KATHMANDU: Sneha Pradhan was counting down her final days of graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University in America. Right around that time, a severe case of dry eye syndrome left her unable to read or even look at screens. It is said that sudden obstacles in life often knock on the door of new opportunities, and this is exactly what happened in Sneha’s case. The issue with her eyes did not break her bond with books; instead, her relationship with them grew even deeper through audiobooks.

However, during that time, she did not read course books. She listened to more and more stories. While listening to those very stories, a story was born in her mind that is currently attracting readers in many countries.

That story is, Yelp! Yeti!: Chaos in Kathmandu. Prepared with Sneha’s writing and Promina Shrestha’s illustration, the ‘graphic reader’ was published by the prestigious UK publishing house, Flying Eye Books. Having recently won the iJungle Illustration Merit Award, this book was also a finalist in the picture book category for the year 2025.

Having a keen interest in creative writing during her time studying ‘A Level,’ Sneha drifted away from literature after she began studying economics and statistics during her undergraduate studies.

Sneha, who frequently travels back and forth between America and Nepal, is currently in Kathmandu. A resident of Tokha, she used to read children’s literature and stories written for young adults with great interest. She still feels thrilled remembering the stories and characters of Enid Blyton’s mystery series The Famous Five, Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-sitters Club, and Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games.

Author Sneha Pradhan in red outfit at Fineprint Fever. Photo courtesy: Sneha

When Sneha started writing the book, she returned to the delightful and imaginative worlds she experienced while reading those children’s and young-adult-targeted books in the past. Yelp! Yeti! did not just bring her back to children’s literature; it gave her an excuse to get lost in childhood nostalgia.

“When I was a child, I used to read many children’s literature books. I used to be incredibly happy reading them. As an author, I wanted to give that same happiness to other children,” she said. “If I succeed in that, it will be the biggest achievement for me.”

According to Sneha, she had started writing stories merely as a hobby. Only after family members liked what she wrote did she truly begin to view herself as an author. She is absolutely overjoyed that her very first book was published by an established international publishing house and even received an award.

Illustrator Promina Shrestha. Photo courtesy: Promina Shrestha

However, this journey to success was neither easy nor short. She had to work hard for four years to taste success. In the beginning, Sneha was thinking of publishing a rhyming picture storybook. In her imagination, it was a book of about 40 pages that would be useful for small children.

After writing the story, Sneha connected with Kathmandu-based illustrator Promina Shrestha. After spending two years preparing the book together, the search for a publishing house began. In the meantime, a positive response came from Flying Eye Books. However, the condition that the story needed to be expanded further and developed into a ‘graphic reader’ made Sneha anxious.

Rewriting a book prepared by spending two years of energy in a completely new way was difficult and tedious. “The idea of rewriting everything from the very beginning scared me. Tears actually came to my eyes,” she says. “But the director of the publishing house convinced me by assuring me that a graphic reader would open doors to even more possibilities.”

Just like Sneha, Promina, on the other side, also had to redo the illustration work from the beginning. Promina says, “Another two years passed in the process of preparing the book by discussing it for months with the art directors of the publishing house. Working all over again in a new way was challenging.” Looking at it this way, it was only after four years of collaboration that Sneha and Promina’s book took its final shape.

Even though it took a lot of time, Sneha and Promina consider the Yelp! Yeti! The writing-illustration process is a significant learning experience in terms of the creative process. Sneha states that the process of how international editors and the ‘creative team’ move the story and illustrations forward together became a new and important experience.

Promina, who has already worked on more than 40 books, including children’s picture books and comics, was also working with an international publisher for the first time. However, this time she got separate teams looking after the writing and the graphics. They conducted continuous reviews and gave suggestions. She states that this was a new experience for her. “To make an excellent book, good illustrations alone are not enough; aspects such as visual flow, the rhythm of the story, page composition, and the reader’s experience are equally important,” she says. “They look at everything, how children understand color composition, and what kind of impact the visuals make. Revisions are made repeatedly to make the illustrations effective. However, the practice of visual editing is very weak in Nepal.”

