Folklore Fun! India - WPPL Blogs

Post author:Jessica M.
Post published: June 23, 2025
Post category:All Ages

Tags: book recommendations, India, folk tales, folklore, Folklore Fun

This entry is part 13 of 13 in the series Folklore Fun

India is a huge country, with an enormously rich pantheon of folklore that changes depending on which part of the country you’re from, and I wanted to tell a story that was true to where I came from.
-Sangu Mandanna, FAQ page

India is the world’s most populous country, according to the census.gov population clock. Naturally, there are going to be innumerable folktales and traditions that vary from one region to the next. The majority religion is Hinduism, which itself embraces pluralism… so folkloric variants and different iterations of tales can be taken in stride.

By my own observation, Westlake seems to have a large Indian population, so the library collection has a larger selection of tales inspired by this culture. As I searched the collection, I noticed a lot of fresh new interpretations of traditional tales. Many are fusions with contemporary stories, reflecting Indian immigrants’ experiences growing up in another country, like the US. As I’ve said countless times before, folklore is alive! Stories from one region will find ways to adapt and reestablish themselves along with the people who carry them.

The first published work in the Rick Riordan Presents imprint is Aru Shah and the End of Time, which brings Indian flair to the Percy Jackson premise. It is now a five books series with a graphic novel adaptation. Sayantani DasGupta is building her own universe, inspired by the Bengali folklore she grew up with. New authors bring their own favorite folklore elements into chapter books and graphic novels for a variety of age groups.