I LOVE Shruthi Rao's books. We read Manya Learns to Roar at my first reading programme, and even before that, I read and loved Susie Will Not Speak. If anything, I liked Malhar in the Middle even more.Malhar loves playing the tabla. But why does tradition demand that he should sit on the side? Why is he is the 'accompanying artiste'? Isn't the tabla player equally important at a concert? A big theme like tradition is handled with the lightest touch possible, and it's beautifully done. I love that Malhar manages to solve his own problem without needless drama or emotional conflict. He knows what he wants, he knows what to do, and he goes about doing it in a way that is as satisfying as it is lovely.Here's what we'll do with the book at my book club. Book Discussion - Tradition What traditions do you like? Are there any traditions that you would like to … [Read more...]
Names and Words
Peanut vs the Piano We're reading Peanut vs the Piano at two of my book clubs. Peanut, Papad and Pickle. What funny names those are! "I hope their parents named them after their favourite food!" I said. "Not things that were lying around. What if your parents had named you after their favourite foods? What would your names have been?" "Fish!" said Zayn. "My name would have been Fish.""Like the dog in At Least a Fish!" someone said.So, Zayn amended, "Fish fries!" Aarav thought about it. "I think I would be called Kalidal Pizza."We couldn't help laughing. And then, he changed his Zoom name to something even more specific - Dal Makhani Four Cheese Pizza. Ira could not think of what her parents would name her. "They like everything!" she complained. Finally, she settled on 'Mutton'. Mutton. That's what she would be called. And Aarya? Her parents like very different things. … [Read more...]
Green Reads – Part 2
The Golden Eagle. With its gorgeous pictures and gripping storyline, it drew us in. "I think I'm going to like this even more than The Butterfly Lion," said one child. Just by chance, all three books we read during this edition of my book club featured animals. Manolita has seals; the title The Butterfly Lion says it all - butterflies and lions; The Golden Eagle has a profusion of birds. Many of the children have never seen storks, ospreys, harriers, green pigeons and thrushes, and the book brought these alive to us. It was time for a follow-up activity, one that we threw our hearts into. What birds would you like to talk to us about? That was the only question I asked the children at my book club. "I hope to go to Zimbabwe someday and see the African Fish Eagle," said Amritayu. Eagles fascinate him, and even more so because of the book we read on the golden eagle. "The … [Read more...]
Green Reads – Part 1
On social media, I've been seeing posts about book club facilitators introducing green reads to children. "What a lovely idea," I found myself thinking. I've always loved stories about the environment. I read post after post, and then I stopped. Wait a minute! I'm reading green reads with my book clubbers too - A Very Naughty Dragon with two bunches of seven and eight-year-olds, and The Golden Eagle with the slightly older ones! So, I reached out to Archana, who runs AA's Book Nerds, asking if she'd like me to jump on the bandwagon. I had no idea how structured her Green Reads mission was, but ... We're trying to draw attention to our role as book club hosts and indies and our contributions in the kidlit space.Archana Atri, AA's Book Nerds Perfect! And so, here's where one of our explorations of A Very Naughty Dragon led us. As planned, we started reading this book with the last … [Read more...]
Adventure on Wheels
Adventure on Wheels is such a rollicking read! The book opens with two thieves stealing a van that belongs to an orphanage. The theft itself is simple enough, but when they discover three children hiding in the van, they're up against more than they'd bargained for. At once heart-warming and hilarious, Adventure on Wheels is a fun book that I can't wait to share with my book club! Unlikely Heroes When we think about the main character in a story, what kind of character do we usually have in mind? Subbu and Golu are thieves! Can they be the heroes of the story? Or is there another story that helps us understand why these two are off to rob a toy store?At my book club, to begin an exploration of the idea of a back story, I will ask the children to come up with characters that seem negative, and then work on what makes them the way they … [Read more...]
My Father’s Dragon
I rarely choose to read classics at my book club, and My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett is, without doubt, a classic. I'm waiting for those wide-eyed comments about it having been published in NINETEEN FORTY-EIGHT!But this is one of those classics that I'm convinced will be good fun to read with my book club. It's quirky, imaginative, and full of unexpected twists and turns from the very first page. A talking cat, tigers that love chewing gum, a rhinoceros that wants a white horn ... each chapter is full of marvels! Best of all is that the story is not about rescuing someone from a dragon; it is about rescuing the dragon itself. I love it!Here's what we will do with the book at my reading programme. Wild Island Like all lovely works of fantasy, My Father's Dragon begins with a map. The map of Wild Island says 'my father doesn't know … [Read more...]
My Year in Workshops: 2021
The year 2021 was such an affirming year for me in terms of work! Since 2014, I've been freelancing. I've done workshops for children with the British Council, teacher training for Ratna Sagar, and I've been invited by schools and organisations to do workshops here and there. After nearly a year of the pandemic, these dried up. It isn't as if I didn't do workshops for other organisations; I did. But as I look back, only one paid workshop comes to mind - a session on my book, The Best Idea of All, for an online lit fest, Vishwarang.Everything else was an independent venture, and looking back fills me with joy and pride. I launched my reading and writing programmes for children in October 2020, and they've grown in leaps and bounds! Book Club for Ages 7 and 8 I just counted. In the year 2021, I read 21 books with 29 seven- and eight-year-olds from … [Read more...]
About Average
I read Frindle some time ago and loved it. I considered using it for my online reading programme, but it's so well known that I figured that many children would have read it, or at least heard of it, already. How about something by the same author, but less known? And that's how I stumbled upon About Average by Andrew Clements.Jordan is about average in every way, or so it seems to her. She isn't short or tall. She isn't pretty or ugly. Her grades are average too. Soon, she will graduate from elementary school, but she still hasn't discovered what she is good at. It seems, somehow, that she isn't good at anything! She's average, and that's all there is to that.But then, with her orderliness, her niceness and her simple attention to detail, she discovers during a crisis that maybe, just maybe, she isn't about average. In fact, simply because of her ordinary, … [Read more...]
The School is Alive!
This is the first time I will be reading a spooky book with my book club for ages seven and eight! One of the British Council reading challenge themes was Creepy House, so I've worked extensively with slightly scary stories for all age-groups, but because it was never one of my go-to genres as a child, I took a while to bring myself around to the idea of introducing a scary book to the children I meet.Yet, The School is Alive is the perfect mixture of thrilling and comforting. When Sam Graves becomes the hall monitor at Eerie Elementary, he has no idea that the school is hungry to eat its students! Sam finds an unlikely ally in the caretaker Mr Nekobi, and together with his other friends, he's more than a match for his school!Here's what we'll do with the book at my reading programme. Creepy Alphabet This is an activity I never tire of … [Read more...]
A Very Naughty Dragon
I love Paro Anand's books, and when I learned that she had collaborated with a nine-year-old girl to write a book, I was intrigued. As a teacher and creative writing trainer, I've read many stories that children have written. Some are excellent, others not so much. A Very Naughty Dragon? I had to read it to find out.I did, and I loved it. It starts slowly, with a lot of repetition that I associate with books for much younger children, but as I read on, I enjoyed it more and more. I love the place where it sits in terms of a story - between picture books and chapter books, full of colourful illustrations, but with enough text to make the story more than a book for very young readers.Draco is a Komodo dragon, determined to show his father that he can hunt. