Artist Madrid Books

Anaheim California Elementary School District recently agreed to order over 100 copies of high schooler Rahil Luthra’s book The Scam of the Sugar Farm.

This children’s book is loosely based on the DLF Land Grab Case of 2013 in Haryana, India. Corrupt politicians and businessmen used Section 4 of Indian Law to unfairly convince Indian farmers to sell their land for unfairly cheap prices. Over ₹50 crore INR (around $6.6 million USD) was made by these corrupt politicians and businessmen.

During a trip to India in 2016, Rahil Luthra was inspired to write this story when he witnessed his uncle breakdown in tears after explaining he could no longer financially support his own family. He had owned a farm in Amipur and had been coerced to sell his land for a quarter of what it was worth. Rahil realized that this wasn’t an isolated event. Since local residents had not been educated in finance nor have a basic knowledge of the local laws, this was a common occurrence.

After graduation, Rahil plans to pursue a career in financial law. He hopes to create a task force to help people in remote villages of India increase their education resources so they can begin standing up for their legal rights. He is also an active ambassador to the CRY America charity, which educates children in third-world countries.

The Scam of the Sugar Farm was published by Artist Madrid Books this past April and is available for purchase here. All profits from these book sales will be donated by Rahil to the CRY America Foundation.

This weekend at the Coast to Coast Children’s Book Expo in Atlanta, Caitlyn Jones’ book Some Days received the 2022 ICMe Award.

Caitlyn self-published her book in 2021. Some Days is an unique board book that is tailored to babies, toddlers and young ones whose parents/caretakers have either an “invisible” chronic or mental illness. It reassures these little ones that the adults in their life love them. Many communities treat speaking to young ones about chronic and mental illness as taboo. However, without having these conversations with our children, they instinctively attribute our personal struggles as their fault. Some Days is like a warm hug that provides a jumping off point to very needed discussions throughout our community.

Coast 2 Coast Children’s Book Expo celebrates diversity in children’s literature by assisting self-published authors in having their unfiltered voices heard. Everyone has a story but not everyone has access to it mainstream publishing methods. Click here for more information.