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...]
Karma Meets a Zombie
Karma Meets a Zombie is probably the most ambitious book I've chosen for my reading programme for ages nine and ten. I read Karma Fights a Monster some time ago and I loved it. I even wrote about it in an essay on monsters and stereotypes because I was struck by how unusual the monster is. Karma Meets a Zombie is a different kind of unusual. For instance, is the monster necessarily the antagonist? What makes someone a monster? And what does a monster hunter do, really? There are several reasons I call it an ambitious read for my book club. For one, no pictures! It's the first book we're reading together that has no inside illustrations. Two, I haven't touched upon horror as a theme at all so far, especially as I didn't read much horror as a child. (I did read a few Goosebumps because I won five of those for ... something. Now that I come to think of it, I … [Read more...]
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