go into, hands will shoot up if you ask them if they've read things like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates, Loki. I think that journal style just really appeals to children because you're transported right into the brain of these characters, all of their dreams, their bad choices. And I love characters who make bad choices. Hari makes a fair few of them himself. And I love characters who sort of love themselves because when they're exploring things in their journal, it's just main character energy. They're bringing it to the page. And I get to really have fun with that as a writer. And also bringing in those doodles from Mantha, I think it just makes it such a fun and accessible reading experience.

Katy 2:45

You've got the journal bit, but you've also got quite a few side comments, haven't you? Because he's kind of talking to his learning support teacher who's suggested that he write the journal, but then he's also talking to the reader. There's quite a lot going on there, isn't there?

Rashmi 2:58

Yes, there is. I love the asides. I think that's just how my brain works. I'll send an email to my editor and there'll be a lot of stuff in brackets. And then I have to sort of remove some of them because I realize that maybe not everyone thinks like this. But when I have a thought, it spirals out into something else and into something else. And I love that with Hari, I got to actually just do that with this book because it's fully justified. It's who he is, it's who I am. So it's a very voicey book. And yes, because he's writing to his future fans, he'll kind of translate things. He'll sort of say, Hindi speakers, bear with me for a moment. I'm gonna like lay this out. Or he talks to his neurodivergent fans and he says, Bear with me, I'm gonna get us all on the same page here. You know what I'm talking about. Because I always wondered writing a book like this, as a marginalized person, you're writing about kind of an intersectional experience here, right? South Asian kid who is also neurodivergent. But you don't want to be assuming that your readers are not those things. So, with this format, I got to really play with that and have fun with it, where he sort of high-fives people who are similar to him, but explains his world and expresses himself for those who may be new to the table, new to the party.

Katy 4:01

Yeah. Did you explore how Hari thinks about his autism and his ADHD? How important was that for you to represent that and to show that?

Rashmi 4:11

So it's interesting when people ask me this because actually he is that way because I am that way and my kids. And I just wanted to write a funny book. I didn't set out to add to books that represent certain kids, although I love that it does that. But I actually just set out to write a funny book. And what I did was share my own experience and the inner workings of my brain and my big feelings and my kids. There's a lot of my kids in Hari because he has a kind of joyfulness and confidence that I honestly didn't have at that age. I really didn't, but they do because they are diagnosed young and supported in their schools because of the kinds of schools they go to. They're very lucky. And Hari is equally very lucky. So when we talk in our house, we're very open about neurodivergence and the adjustments that we need, and we use that vocabulary. So Hari does. And it was a conscious choice. I could have made him undiagnosed like me, and that would have been a really valuable story, actually, because so many kids will go through that. But the reason I chose to have him talk so openly is one, because we do in our house, and two, because there is still so much stigma, especially in South Asian communities, around autism and ADHD. And when I discussed this with other writer friends, they said, Oh, do you really want to be labeling it? Do you want to? I said, actually, you know what? Because of this community, I do. I want them to see a kid who embraces it the way my kids do, the way I do. And actually, that's been transformative because the messages I've had from people who were worried about going through the whole process of a diagnosis with their kids and have said, actually, reading this, we're going for it. Because it's just changed their perspective on it. It was worth it for that reason. And so many kids who see themselves in these cages, who can relate, connect. It's worth it, I think, having a character who was actually living his best life. Because I think characters like this are sometimes in stories of struggle, and that matters, those are important, they face struggles. But then we also need to have stories where they're literally just living the life because they are very well supported, they are very self-aware, and they are happy in and of themselves.

Ali 6:06

And it's quite interesting, isn't it? Because actually his struggle is about being a Bollywood star.

Rashmi 6:11

Yeah.

Ali 6:12

That's the thing that he's found me and not supportive of.

