Dreadtastic. What could dreadtastic be? A little imagination led me to the right answer - dreadful + fantastic. Aha! I love books that play with words, as well as books that feature characters that enjoy words. I recently read (and wrote about) Friends Behind Walls, and the word games we played when we read it at my reading programme. The first book I read by Shabnam Minwalla is about writing and words too - Lucky Girl. Even as I read it, I planned how I would use it for my reading programme. It produced giggles and fun, poems, new book covers and crazy recipes. I was all set to enjoy Nimmi's Dreadtastic Detective Days! Nimmi has an overactive imagination. When she is sick, overactive turns to hyperactive and she feels that the pineapples on her curtains have murderous intentions. The worst thing about being sick, however, is not malevolent pineapples; it's the fact that she isn't … [Read more...]
Playing with Kangaroo Words
When I wrote about using Friends Behind Walls for my online reading programme, the first thing I thought of doing was playing with words. Putti loves breaking words up to make sense of them. Brouhaha = brew+haha, but has nothing to do with brewing tea or being funny. Yesterday, we thought of words like this. We thought of 'unfortunately' and 'perspective', as we hunted for humorous ideas."Is 'guin' a word?" one child asked me. Of course he wanted to do something with what a penguin is not. One idea led to another and we came to kangaroo words. I'm not good at coming up with these, but I love the idea! A kangaroo word is one that carries a synonym of itself in the word. We discussed just a handful in class - masculine contains the word male, blossom contains the word bloom, chicken contains the word hen. "I know this is difficult," I told the children, "but see if you can think … [Read more...]
Flying with Grandpa
I read Flying with Grandpa some time ago and enjoyed it. I wanted to read it with children, but had not yet figured out how. The book is slightly difficult for ages seven and eight, the age-group I was working with. When parents started asking me about writing programmes for readers who are reluctant writers, the seed of an idea took root. A reading programme with smaller elements of creative writing would be perfect - and there! I had the perfect setup to read Flying with Grandpa! Xerxes wants to be like his grandfather, his beloved Mamavaji, but his mother has other plans for him. She wants him to be like JRD Tata. She is fierce and determined, pushing Xerxes to do things the correct way all the time. But his strict mother is just one of Xerxes's problems. His classmates tease him, calling him 'Xerox, Xerox'. When his Navjote approaches, they make up a rhyme about … [Read more...]
Reflecting on Reading on International Women’s Day
A few years ago, I was invited to judge a 'Come as a Character' competition at Symbiosis International School, and it was good fun. I encountered all kinds of characters, ranging from Matilda to Ebenezer Scrooge. I've now seen multiple schools that conduct similar activities; I've done so myself at my Writers' Club. Yet, for a while, I've been thinking about something that makes me rather uncomfortable. Dozens of girls dress up as Harry Potter, Geronimo Stilton or Charlie Bucket. But no boys dress up as Matilda or Thea Stilton or Katniss Everdeen. This was brought into sharp focus recently, when a parent asked me for recommendations for a character for her son to dress up as. The idea of dressing him up as a female character seemed absurd to her. I wonder, would it have been as absurd to dress a daughter as a male character? Today, on international women's day, I find myself … [Read more...]
Loki Takes Guard
What draws me into a story? What makes me long to know more? What keeps me reading? Character. Always, character. That's probably why I don't typically enjoy detective stories very much. Suspense isn't what drives me as a reader, and all too often, good detectives remain elusive. Their enigma is part of why people are drawn to them - and I'm not. I'm drawn to characters that show themselves at their ugliest, most vulnerable moments, as well as their silliest ones. I'm drawn to characters like Loki. Loki Takes Guard is the story of an 11-year-old who tells you straight off that her name is not as cool and fancy as it seems. It's not Loki, but Lokanayaki. Ugh. Who has a name like that? Just three chapters in, I got sucked into the story. It's beautiful and warm, full of moments of angst, embarrassment, love and humour. I chuckled at the serials the family watches; I loved the … [Read more...]
The Mystery of the Secret Hair Oil Formula
The first edition of my online reading programme for ages 9 and 10 is here! For a while, I've had queries from parents about children who love reading but don't know how to get started on their writing journeys. They want to write, but they don't know what to do or how to go about it. I began mulling over it. Would a writing workshop help? Perhaps it would, but I felt that beginning on familiar ground - reading - would work better. And so, here it is - my first reading programme for this age-group. What better way to begin than with a book by Asha Nehemiah? I began my first reading programme for younger children with her Trouble with Magic, and we loved it. The Mystery of the Secret Hair Oil Formula is similar in so many ways, but still entirely different. Someone is trying to steal Malu Paati's secret hair oil formula. It is a special formula indeed, one that requires … [Read more...]
Maya in a Mess
It seems to have become something of a tradition to begin each batch of my online reading programme with a hOle book. For the third edition of my programme, it's going to be Maya in a Mess, a delightful book that made me chuckle. Peopled with sparkling characters, this book is ideal for ages seven and eight, so how could I not include it in my programme? Maya is the cupboard monitor. The proudest moment of her life is when she is entrusted with the key to the class cupboard. The pride! The honour! The triumph! I remember the moment oh-so-clearly, and how could I not feel what Maya feels? Now, you can imagine what the mess is, can't you? Discussion Responsibility is serious business! What was the greatest thing you were entrusted with? What do you do when you make a mistake? How do you think people would react if you lost something precious? Activity What makes a reading programme … [Read more...]
Past the Halfway Mark
Four books in six weeks - that's what my current online reading programme involves. And just like that, four weeks have gone by. If I make participants reflect on their journeys with me, I suppose it is because I enjoy the process of reflection myself. Each time I look back, I find myself nodding slowly at some new learning, some new revelation. Now, at just past the halfway mark, I can't stop thinking about reading tastes and how much they differ. "I'm a cheetah reader," a child said proudly, referring to our second book, Hungry to Read."Me too!""Me too!""I'm a Bull!" said another.Where I thought children would resent being categorized into 'cheetah', … [Read more...]
Mini’s Money
Sometimes, when I pick up a book for children, I wonder, "What would I have thought of this as a child?" Mini's Money would probably have appealed to me, but what really made me stop and think was the idea of colouring the story. Colouring in a book was a strict no for me, but would this series have changed that? Perhaps it would, for I enjoyed the book! Mini's Money is an early chapter book, perfect for voracious young readers. Many 5- and 6-year-old readers have already moved beyond short, 32-page picture books full of colour. They want more story, but pictures remain comforting. The theme of the book needs to be child-friendly and age-appropriate too, for their experience of the world is limited, even if their reading ability is greater than that of other children their age. In that sense, Mini's Money is ideal. Mini is young and naive, not yet equipped to understand how … [Read more...]
Workshops Launching in April 2021
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR ALL THESE PROGRAMMES.The next reading programmes begin in the first week of June, and the next writing programmes will be held in October. I will also organise three short guest sessions as part of my writing programme. These will be free for those who are part of the programme, but will also be open to non-participants on payment of a fee. More details coming soon!If you would like to receive email notifications about my workshops, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media - Facebook, Instagram and Twitter - for regular updates. Online Reading Programme Many parents with children in the age-group 7-8 expressed interest in my writing programmes, which made me think about what I could do with such young children. For a writing programme to be meaningful, I feel that children need to be a little older. At the same time, … [Read more...]
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