Yesterday, we came to the end of yet another batch of my reading programme for ages nine and ten. I wrote about our 'raise hand' anecdote, and thinking about that made me realise - again - that the main reason I conduct reading programmes is that I enjoy them so much! Yes, I spread the love of reading and all that, but more, I love what goes into each programme. I love choosing my books, planning my activities, and then, seeing how, despite all the planning, children take the workshop in whatever direction they like!This time, we read Karma Meets a Zombie, The Hodgeheg and When the World Went Dark. Each one was delightful in its own way. Karma Meets a Zombie I wrote about being a little nervous reading this one with my book club. Would it be too scary? Detachable hands, the undead - how much is too much?Ultimately, though, it … [Read more...]
Rise of the Earth Dragon (Dragon Masters #1)
I love introducing children to book series. It's heartwarming to see children come back to a subsequent edition of my reading programme bursting with excitement because they're reading the next book of a series to which I introduced them! It's happened with the hOle books, Amelia Bedelia, the A to Z Mysteries, Moin and the Monster ... More often than I can count!And the Dragon Masters is a fun, exciting series too! Rise of the Earth Dragon is the first of the series, the book where Drake discovers that he is a Dragon Master. But-but-but dragons don't exist! They do? But what if he can't connect with his dragon at all?Rise of the Earth Dragon is a lovely story about new experiences, making friends, adventure and magic!Here's what we will do with it at my book club.Diary of a Dragon Master What if you were a Dragon Master? Write about your dragon! What is its name? What … [Read more...]
No Nonsense Nandhini
What do you do when circumstances force you to let go of your dream? You create another dream. And another. And another. Hold on to your sense of humour and don't give up.At least, that's Nandhini's way.No Nonsense Nandhini, shortlisted for the Neev Book Award for Junior Readers 2021, is a book about resilience, about never glossing over the fact that life is hard, and about having the power and flexibility to change routes when life throws obstacles in your path.Nandhini is a powerhouse of energy and determination, plus she is full of fun and mischief. As a child, she dreams of being a Collector. She is a good student and studies hard at school, but a week before her board exams, she falls off a guava tree and injures herself so badly that she has to skip her exams. That's just the first of many things that go wrong. When she appears for her exams the following year, she is … [Read more...]
Cricket for the Crocodile
I launched my online reading programme for ages seven and eight in December last year, which means that this is the sixth edition of the programme. Each time, I've focused on Indian books - books written by Indians, published in India or set in India - usually all three. On the whole, I've tried to avoid the big names in children's literature, mainly because one of the goals of the book club is to introduce children to books they might not otherwise read. Yet I have included well-known names - Roald Dahl and Dick King-Smith twice each, for instance!And so, this time, I'm introducing a book by Ruskin Bond, Cricket for the Crocodile. It's shorter than the books we usually read, but that should give us more time for bookish activities!Ranji is determined to be a Test cricketer, and his team comes from different parts of town. Sometimes, they even need to let the adults take … [Read more...]
No Ticket, Will Travel
For ever so long, I didn't even know what the general compartment of a train was. When I saw people lining on station platforms, I assumed that they couldn't plan their travel in advance and so, they didn't get tickets. I knew all about not getting tickets because each year, we would stand in line at the ticket counter for hours, months in advance, to buy our tickets for the summer. Sometimes, even after our long wait, we would have to change our travel dates because no tickets were available.Years later, getting into the general compartment was an eye-opener. There were so many people! Where were they going? How did they manage? And how did so many people share four toilets?No Ticket, Will Travel is a collection of six stories about people who have no choice but to travel. Getting caught travelling ticketless is a risk they take because hard-earned money cannot just be spent … [Read more...]
House of Uncommons
We all know about the House of Commons. What could the House of Uncommons be? I didn't want to read up about the book to find out, so I picked it up and dived right in.The book started slowly, and I frowned as I read about Krishnan travelling with his Chikkappa to Snehagao. I didn't know where the story was going. Until we get the first indicator of the uncommon. The protagonist Krishnan sees Raman, his soon-to-be roommate, and realises that Raman is like him. What does that mean? We, as readers, don't know yet, but we find out soon enough. In Krishnan's new school, all the children have HIV. And for once, it seems like they are not going to be shunned for it.What do we even know about HIV? At Krishnan's age - about 13 - I knew next to nothing. I knew what it stood for because I had to learn it at school. I equated AIDS with HIV, and had no idea that there was any difference … [Read more...]
Book Spotting!
When my first book, The Story-Catcher, was published, we started playing a game. We would go to every bookstore in every city we visited and try to find a copy of the book. It was impossible. And yet, it was exciting. I even got a spreadsheet from my publishers, listing the stores in which my book would be available, and we went to those stores in the city, hunting.I never found my book. Not even when it was on display like this:This was at Crossword, Mulund. Look at the number of copies on the shelf. You guessed right. I didn't see them.This was in the shop window of Chapter and Verse (now shut down), and I didn't see it. When I went for the Asian Festival of Children's Content in 2018, I knew my book Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells would be in print. I had not yet received my sample copies, and I didn't even know how the book looked. I hunted … [Read more...]
Raise Hand
Children will be mischievous. They will always, always try to find ways to fool their teachers. The most common excuse during virtual sessions? "I lost connection."Much as children like to believe otherwise, teachers can tell when children aren't attentive. They stare at the screen and their eyes glaze over. At my book club, I know they aren't reading along. For one, they shouldn't be looking at the screen at all. If they're gazing at the screen, they're doing something else. Of course.But when I ask them a question linked to what we're reading, pat comes the response, "Sorry, I lost my connection. I don't know where we are."So, yesterday, I told the children, very casually, to raise their hands immediately if they lose track. "Don't wait until I ask you to read. If you lose your connection and can't find where we are, raise your hand!"I could see the bewilderment. A … [Read more...]
Book Club Discussions
We just finished reading Sandy to the Rescue, the first of five books we'll be reading at this edition of my book club. One of the joys of reading the hOle books at the reading programme is that the length is perfect. We have enough time to read and do activities during each session, which, for me, is what a book club is about.In Sandy to the Rescue, six-year-old Aftab hides first under the dining table and then in the bath tub. This made me ask the children, "Where would you hide? If you had to smuggle a friend into your house, what would be a hiding place?" We discussed the storage cupboard, a balcony with newspapers (ideal for a little cushioning) and under the bed. I then led them to another activity - finding a hiding place for something a little smaller, like a secret note, perhaps. What could they write in the note? That led me to an unexpected discussion because one of the … [Read more...]
Pinkoo Shergill – Pastry Chef
Two days ago, at my reading programme, we discussed portmanteau words - words created by combining existing words. The children came up with words like roli (a rose and a lily) and brellow (brown and yellow). I must introduce them to Pinkoo Shergill next, with his delightful portmanteau words! Fabtastic! Wowmazing! Spectaculous!Just like those three words there, the book Pinkoo Shergill - Pastry Chef sparkles with energy and life. I love it when there is a sense of urgency in a book. When characters run around, hide, keep secrets and rush, readers experience the same thrill - of something that must happen, and FAST! And when something must happen fast, we turn page after page, eager to know what will happen next.Pinkoo Shergill wants to be a pastry chef, but his Papaji wants him to become a shooting champ. Pinkoo knows that that that was his grandfather's unfulfilled dream, so … [Read more...]