We’re rereading Spellbound by Nalini Sorensen at my book club next month!
There are some books that simply must be read at a book club. They’re full of possibility, bursting with ideas and imagination.
When author Nalini Sorensen visited my online creative writing programme a few months ago, Spellbound was hot off the press, and the reviews I read promised that it would be be one of those books, a delight to work with. And I wasn’t wrong. It is everything I expected it to be – a book that wants to be read and discussed.
In Nalini Sorensen’s story, all poor Prince Freddy was doing was chasing a beautiful butterfly. That’s it. It was sheer bad luck that he ran into the witch Weyona, who took great delight in turning him into a frog. Yes, that’s a little bit of The Frog Prince right there; it is a fairytale remix after all. But what will saving Prince Freddy involve? Is he going to get a good fairytalesque happily ever after?
Spellbound is a delightful exploration of alternatives and possibilities, providing me with all kinds of ideas to use at my reading programme.
Perspective
I’ve always love working with fairytales at workshops. Whether we work with changing the setting or swapping gender roles, fairytales form the basis of many activities. At my creative writing programme, for instance, children rewrote stories by exploring new perspectives and alternative endings. Sure, the children were older, but it is never too early to look at someone else’s point of view, is it?
What if Cinderella were narrated by the stepmother? Would the story change?
What if the sleeping beauty did not want to marry the very first man she saw?
‘What if’ makes for the most imaginative activities, and I can’t wait to read Spellbound with a bunch of seven and eight-year-olds!
Imagination
When I read the book, I began to think. How would a magic store like Magitrix would look? And Helda at the store? How would she look?
Zubringer Ribbit!
Zubringer Reversita Ribbit!
What do these magic words do, and what new words can we come up with? I’m sure I will soon find out.
Oral Stories
The first step towards creative writing is storytelling, and I love working with adding one sentence at a time in a story circle. With young children, I sometimes contribute every alternate sentence so that something happens continually, instead of the story meandering aimlessly. A fairytale remix promises to be hilarious. What will happen if we bring Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel and Snow White into the same story? Together, we’ll figure it out.
Why do we reread books when there are so many others available? For several reasons, but the most important one is that if the children at my book club love a book we read, I keep it in mind and reintroduce it to a fresh batch after a couple of years. A child-approved book is the best kind to read at a book club for children!
Join a programme
Registrations are now closed for the November-December 2024 edition of my book club. New batches begin every alternate month. Join my mailing list if you would like to receive email notifications about my programmes. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook and Instagram – for regular updates.
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