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Arts & Entertainment

Local Author Shares A Little Zen for Kids

Sanjay Nambiar's first book in his series of Zen folk tales for children was recently purchased by the Los Angeles County Public Library.

Brentwood resident Sanjay Nambiar didn't set out to become a children's author, but it was right around the time of his twin daughters' birth that he became interested in a different kind of picture book for children.

"There's so many children's books out there," he said. 

He wanted to put out a book that would not just be entertaining, but help children look at life in a different way.

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The result was Maybe, the first in a series called A Little Zen for Little Ones. Maybe was recently purchased by the Los Angeles County Public Library, which will carry copies of the picture book in all of its 84 locations.

Maybe is a modern re-telling of the famous Zen story about the farmer whose horse runs away, which is a mis-fortune, but then it comes back with several more horses, which is fortunate, but then farmer's son breaks his leg while riding one of the new horses and so forth and so on. The idea is that it's useless to get caught up in the emotions of any single event, since even bad things can lead to good things and vice versa.

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"These stories are ancient, about farmers and stuff," Nambiar said about Maybe and the several other Zen stories he is in the process of re-telling. He said that modern kids don't connect to farmers and horses and other aspects of ancient life in Japan. "So in Maybe instead of a farmer, it's a little girl, and instead of a horse, it's a bike."

In addition to the library, Maybe is also available through Barnes & Noble and is in bookstores around the country. What makes Maybe and the other coming books in the series unusual is that the series is essentially self-published.

"My wife and I, we created a publishing company," Nambiar said.

His wife, Priya Nambiar, is credited as the book's editor, but he said she also coordinated the illustrations, which are a combination of watercolors and computer graphics.

Kenneth Kramer, Public Affairs Manager of the County Public Library, said that while the library acquisitions team is open to looking at self-published books, the vast majority of them do not meet the library's rigorous standards, which are particularly stringent for children's books.

"We do not pick up a lot of self-published stuff," he said.

Of the roughly 5,000 unique titles acquired by the library in fiscal year 2010-11, Kramer said that a very small percentage were self-published.

Nambiar didn't say why he chose to go this particular route, but did say that he wanted to be sure the books are a high-quality product.

Born in New Jersey, he was raised a Hindu by his parents, who are from southern India. The family moved to California when he was young. He went to the University of California at Berkeley, and eventually came back to Los Angeles. He holds an MBA and does freelance copywriting for a living. His wife is a school administrator.

He became interested in Zen, which he calls a spiritual practice rather than a religion, about 10 years ago and began meditating about five years ago.

Creative writing had always been a passion of his, and he's written several short stories. Becoming a parent, however, more or less nudged him to write for children.

"That spoke to me that this is a form that I really wanted to delve into," he said.

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