I’ve been working with the British Library’s reading challenge for a long time. I’ve worked with a range of themes – Circus Stars, Mythical Maze, Record Breakers, The Big Friendly Read, Animal Agents … And I’ve enjoyed each one. I love the range of books the British Library has, and the reading challenge collection is always special. Being a British Council trainer was always a huge advantage during the reading challenge season because I got secret access to all these books that weren’t yet available to regular library customers!
However, as I associated with schools and children at the library, there were two questions that continually stood out to me:
- Don’t we get to keep even one book?
- Why are there no Indian books?
And these are questions I’ve been mulling over for a while, which leads me to announce this online reading programme.
What will we do during the online interactions?
Read, write, draw, colour, think, have fun!
I’ve been conducting reading programmes for eight years now and I promise that they’ll be fun! If I have enough participants, I will also invite guest speakers (more authors!) to talk to the participants.
Why these books?
I took a really long time to choose just four books. The Sheep-Pig is the only one I read when I was this age, and I loved it. I knew I wanted to include a book by Dick King-Smith and to be honest, The Sheep-Pig was not my first choice, not because it isn’t lovely, but because it is the most famous and I wanted something new. I looked at A Mouse Called Wolf and The Merrythought, but it seemed like getting copies would be difficult. So, The Sheep-Pig, a favourite of mine, just eased itself into the list. Take a look at a few things I intend to do with the book!
The hOle books are super fun, and I love Asha Nehemiah’s writing, so Trouble with Magic was a natural choice. Manya Learns to Roar did not take time to choose either because it’s an important book, and I thoroughly enjoy Shruthi Rao’s work.
Finally, especially for this age group, books about saving the world are excellent. Young children are superheroes, and Shrinking Vanita brings in a different genre, while also being the kind of story I wanted to include. Here are some of the book activities we’ll do with this one!
Details
The details are all in the image above, but here they are once more.
Dates: 8th Dec 2020 to 22nd Jan 2021 (25th Dec and 1st Jan will be holidays)
Online interactions: Tuesdays and Fridays, 4-4:45pm
Age-group: 7-8 years
Workshop fee: ₹3,500 (UPI: seshanvarsha@okhdfcbank or bank transfer – contact me for details)
Yes, the books are included in the fee. I will have physical copies delivered to you anywhere in India.
Please register before the 2nd of December so that I can try to get the books to you in time! As far as possible, I source books from the independent bookstore closest to you.
Offers
Everyone loves an offer, right?
Buddy fee – Join with a friend (or friends) and pay ₹3,000 per head.
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