Rashmi 6:15

Yeah, that's his thing. And even at school, he's got a nemesis. There's an ancient rivalry with this kid, Martin. But Martin isn't actually mean to Hari because he's neurodivergent. Martin's just a Martin. You know, he's just a comic flat character who's just a little bit grumpy. And because Hari happens to be there, he's mean to everybody. And Hari's just kind of picked him as his sort of Bollywood style rival because everyone needs a villain. But it's not about him being autistic or about him having ADHD. And I thought that would be fun to play with too. And Hari gets to make bad choices. I was discussing this with Bramseed, the author of the Cheat Book series, which I love. And we were saying how sometimes marginalized characters have to be really good and very role-modell-y because there aren't so many of them. So they need to be gooder than good. And actually, sometimes we just want to be a bit silly and we want to make bad choices and we want to have big dreams and love ourselves and go off on a tangent in life. And Hari gets to do that. So I love that my editors let me have a character that does love himself and does make bad decisions.

Katy 7:14

He's obsessed with being a star, isn't he? This being a Bollywood star. But it's something that his family is not particularly supportive of. And they're very supportable in all sorts of other ways. But why did you want that tension in there?

Rashmi 7:30

Look, I I do play a little bit into the South Asian tropes. You know what? It's really funny. They recognize this. You've got the super supportive parents, but it's like when it comes to the arts, there's a feeling of, okay, but what's your backup? Just set up your career and then do whatever you want, my love.

Katy 7:45

That is quite universal, actually. I think parents are like, that's really exciting, but it's a slightly risky option.

Rashmi 7:51

Exactly. So I had to have a bit of that in my. And I've been pleasantly surprised, delighted, in fact, that that has been the case. And people love it. Even if they're completely new to Bollywood, he's just a kid. He's got big dreams. Everyone can connect with that.

Ali 8:45

If someone's coming to Bollywood for the first time, where should we start? Where should we go?

Rashmi 8:50

I've got you. I think you should start with a movie called Om Shanti Om, O-N, S-H-A-N-T-I-O-M, because it's a spoof on Bollywood. It is big, it's fun, it's colourful, and it kind of makes fun of itself in that it's got all that drama intensity that I was talking about. It's just sort of peak Bollywood, I think. And really super fun. And that's the movie that I had in my mind when I was writing this.

Katy 9:13

We will check that out. What does definitely come across is even if you don't know Bollywood, that sense that it is, as you say, big, fun, loud, and joyous. And that comes across and obviously links into the story. Tell us about the aunties. They're a recurring fear for Hari, aren't they?

Rashmi 9:29

Oh, Auntie Pooja, yeah, who should really be Pooja Auntie, but she's trying to be Western there. Yes. And I think for a lot of cultures, actually, auntie culture is a thing. They kind of aunties, eye on everything, the competitive spirit, my daughter's off to science camp thing. I mean, this is cross-culture stuff, but I had to have it in the book because it's something that so many of us grow up with. She's not really an auntie, she's a neighbor, but that makes her an auntie. And she is actually quite a driving force in Hari's life in that she's kind of questioning what are you going to do with yourself? And that becomes such a thing for him. It becomes a recurring nightmare to go along with his usual standard recurring nightmares of his teeth falling out. Again, that's very personal. That's trauma. If I'm having a tough time, I will have a teeth falling out dream. So Hari now has an auntie dream, Auntie Puja dream to add to that. But he wants to prove himself to her. I had to always, with every book, think about what is Hari's motivation. And of course, one of his motivations is going to be time to shine, time to opportunity to be a star. But we always need a bit more. So in this, that bit more is coming from wanting to prove it to Auntie Puja and to beat his nemesis, Martin. So we've got all of these kind of mixed motivations building him up.

Katy 10:41

And there's a side story of Pinky as well, because you you feel for her a bit.

Rashmi 10:45

Yes, you do. Pinky, exactly. Pinky, aka Priyanka from the year above. That's Auntie Puja's daughter. She's really tough. I mean, this girl is so good at sport. You would not want to run into her in the corridor. She's built like a rock. But there's more to her than that. And what I love with this book is I really got to play with some stereotypes with these characters because you've got this super tough character, but then she has a really surprising hobby, which is so gentle and lovely. And she's not what she seems on the inside. And same with Hari's grandmas. When I say grandma, I ask kids this when I go on school trips. What do you imagine? You might have an image in your head of what they're like and what they do with their time. But let's meet Hari's grandmas. One is like a hotshot business boss of a massive sweets empire in India, and she's all about winning and ambition. And another one, Mammy, his French grandma, she's an amazing coder. So I like have fun with stereotypes and smashing them to bits. And I got to do that with this story, which was fun. Yeah.

