About

Banyan Story Studio retells the folk tales of the world for children who have not heard them yet, starting from India.

Why I started this

The Panchatantra is one of the great old storytelling traditions of India, and it was made for children who would not sit still: so the frame story goes, a teacher was asked to make three restless princes wise, and instead of lecturing them about kings, he told them stories about crows and mice, jackals and lions. It worked.

We are starting there, and we want to follow the old stories outward — to the many traditions and places that have taught children through stories for generations. Every region has old stories worth bringing back into family storytelling, and too many children growing up today, wherever they are, have never heard them — not as a lesson in a textbook, but as a story at bedtime, from someone who loves them. I started Banyan Story Studio to give them that. Each collection is named for where it comes from.

The idea is simple. An old banyan tree in a courtyard between apartment buildings, in a city with no name, so any child can put their own city around it. A grandmother, Nani, who tells the stories. Three children in the roots — Mira, Leo and Dev — who interrupt the way real children do. And Bupam, a little monkey in the branches, who keeps one small souvenir from every story. That is where Banyan begins. As the stories travel, the tree and Bupam go with them, and new storytellers and new children may join — each from the place their story comes from.

What parents should know

• Every story is written for one age, and says which. A story for a nine-year-old loses a three-year-old, and the reverse bores the nine-year-old. Nothing for ages 3–5 is frightening. More on how we read aloud.
• Every story names the tale it comes from. A close retelling says which book and tradition it is retold from, and what we changed. A story of our own, shaped in the spirit of the old ones, will say so plainly. No story here is a blend.
• Every story is free to read. No account, no sign-up, nothing locked.
• No advertising aimed at children, and no collecting information about them. Nothing on the site plays on by itself. The details are in the privacy note for families.
• How the stories are made. I direct every story. They are written and reviewed with the help of AI tools, checked for age and against the original tales, and nothing goes up here until I have approved it.
• If something is not right for your child, tell me here.

Thank you for sitting under the tree with us.

— the founder, Banyan Story Studio