ello…
Oops, I’ve dropped a letter; it must be the Butterfingers effect!
Welcome to my website for a butter view and much more. Hope you like what you see and enjoy what you read.
Warmly,
Khyrunnisa.
As featured in
Out Now
The Butterfingers Series
The Butterfingers series revolves around the hilarious escapades of thirteen-year-old Amar Kishen, a class VIII student of the fictitious Green Park Higher Secondary School. Amar's slip-grip methods and his clumsy antics earned him the nickname Butterfingers.
Butterfingers, named after Khyrunnisa's son, Amar, first appeared in 2006 in Tinkle, a popular fortnightly Indian children's magazine, as a regular comic-strip character. The illustrations were by Abhijeet Kini, the Mumbai-based illustrator and graphic artist.
The popular Butterfingers series, published by Puffin, began with the novel, 'Howzzat Butterfingers!', in 2010. This humorous cricket-based book was followed in 2012 by 'Goal, Butterfingers!', a rollicking football-based adventure novel which also includes a socially relevant environmental theme. The third in the series, ‘Clean Bowled, Butterfingers!' was published in 2015 and is another cricket-based novel with a hilariously farcical plot in which Amar and his friends invent a variation of cricket called ‘Crack It’ when the school’s cricket gear gets stolen. This game, played without cricket bats and balls, has its own absurd rules and generates immense fun.
'The Misadventures of Butterfingers', the fourth book in the series, came out in 2016 and is a collection of short stories. It was followed by two collections of delightful short stories, 'Run! It's Butterfingers Again!' in 2017 and 'Of Course It's Butterfingers!' in 2018. 'Smash It, Butterfingers!' a fun-filled badminton-based novel and the seven in the series, came out in July 2021.
In 2023, 'The World of Butterfingers: Adventure in Texas and Other Stories', a hundred-page comic book with three rib-tickling stories featuring Butterfingers and illustrated by Abhijeet Kini was published.
About
Khyrunnisa A., prize-winning author of children’s fiction, loves reading, writing, arithmetic and children. She created the popular comic character Butterfingers for the children’s magazine, Tinkle and her Butterfingers stories appeared in that magazine.
Her first book for adults, the bestselling Tongue in Cheek: The Funny Side of Life, a rib-tickling book, was published by Westland in 2019. This was followed in 2022 by Chuckle Merry Spin: Us in the U.S, a humorous travelogue about her trip to the U.S in 2018. This was also published by Westland.
The Butterfingers series of books, published by Penguin (Puffin), began in 2010 with Howzzat Butterfingers!, her first children’s novel. It was followed by Goal, Butterfingers! in 2012 and Clean Bowled, Butterfingers! in 2015. The Misadventures of Butterfingers, the fourth book in the Butterfingers series, is a collection of short stories and came out in 2016. It was followed by two more collections of short stories, Run, It’s Butterfingers Again! in 2017 and Of Course It’s Butterfingers! in 2018. 'Smash It, Butterfingers!' a hilarious badminton-based novel and the seventh in the series, came out in July 2021.
The World of Butterfingers: Adventure in Texas and Other Stories, a one hundred page 3-in-1 comic book with illustrations by Abhijeet Kini , was published in May 2023.
Her novella, Baby and Dubdub, was published by Talking Cub in 2021. She has written four books of short stories. One is a collection titled The Couch Potato Who Said Ouch and Other Funny Stories, published by Red Panda (Westland) in 2024, two are collections of animal stories titled The Crocodile Who Ate Butter Chicken For Breakfast and Other Stories published by Red Panda (Westland) in 2020 and The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories published by Scholastic in 2019, and her first collection is Lost in Ooty and Other Adventure Stories published by Unisun Publications in 2010. She has also come out with a picture book, Ka Kha Ga (2024), illustrated by Monami Roy and published by DC Books.
Her stories appear regularly in Dimdima and other children’s magazines and she freelances for other publications too. Some of her stories, for children and for adults, have been published in various anthologies by Penguin Random House (Puffin), Children’s Book Trust, Speaking Tiger (Talking Cub), Westland Books (Red Panda), The Hindu Group Publishing Pvt.Ltd. and Unisun Publications.
She worked as Associate Professor of English at All Saints’ College, Thiruvananthapuram, and is now a full-time writer.
Prizes & Awards
Butterfingers, Khyrunnisa's entry for the Annual All India Tinkle Short Story Competition for Adult Writers of Children's Fiction in 1996, won her the second prize. She went on to win the first prize at the competition for the next seven consecutive years – from 1997 to 2003. In 2007, she won the prestigious Unisun Children's Fiction Award. She also has five Children's Book Trust prizes to her credit.
Smash it, Butterfingers! was shortlisted for Sahitya Akademi's Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2024 (English). It was long-listed for the JK Paper and Times of India Auther Awards 2022 in the Children's Literature category and also featured in Times of India's Top Ten Books for Children 2021.
Wall of Love
‘An exuberant mix of school, cricket and fun that bowled me over and kept me laughing from beginning to end. A delightful read.’
Rajiv Ouseph, former England No.1 and 2017 European Badminton Singles Champion
‘An exuberant mix of school, cricket and fun that bowled me over and kept me laughing from beginning to end. A delightful read.’
VVS Laxman
Whether your favourite subject in school is physics, English or PE, you’re bound to enjoy the charming and hilarious exploits of Butterfingers and his eclectic bunch of friends. Like a good game of cricket, it keeps you hooked till the very end!
Mithali Raj
‘What great fun! It brings back long lost memories of my Prep School days’.
Late Mansur Ali Khan (Nawab of Pataudi)
As a fellow butterfingers, I am a big fan of Amar of Class VIII. The whole world would be a dull place without dropped catches and broken dishes.
Ruskin Bond
The imaginative world conjured by Khyrunnisa in the Butterfingers stories is charming, witty and boisterous, full of good-humoured mischief and benign fun, stylishly and effortlessly evoked through the clear-eyed magic of her captivating prose. Khyrunnisa’s Butterfingers is a gift to the children of our nation!’
MP Sashi Tharoor
Great book! Wow, Khyrunnisa’s writing is more prolific than the great Gavaskar, who features prominently in this book, I dare say...
Cyrus Broacha
‘Khyrunnisa A.’s Butterfingers series has bowled over readers, cricketers and celebrities alike’
The Hindu
‘Butterfingers has indeed been attracting many young readers with his clumsiness and ludicrous schemes that take him right into the heart of trouble and then somehow out of it as well. The author truly knows how to keep her readers entertained’
New Indian Express
At an age when superheroes and mythology rule the roost in children’s literature, writer A. Khyrunnisa is a trailblazer... It is witty, based on the theme of sports and has real-life situations... Interestingly, the Butterfingers series is enjoyed by adults too, especially those interested in sports’
Times of India