Katy 11:38

I did laugh at when he's walking down the street and he's like, I can't let the auntie see me. Or if I do, I have to say particular things.

Rashmi 11:46

We've all been there, and especially with the Indian Auntie Network. Now with WhatsApp, this is a whole new level. I don't need to deal with that. But now, if you are seen by an auntie, that news will have reached like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka by lunch. You know, you're only out at 10 a.m. in the morning. Reporting back on you. Yeah. Goodness.

Katy 12:05

Is it a three-book deal for Hari? Yes, a three-book deal. I've seen the cover of the second one, it's already out in the wild, isn't it?

Rashmi 12:15

Yes, it's coming out in August. The cover is out. It's called Hari Kumar Ultimate Superstar Going for Gold. Because in that book, he is going to try and shine on Sports Day, aka the literal worst day of the year, where Hari's concerned. He is not sporty. He doesn't have a sporty bone in his body, bless him. But his friend Lily is a house rep this year. She's really going for it. She is sporty. And he is going to do the Bollywood thing of stepping up as a friend, even though she kind of secretly wishes he wouldn't. Coming up to everything to win some sports day bling for her and for the house. Because their house has never won sports day before. So stakes are high. Martin obviously is on the other side. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm really proud of that book, actually. It was therapeutic writing it, because I'm also really bad at sport. So yeah, I work through some things writing on. Quite a lot of working through things in this movie. This is like therapy where I get paid by a publisher. So great. Love it.

Katy 13:15

That sounds good. So then presumably you're busy writing as well, then the third one.

Rashmi 13:21

Yes, exactly. So I've been on tour for book one while editing book two. So now that's in Mamta's hands. She's doing the art. And I'm now writing book three, which will be out in February. So we've got a six-month gap between books. And if they like it, maybe they'll ask me to write more. Who knows? I'm trying to focus on book three for now because I want to get that time.

Katy 13:41

Yeah. Do you find when you're out on tour that you have to try and remember what's happened in because you're talking about one book, but you've written another book and then you're starting a third book. Do you struggle to remember what's in which one?

Rashmi 13:52

Oh yes, completely. I usually start my answers to kids with, I did write this, I promise. Let's check my page in the book. Because kids know books better than authors sometimes. So I love that. Like they'll have read it twice before you even enter the room. And they know things inside out that you've forgotten, which is a joy, really. But I do have to do a little refresh before I enter the room. I think.

Katy 14:12

Yeah. I've seen authors at book quizzes when there's been a question on that, one of their own books, and they haven't got the answer right.

Rashmi 14:19

We do so much. And the way publishing schedules work as well. And if you're someone like me that writes picture books and non-fiction and the fiction, I mean, there's no way I'm gonna remember details. But that's quite a nice thing to share with children. I feel we find it quite endearing that we don't know that much, but we know where to look for it.

Katy 14:37

You've launched it out into the world.

Ali 14:39

So let's chat about Supa Uma. It's so sparkly. It's about sparkly. It's very different, but it's got some similar themes about a character who's overwhelmed by colours and sound and the importance of empathy and teamwork. Do you want to tell us a bit more about it?

