From childhood joy to academic inquiry with children's books
Manvi I have loved picture books since childhood. There was something magical about sitting in the school library, flipping through their pages, getting lost in their colors, their words, their worlds.
When I pursued Bachelor’s in Elementary Education, my love for picture books deepened. I started collecting them—not just for my students, but also for the children I hadn’t yet met, the ones I imagined teaching one day. Every book fair was a treasure hunt, each book a possibility.
Later, when I joined Family Tree, an organization focused on children’s mental health, I encountered a library that categorized books by emotions. That was a turning point. I had always loved picture books, but now I saw them through a new lens—one that revealed their power to hold emotions, to name them, to make space for them.
With a friend at a book fair in Delhi
And here I am today, with picture books at the heart of my PhD, exploring how they can address social-emotional issues. From childhood joy to academic inquiry, picture books have been a constant thread in my life — one that continues to unfold in ways I never imagined.