Different Tales brings us stories from the lives of children who rarely find place in mainstream children’s literature. The series addresses dimensions of marginalization—along the axes of gender, caste, minority, disability. However it deliberately eschews the pedagogic mode, focusing instead on details that enliven and refresh these big questions with the magic of different childhoods. The narratives take readers on an enticing journey as they speak of delicious cuisines, ingenious little games, unexpected lessons at school and heartwarming friendships. Several of the writers draw on their own childhoods to depict different ways of growing up in a hostile world, and finding new relationships with peers, parents and other adults.