Rashmi 14:55

Sure. So, yes, it is a comics-y book. I'd say it has comics-y, superhero-y vibes. It really plays on some well-loved superhero-y tropes, but with hopefully a fresh twist because you've got this South Asian kid in her gar gray. That's the skirt that she's wearing. And she's got her nani, who's very Indian. She's wearing a nine-yard sari, very traditional for like my area of India, actually. They're not even worn all over India. So I love that we got to have a grandma like that on the page in a superhero y story and a unicorn sidekick, because South Asian kids don't get unicorn sidekicks. And I was like, well, why not? My daughter, unfortunately, has grown out of her love of unicorns. But once upon a time, she kind of had unicorn blood running through her. She's that obsessed. So why shouldn't kids like her have a unicorn buddy? So we've got this unicorn buddy called Ship. When they live in Sparklepolis, which is bright and colourful and fun, always something happening. Everybody loves it. Why wouldn't you? And the reality is, well, actually, not everybody does love it all the time. Sometimes it's just a bit too much. And so the sparkle stone that kind of drives all the sparkle and colour in the city goes missing. And Uma and her friends end up on this quest to retrieve it. But when they do, what they discover is that there is someone in the city, actually quite a few people, who struggle with all the sparkle and colour and noise. And maybe what they really need to do is create some inclusive, accessible spaces for them. And that's making it sound a bit messagy as I describe it, but it's really not. It's a super fun story. And it just so happens that the ending gets us to a place where we appreciate that actually spaces need to be inclusive. And sometimes even the thing that's really fun, even for someone who finds it fun, it can be too much. And when I say someone, I mean me, people like me, and Knuckle, actually, the illustrator, this is his first picture book. And we share this in that we can find all of that brightness and colour and sparkle and noise a bit too much. So those adjustments make a huge difference to us. I'm the only person on the school run, for example, wearing sunglasses all year round, you know, the darkest depths of winter, but I need my sunglasses. It's too bright for me. I just need those adjustments. Fair enough.

Ali 17:01

So yeah, it is very sparkly. We liked sparkles. And who doesn't love a unicorn? And which character did you start with?

Rashmi 17:09

So I started with Uma, and the whole the book actually was originally called Uma the Amazing. And then Poppin suggested Super Uma. I said, fine. They were really, really sure about it. I said, go for it then. Do you know this is your business. You know it's gonna work. And actually, then the three of them popped up altogether. Because once I knew it was gonna be this kid who was kind of bright and very much like my daughter, actually. My daughter used to wake up and say, Today's gonna be the best day ever. And she said it every single day for years. That was the first thing she would say to me for years. So I wanted a kid that captured that kind of energy and excitement for life. And then the two other characters popped up around her.

Katy 17:45

Nice. You clearly had lots of fun writing it. There's a sense of that happiness and this the sort of energy. Was there a bit of it that you just thought, yes, this is really just captures what I wanted in this book?

Rashmi 17:55

I think it's the voice, actually. It's that sort of, like I said, it re I really got to play on the superhero e tropes with the way the storyteller, the narrator, is speaking to the child reader. I can't really explain it, but when you read it, you know it's just it's that voice. I love a voicey book. All my books are actually quite voicy. I guess that's why Hari's this first-person middle grade diary, because I get to speak like that. Never show a T-Rex, a book, my very first picture book with Diane Ewan, it was also quite voicey. I just like that, like playing with voice, it's fun voice. And I noticed that when I do that, children memorize those words really quickly because they like how it sounds, they like being that narrator. And after a few reads of the story, we want that as picture book writers, right? We want them to be reading these again and again. They will be saying those words themselves.

Katy 18:44

Yeah. I like the nanny um her scooter.

Rashmi 18:47

That scene, there's this epic scene where their Uma and Chiff are off to track down the sparkle stone, and you know, obviously they're they can't go very fast because they're little legs, bless them. And then Nanny vrooms by on her scooter and she's like, Don't just stand there, like a pair of lemons, jump on, and they vroom through the city. It's so epic and cinematic.

Katy 19:06

But they do have to take a detour to the library.

Rashmi 19:09

Yeah, because sort of return that library book, all so very important. But then we pick up the pace again. It's being able to do fun stuff like that. It was like a cartoon in a book for me. I got to write the cartoon of my dreams in book form, and then Claire Doughty, the art director, found Knuckle on Instagram and was just like, This illustrator is perfect for it. And he really is. I love how he's pulled in sort of Indian and Asian influences into the kind of cityscapes. Again, in that superhero world, you don't often see that. It's really fun, everything that he's done with it.

Ali 19:42

You're writing the middle grade, presumably at the same time, as a picture book in this instance.

Rashmi 19:47

Oh, yes.

Ali 19:47

How's it different working with illustrators? Because obviously, you just said that Nakul was a new illustrator, brand new for you. And for Mamta Singh, have you worked them before?

