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Book Review: AdiDev Press Announces a New City-Adventure Series for Young Readers
- Style Essentials Edit Team
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
AdiDev Press has introduced a new picture-book series that celebrates Indian cities through color, movement, and everyday moments—the kind children notice instinctively. The series opens with Adi and Arya Visit Delhi and Adi and Arya Visit Kolkata, two books created especially for toddlers and emerging readers, where illustrations are not decorative additions but the heart of the storytelling.
Written by Chitwan Mittal and illustrated by Asuma Noor, the books invite children to explore cities not through facts or timelines, but through experience. The characters, Adi and Arya, move through streets, food stalls, monuments, sounds, and small encounters that together build a sense of place. Delhi reveals itself through bustling roads, familiar foods, and grand structures that quietly sit alongside daily life. Kolkata unfolds through trams, rickshaws, river rides on the Hooghly, music, poetry, and the city’s unmistakable rhythm.
What sets these books apart is how much they trust the child’s imagination. The illustrations are rich, detailed, and full of visual cues that encourage young readers to pause, observe, and ask questions. Colors are vibrant without being overwhelming, and every spread offers something new to discover. Children are not told what to see; they are invited to notice.
Equally important is the physicality of the books themselves. Designed for small hands, the hardbound format features thick, laminated pages that are durable, wipe-clean, and built to withstand repeated reading. The solid inner pages mirror the strength of the cover, making the books feel reassuringly sturdy—an object a child can return to again and again without damage. This tactile quality matters, especially for toddlers who experience books as much through touch as through story.
Author Chitwan Mittal, who founded AdiDev Press in 2021, has long been interested in how reading shapes children both intellectually and emotionally. Her background in education informs the series’ gentle pacing and emphasis on sensory learning. Rather than simplifying cities into symbols, the books allow complexity to exist naturally, trusting children to absorb differences in culture, language, and atmosphere through visual storytelling.
Illustrator Asuma Noor brings a traveler’s curiosity and childlike attentiveness to each page. Her illustrations capture not just landmarks, but expressions, gestures, and fleeting moods — the things that make cities feel alive. Delhi’s layered history and Kolkata’s old-world charm are rendered with warmth and humour, encouraging young readers to imagine themselves inside these places.
Together, the books provide an early introduction to India's cultural diversity, fostering observation, curiosity, and imagination. More city adventures are planned as the series grows, promising young readers new places to explore through story and image.
The first two titles are available in hardback format, priced at INR 499 each, with 22 laminated pages designed for toddlers and beginner readers.
Title: Adi and Arya Visit Delhi and Adi and Arya Visit Kolkata
Author: Chitwan Mittal
Illustration: Asuma Noor
Publisher: AdiDev Press https://adidevpress.com/
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