Enid Blyton, Rudyard Kipling Or Dr Seuss: Did You Know About This Magical Travelling Bookstore

Chances are you didn’t know about this fine concept. But it’s time to jump into the rabbit hole with us and say hello to the wonderful travelling world of The Rabbit Hole Bookstore.

If you have read {or heard of} Christopher Morley’s novel Parnassus on Wheels, you’d know it’s a story about a middle-aged woman who travels around selling books out of a horse-drawn van. Seems to us, Jyotsna Dilip, the lady behind The Rabbit Hole, is exactly like that, expect that she uses a car instead of a horse-drawn wagon. Her passion for children’s book of all sorts is what initially led her to share her curated collection of children’s books with her friends and immediate neighbours. And thank goodness for that!

Taking the road less travelled {literally}, a physical store was too mainstream for her. That’s when she and her friend hit upon the idea of taking the books to people, rather the other way around. And her idea behind the whole travelling bookstore was to make these curated books {she takes quite a pride in her collection} accessible to parents and children.

Initially, she started off with pop-ups at schools, play school, activity centres, and carnivals where she would drive down her car full of books. Today she also conducts events, hosts book parties and book clubs, and of course, pop-ups at least once every month. But at the core, it’s still a bookstore. Her aim is quite simple — provide parents with children’s literature that’s not mainstream or the usual. Instead, you will find collections such as Karadi Tales and Tara Books. The latter is an Indian publication that has Indian stories with Indian artwork. She says these books are the illustrative kind with warli and Madhubhani artworks.

Her collection is for ages zero {she believes that a book can be read at any age} to 14. We like to believe it’s ageless! Apart from a huge repertoire of Indian publications, she has quite a lot of international authors. You’ll find works of Patricia Polacco, Shel Silverstein, Emily Gravett, and Aaron Becker extensively. Aaron Becker’s books are of the illustrative kind and feature cute artworks and leave it to the kids to figure out what each artwork means. Herve Tullet is another author she stocks up on. His books are of the pop-up kind and these are perfect for youngsters who are just starting off to read.

Popular titles include the Famous Five series, The Jungle Book, books by Ruskin Bond, Noddy, learning books for kids, and plenty of Dr Seuss. See why we say it’s not only for kids!

If you are living in an apartment complex or gated community, you can get in touch with her for setting up a pop up in your neighbourhood.