A brand-new hOle book for a brand-new edition of my book club! Left-Out Paru is a book that struck a chord with me because even though I'm not left-handed, I've thought about lots of things designed for right-handed people. Scissors. Cameras. Desks. Here's what we'll do as we read this book by Bijal Vachharajani and Rajiv Eipe (two left-handed creators) at my book club next month! Being Left-Handed What words and phrases do we know that favour right-handed people? We'll do a vocabulary quiz to find out! Some words come from languages other than English; it'll be fun to explore a range of languages, including our mother tongues! Using Our Non-Dominant Hand A lot of left-handers can do a surprising number of things with their right hands! Let's see how quickly we can write, draw and cut with our non-dominant … [Read more...]
Friends Behind Walls
Inu and Putti are not allowed to play with each other. But what can they possibly do when everyone else in Shanti Park seems to have been born at the age of 30? They have no one to play with except each other! Soon they discover that they actually like each other and want to be friends, so they need an answer to the Most Important Question: why are their families fighting? They go to one person after another, searching for answers (or answers-shanswers, as Putti's father would say). Mr Om Namaha, Dr Solanki and the Tekdichi Mhatari - who can answer their question? Friends Behind Walls is such a gorgeous book that I simply had to include it in my reading programme! Here's some of what we will do. Word Games Putti loves words and so do I. He breaks words up and comments on how nonsensical they are. Legend = lej+end, but it has nothing to do … [Read more...]
Agalya in the Spotlight
I read Agalya in the Spotlight a couple of months ago, and I knew I would introduce it to my book club very soon. It's a light, easy read, one that I'm sure my book clubbers will enjoy. I've read Misfit Madhu with two batches of Read, Write, Explore, and reading a book by an author we're familiar with is always fun! Fairy Tales Rapunzel is a well-known fairytale, one that children are familiar with also because of the movie Tangled. At my book club, we'll try to do a group activity in which characters from one familiar world meet characters from another. Where would they meet and what would they talk about? Exploring this promises to be fun! Performing A book club is never about just reading. I like to link the stories we read to all kinds of activities. Since Agalya in the Spotlight is all about drama, I will ask the children at … [Read more...]
The Bald Bandit
Who doesn't love a good mystery story? I love the A to Z Mysteries because they're exactly the right level for my book club. The characters are fun, the mysteries are engaging, and the fact that we have a whole series of twenty-six books to read makes The Bald Bandit an easy choice for me. Even though the book is over twenty-five years old, it doesn't feel dated. I'm sure we'll have fun with it! Clues Fingerprints, shoe prints, bits of fabric--they're all clues! Let's have some fun with them. We'll draw the outline of our foot and try to make it look like a footprint. We'll play with thumb prints and try to look around us to see what signs we can find of the other people who live at home with us. Mysteries A storytelling worksheet is a great way to explore a rough outline of a story. I will give the children the framework of a … [Read more...]
The Hodgeheg
I love Dick King-Smith's work. There was a time when I read nothing except his books. I devoured story after story, the way children do when they get hooked on to an author. I remember just one book I didn't enjoy - Godhanger. But everything else? I loved. And that's why we're rereading The Hodgeheg, one of my favourites! It's a sweet story about one determined hedgehog who makes it his mission to find out how to cross a road safely. How do humans cross? Can't a hedgehog do the same? Here's what we'll do with this book at my book club. Slang The Hodgeheg begins with another hedgehog having 'copped it'. Later on, we have the phrase 'that's flat'.What do these phrases mean? The way in which words and phrases develop regional variations is fascinating. I remember reading the phrase 'I bet a monkey' while I was reading Georgette Heyer. I first … [Read more...]
The Adventures of Mooli and the Sticker Trickster
The very first book we read at my very first online reading programme was Trouble with Magic by Asha Nehemiah. We've read several of her books over time, and this time, we're rereading The Adventures of Mooli and the Sticker Trickster. This isn't the first of the Mooli series, but it works well as a standalone book! Mooli and Soups are busy ideating. They must come up with an idea that will win a prize at WAYOUTS - World's As Yet Original Untried Tricks and Stunts. What can they do that will be simply outstanding? Surely, two intrepid young children can come up with not one, but a hundred ideas!In the middle of all this, however, they have a mystery to solve. Who could be vandalising Mooli's Amma's signboard with silly stickers? Why does her board now read 'Yummy Scrummy mon Keys'?A hilarious adventure ensues as Mooli and Soups get to the bottom of the mystery and find the vandal. … [Read more...]
Jumble Sale
Jumble Sale is such a delightful Silly Billy Book that I can't wait to read it with my book club! Just like Agassi and the Great Cycle Race, which we read recently, it is a hilarious read that promises to cause much laughter as we read it together! Jumble Sale If your school organised a jumble sale, what would you sneak into it? What do you think you could sell with no one noticing? And how audacious do you think you could get? Songs I can't think of Jumble Sale without thinking of Tinaz Toddywalla singing, "Just you wait, 'Enry 'Iggins, just you wait!" I don't know how many children at my book club will be familiar with the song, so we'll listen to it and perhaps make it a listening exercise too! Mysteries Is a missing bottlebrush an intriguing enough mystery to solve? Each edition of Read, Write, Explore comprises … [Read more...]
Vincent Can’t Go
Another book that's hot off the press is coming to my book club! Vincent Can't Go is a charming story about a boy who isn't allowed to go anywhere because his mother is too afraid. I enjoyed this sweet, simple story, and I'm sure my book clubbers will too! Interactive Game What are you allowed to do? What are you not allowed to do? Let's play a game! After that, we will use an interactive whiteboard to explore new ideas of things we would like to do if we were allowed to do them! Friends Friendship is an integral part of Vincent Can't Go. I'd like for the children at my book club to show me a picture of their friend, what they have in common, why they're friends, and anything else they would like to share! Portraits I love Habib Ali's pictures of 'Most Important Friend' and 'Man of Action'! In class, I'll ask the … [Read more...]
The Second Person Short Story
We haven't ever worked on the second-person short story, which is what made this writing workshop particularly interesting for me! I love it when I get to work with something new at a guest session! Michelle D'costa conducted a detailed session, introducing the three narrative perspectives and focussing on the second person narrator. From common misconceptions about the second-person narrator to hands-on writing exercises, Michelle covered a lot of ground in the course of one short hour. We read a mentor text, explored how we can write in second-person, and discussed a few things to keep in mind when we write a short story. I especially like it when guests I invite reinforce ideas I'm teaching! Here are a few things Michelle mentioned, for instance! We worked on paying attention to detail with an oral exercise for which Michelle showed us a picture of a man. Michelle … [Read more...]
Dum Dum to the Rescue & Yet More Adventures of Little Shambu
Did you read Shikari Shambu? I did, and I loved each silly adventure. That's why we're reading yet another Little Shambu book at my book club. We read Strangus Derangus in April 2024, In the Bear's Den in November 2024, and it's time to read the last one--Dum Dum to the Rescue.I enjoyed all these stories for their silliness and simplicity, as well as the lovely illustrations. An urban child's interactions with animals may be few and far between, but there are a range of hilarious stories in store for us in this collection. Role Play Any book that is rich in dialogue is perfect for role play. Helping children recognise when characters begin to speak and when they stop, beginning to recognise speech marks and paragraphs ... all this is part of a book club! Animal Encounters Have you ever had a fun/frightening experience with an … [Read more...]
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