How a sleepy bear gets his stripes

Every bear in our books starts the same way: a wobbly circle drawn on the back of a bus ticket. Mira Das keeps a whole shoebox of them, and she says the wobblier the circle, the friendlier the bear.

Start with a wobble

She draws the ears first, then the nose, and only then does she decide whether the bear is sleepy, grumpy or just hungry. The stripes arrived by accident, when a mug of tea tipped across the page.

“A good bear never hurries you.”

Every spread is coloured twice: once with pencils, then again after the tea has dried. That is why our books smell faintly of Assam.

If you are drawing your own, keep a spare sheet nearby. The best part is usually the mistake.