Sneha, who met Promina during the preparation of the book, did not know at that time what kind of work to expect from an illustrator. She only knew that only a Nepali artist could capture the ‘nuances’ of Kathmandu’s setting, alleys, and food within the cultural context in her story.

Since Sneha herself is a good visual thinker, scenes used to move like a movie in her mind while writing the story. Sneha states that Promina enriched those scenes even further through her creative vision and meticulous details. She says, “When I saw the characters of the story, the alleys of Kathmandu, the baskets of mangoes, and the face of the yeti in the illustrations, I became truly emotional. She gave life to the world I wanted to see.”

A children’s book is incomplete without an illustrator. In Nepal, there is not always an equal relationship between an author and an illustrator. Promina states that although working with an international publishing house was challenging, during the course of Yelp! Yeti! She got the opportunity to work with the exact status of an ‘author.’

Sneha and Promina, who got to know each other during the writing of the book, share a few things in common. Their childhoods were colored by many hues of Kathmandu’s Newar culture. Therefore, inside the story of Yelp! Yeti!, Sneha and Promina’s own story can also be found, where many things from their own nostalgia are accommodated. Some contexts have even come from the old stories of Kathmandu told to them by senior members of their families. Because of that, some things that have already disappeared can also be found in the book.

For instance, in the first scene, there is a scene where children are running on the street while rolling an old bicycle tire. Promina brought that scene from a story told to her by her father. That scene also reminded Sneha of her maternal uncle’s house. After that, both started unpacking their bundles of memories.

Following that, they began telling old memories to each other. Let’s keep this too, let’s keep that too. This thing became a strong foundation that brought both of them to a common point in their creative process. Sneha and Promina consider this to be the most enjoyable aspect of their collaboration, which also became a bridge connecting them closely.

Amidst such discussions, the character of Tuna the cat was added to the story. Old Newari architecture, Newari houses, and Newari words were also added. The world within the story became even more believable.

Sneha and Promina have a shared statement, “We have not just told a story; we have also made an effort to preserve old memories through the story.”

According to Promina, their publishing team was mainly familiar with European, Chinese, and Indian children’s literature. Many people’s understanding of Nepal was limited to Mount Everest and the Buddha. Therefore, they also used Yelp! Yeti! as an opportunity to introduce Nepal to international readers from a different perspective.

Whether choosing words during the cultural context of Nepal or making illustrations, they had to do a lot of research. When having to revise their work repeatedly, they also felt like, Oh dear, correcting this again! Ugh, altering that as well! After all, until when!

However, the hard work and fatigue of that time have made things easier now while working on the second book. As a series of Yelp! Yeti!, Sneha and Promina’s second book has already gone to print, and it will be published in November.

In Yelp! Yeti!, Dev, Tuna, and Hiu (the Yeti), who met in Kathmandu during summer vacation, are now meeting again during summer break. Sneha and Promina state that as their story, which takes place in the Everest region, expands into a third book, the impacts of climate change will become connected.

Until Yelp! Yeti! was published, Sneha harbored doubts about whether others would like her writing. Even the experienced Promina used to have self-doubt about her creative abilities.

However, since the publication of Yelp! Yeti!, numerous prestigious magazines and booksellers in the international book market have placed it on their recommendation lists. The book has also caught the choice and recommendation lists of renowned children’s literature publications and vendors.

Last year, the Nepal edition of Yelp! Yeti! was published by FinePrint. Last week, its Nepali translation, Aammai Yeti: Kathmandu ma Khailabaila, was also released.

Promina says, “The discussion and awards the book received internationally have increased confidence in my own work. The challenge to do even more creative work has also been added.”

As for Sneha, until she reached the decision to prepare the book, she was actually thinking of publishing the first book at her own expense. After Promina prepared the illustrations, she had even printed a dummy copy to see how it looked. However, its print quality did not satisfy her. Right at that time, she became clear that merely putting out a book is not enough; it must also be of high quality.

“That decision turned out to be right. The hard work put into the first book has given me a strong foundation to write more stories for children and young adults. I still have so many more stories to tell,” said Sneha.