Rashmi 19:57

No, Mamta Singh, in fact, was a muralist. She wasn't even in the world of children's books. Again, art director. Actually, I've this has happened a lot with me, where the art directress found a complete debut and then hand held them through the process of doing a children's book. And you would just never know. I did a Wind in the Willows retelling with Jojo Clinch. She was a debut then too. But if you look at that book, it is stunning. She does not look like a first-time illustrator. That's the magic of a great art director, just like a great editor. So in Mamta's case, she was a muralist and we saw her portfolio of kind of murals that she had done. I'm talking things like live drawing at a corporate meeting or on a cafe wall, incredible stuff, but not children's books. And we just asked her, would you give this a go? And I think she's done brilliantly. She's worked so hard on this. What a learning curve. But children love the art and grown-ups love the art. I love the art. Yeah.

Katy 20:48

So, in terms of being a muralist, did she draw people? Yeah. Okay. So not like big wall murals, but like actual these things. No, and big wall murals.

Rashmi 20:56

So say you have a big change. Yeah, it's quite a change, like a big office space where an entire wall will be just doody mural art. Things like that. And if I'm explaining it well, but yeah, completely different world. She had that characterization, she had that fun, she's definitely got a lot of comedy in what she does. There were a lot of synergies, but it was a steep mountain to climb for her. But I guess it was for me too on the text. Like people keep forgetting that I'm not a novelist. So for me, I was learning on the job how to write a novel with the help of my editor.

Ali 21:30

And did you write all the words and then her illustrate it? Or was it a process between the two of you?

Rashmi 21:36

No. So just as it is with picture books, the text will be finished, it will settle down. And then what happens is with middle grade, it gets laid to actually with any book, it gets laid to page, meaning the art director will decide you will have space here for the art. This is the kind of size of image we're looking for. And even with picture books with Nakul, the art director would say, Okay, this is going to be a big double spread image, or this is going to be little vignettes. And they will guide. Illustrator to help them think about what kind of image would go here.

Katy 22:03

Right. With Hari Kumar, that was getting the sides right and that part of it, because they're very much in the illustrations, aren't they? They're often in a box. So that required quite a lot of thinking about, otherwise, it wouldn't quite work.

Rashmi 22:14

The designer Ellerene Grant was absolutely incredible in making that work so that we read it in the right orde r. And when it came to recording the audiobook with Jassa Ahluwalia, which is absolutely wonderful because he's an actor, he's really inhabited Hari. Those are sides were even more interesting because he had to read the text and do it, by the way, all in the audio.

Katy 22:33

That's interesting. I haven't listened to the audio. That sounds good. Are you finding that lots of kids are coming to it through the audio? Or do you have you not been out enough yet to know?

Rashmi 22:41

I haven't been out enough to see that, but I have had feedback that some people are using both, which is lovely. One person told me one child is dyslexic, and so what they like to do is have the book because they love seeing the art and they love following the text, but they have the audiobook playing as well. Another child likes to be doing something else while they're listening to the audio, so they're doing that while this one has the text. So people are using it in that way. I love that HarperCollins invested in that because not every book gets an audio edition. No. And then we had this sample from this actual actor who is absolutely brilliant. He's an author too of a book called Both Not Half because he talks about his mixed race heritage. So who is kind of perfect for this book?

Katy 23:19

Excellent. So is he going to do all three of them? I hope so. I think so. Exciting.

Ali 23:24

Yeah, it's hard, isn't it? Once you've got the voice in your head, I'm sure he will.

Katy 23:29

Make sure he doesn't get taken off to some Hollywood film. Hollywood film. Yes, Bollywood or Hollywood, yeah.

Rashmi 23:34

I think he is doing a film actually, not Bollywood, but I think he's doing a rom com.

Katy 23:38

Okay, well, just make sure it's not off the other side of the world and he can't.

Rashmi 23:42

They can do it all over the place, for it's not he loves the book though, which is lovely. And you can hear that in his reading rather. I've been very lucky. I feel very lucky overall with the reception of that book, honestly. Being on the ground, meeting kids. I was at a school where I mentioned to one child while I was signing that book two is coming in August, and I swear it rippled down the signing queue. When did she say it's coming? Did she say August? Did you say August? Is it coming in August? When's the next one? Awesome.

