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Padma Tiruponithura Venkatraman was born in Chennai, a city in southern India. As a young child she developed a keen interest in Mathematics, Sciences and Literature. As a result of the tug-of-war between her passion for the world of numbers and her passion for the world of words, she moved to the United States at the age of nineteen to pursue a graduate degree in oceanography. She has had varied job experiences as an oceanographer: she was chief scientist on several scientific cruises at the Institute of Meereskunde in Kiel (Germany), a post doctoral researcher at the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and conducted research in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. She has also worked as the director and mathematics and science teacher of a school in England. Eventually, however, she decided to cut back on her scientific research and devote more time to writing, which is undoubtedly her first love. The result was her debut novel, Climbing the Stairs (published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Penguin). Set in India in the 1940’s, Climbing the Stairs is the story of Vidya. Vidya’s struggle for personal freedom plays out against the backdrop of World War II and the nonviolent Indian independence movement led by Gandhi. Padma currently lives in Rhode Island and works part-time as Director of Graduate Diversity Affairs at the University of Rhode Island as well as Adjunct Faculty at the Graduate School of Oceanography. Her second novel, Island’s End, has also been sold to Penguin. |
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Climbing the Stairs Vidya, a 15-year-old girl, lives in British-occupied India during World War II. When her family is torn apart by an unexpected tragedy, Vidya and her brother are forced to move into an oppressive extended family household, where there are strict rules regarding the roles of women. Vidya finds refuge in her grandfather’s upstairs library, which is forbidden to her, and escapes there daily to find comfort and love. She is secretly befriended by Raman, an unusual man who seem to truly value her for who she is. But when Raman makes it clear that he has more on his mind than friendship and Vidya’s brother makes a shocking choice that her family cannot condone, her life becomes a whirlwind of personal and political complications. |
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Growing Gold In this original retelling of a folktale from India, a farmer's three lazy sons don't want to work, they just want to make a lot of gold. When their mother tells them a secret about gold buried in the field, they discover the value of a good day's work. |
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Double Stars: The Story of Caroline Herschel A biography of the first female professional in astronomy, with sidebars explaining scientific concepts, suitable for young adults. |
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The Albertosaurus Mystery: A nonfiction picture book that invites the reader to join paleontologist Philip Currie, as he hunts for a hidden dinosaur graveyard in the Candian Badlands. |
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Mathematwist: Number Tales from Around the World What could Caesar's general have in common with multiplication? Or a Russian waiter with factorials? A Chinese emperor with Ben Franklin or Albrecht Durer? To find out, read this fun collection of multi-cultural mathematical folktales from around the globe! A teaching guide is available on the author’s website |
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The Forbidden Temple: Stories from the Past Did Stone Age children have pets? What was it like to go shopping in a big city thousands of years ago? Imagination takes off from carefully researched fact to create ten fascinating stories of children in ancient times, panning India's history from around 3500 BCE onward. A teaching guide is available on the author’s website |
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