Katy 24:08

Oh, that's so nice. That's so nice.

Ali 24:10

Yeah. So lovely.

Katy 24:12

It is really hard, I think, when you're a kid when you discover a series with the first book and then you have to wait because it seems it's so long for them.

Rashmi 24:21

Yes. It is. My daughter keeps reminding me of this because she is 10. So if I say something like, Oh, it's just two years away, she's like, Do you know what percentage of my life that is? I'm like, oh gosh, you're right. That's actually a really, really long time. So I'm hoping that gives me some impetus to finish book three because there is so much excitement. But it is a double-edged sword because on the one hand, it's really exciting and it's fuel for creativity. But on the other hand, it can really freeze you out as an author because people loving book one so much kind of raises the bar for book three. You know what I mean?

Ali 24:54

The difficult second album.

Rashmi 24:56

Yes. Although, no, my second album is great. We've done that one. It's the difficult third album.

Ali 25:02

There isn't one. It'll be fine.

Rashmi 25:04

It'll be fine, right?

Ali 25:05

If you do the second one, you're fine.

Katy 25:06

You're fine.

Rashmi 25:07

Well that's true. That's supposed to be the tricky one. So we did that, nailed that. I'm just weirdly proud of it. I know sometimes it's really cringy reading back your stuff. But when I was reading through Hari Two for edits, I genuinely loved it. And I'm not saying that in an arrogant way because I don't know where it came from. Because like I said, I'm not a novelist. I don't identify as a novelist. But when I read it, I love it. That was some really super good editing and a day or whatever, months of inspiration that created that book. And we just need a bit more of that to do it all again.

Katy 25:36

I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine. Where can people find out where you're gonna pop up? Where should they look? On your website?

Rashmi 25:42

They should look on my website because after I finish this call, I will finally update it. I don't know because a lot of my events have been at schools. At school. I'm gonna be at Barnes Lipfest, so anyone who is around Battersea, schools in Battersea can get there's free tickets for that, isn't there?

Ali 25:58

That's a big massive schools project.

Rashmi 26:01

Yes, exactly. So some of my things have been like that rather than public-facing events. But if I do have any public-facing events, they will be on my website. I will be shouting about them. But I am nonstop on tour this year for Hari, obviously, for Superuma coming up. I'll be traveling for that in April. And then again in May, because the paperback of This Is Who I Am is coming out. That is my book for Ruchi Mhasane. And that is a poetic picture book about identity and belonging. It's a second generation immigrant story. But when the paperback comes out, I'll go on tour for that because that book really means a lot to me. So yeah, I'll be everywhere and nowhere. And right.

Katy 26:37

So people people can find you. And is there anything else in the works that you're allowed to talk about?

Rashmi 26:44

Nothing.

Katy 26:44

Is that enough?

Rashmi 26:45

That's enough. That's quite a bit, isn't it? Nothing I'm allowed to talk about. I have a really beautiful and very epic nonfiction coming out next year, which I can't talk about, but it is epic, is the only way I can describe it. And I have more picture books in the works, and they're going to be really beautiful, uplifting stories coming out over the next two years. And of course, more Hari. Um and who knows, what else? Maybe I'll come up with something completely random that I haven't done before because I love doing that. I I love the fact I get to do a range of things. Yeah. It's joke. Yeah, it's cool. I feel like when publishing opens a little door, you have to stick your foot in it and hopefully hold it open for people after you as well. But I definitely stick my foot in it because we don't all always get to do lots of different things in publishing. I feel it's very easy to end up in a box. Yeah. And I think I'm very, very lucky that I have never ended up in a box, Touchwood, and I never intend to.

Katy 27:35

Preparing for this and had a look at your range of books, and you've done everything really now. All you have to do now is a YA novel.

Rashmi 27:43

Exactly. It's in me. I have a really gritty YA, actually. But not yet. Not yet. There's time for that. I'd also love to do a verse novel, but I wrote to my agent and I said, you know what? I've got a verse novel brewing, but don't reply yet to say that this is not the market for it. You don't think you can sell it. Let me dream a little. And do you know what? She replied to everything else in my email and didn't even comment on that. Which makes me think that yes, there's no market for this. And also, Rashmi, what are you doing? You're not a poet. But you know, never say never. Never say never.

Ali 28:10

And excellent. Our final question in the National Year of Reading is what are your hopes for the National Year of Reading?

Rashmi 28:18

Wow, my hopes are that we really mean it when we invite children to go all in. Because I think choice and access are so key when it comes to children and reading. And if we're inviting them to read, it has to be on their terms. It has to be the thing that excites them, the things that they find irresistible, things that match up with their interests, feel relevant, feel accessible. And we need to make sure that those books are available to them in an age where libraries are being decimated and schools barely have them, and librarians, of course, are undervalued. I think libraries are going to have a really important role here because libraries are one place where children have choice. Because it doesn't cost anything. Even the strictest gatekeepers who want them to read that stuffy classic. Sorry. No disrespect to the classics. But the books that maybe don't pull children in, they can always say, okay, look, please borrow this. But yes, you can borrow these other books that actually are drawing you and going to get you excited about reading. But unfortunately, as I said, libraries are under threat. So I hope that we send to them this year. I hope that we send to children's choice and we really mean it. And we do less of the kind of, oh, graphic novels are not reading, or verse novels are not real reading. I saw you had Sarah Crossman on. I loved her gone for good. Brilliant. And for my ADHD brain, verse novels are like, what a gift. What a gift. And for my daughter. So I hope we mean it when we say children should choose and they should have agency and they should have access to fantastic books. Sorry, that was my very long hope for the National University.

Katy 29:47

It's a good one. Good one. The more choice and the more variety and the more diversity, the better, really, so everyone can find their own niche and their own thing.

Rashmi 29:56

We can't have this stuffiness about audiobooks, about graphic novels, about verse novels, about things like punchy commercial reads. Because actually, look at the look at point horror when I was growing up. I mean, those flew off the shelves, like Jennifer Killett today. And there's a reason why children love those books, or funny books. I'm really happy that I've published this funny, accessible book during the National Year of Reading. I think we need to stop judging what children are reading. Unless, of course, it's toxic, we weren't gonna. But that aside, obviously, that's a given. And really let them fall in love with it. And that would be magic. That would set them up for life.

Katy 30:34

Yeah. Brilliant. That's a thank you. Thank you so much for your time. It's been great talking to you. Thank you. So really enjoyed Hari Kumar. I think it's a good addition to the diary.

Ali 30:50

Journal of genre.

Ali 30:51

Yeah. And it's funny, it's different. It's a slightly younger age group, isn't it, than some of the other diaries that are around. Maybe not that much younger. He's a bit younger, isn't he? He's yeah, five, isn't he?

Katy 31:05

Year, five or six. And I loved all the Bollywood stuff. We'll be following up on Rashmi's tip about where to start if you don't know how to navigate the world of Bollywood. It definitely made you feel like you might want to, because it sounded like fun. And a whole load of family dynamics going on there that were fun too.

Ali 31:24

And Super Uma the picture book is just a kind of glorious romp. It is, yeah. With sparkly, shiny unicorns, What's Not to Love.

Katy 31:33

What's not to love. There will be definitely an audience for that. Hari Kumar, Hari Kumarl would work well as a class book, wouldn't it? Yeah, definitely. And it's it's very much positioned in a primary school environment and all of those things that go on and the frustrations. And it is the first in a series, so there are more of those to look forward to. Yeah. Two more, I think she said. I think so. And it would be a good class book because of the journal format. It is good and episodic, isn't it? That you get to the end of the day and then that would be a natural cause.

Ali 32:05

Oh yeah. And we got a bit of extra intel when we talked to Anderson about Rashmi's new book, which is coming out in October. So this is very hot off the press, but it's in their catalogue, so I think we're allowed to talk about it.

Katy 32:19

We're allowed to talk about it. It's called One Little Lamp, a Divali Story. And it's by Rashmi, and it is illustrated by Navya Raju. And that's coming out in October 2026. So that's another one to look out for.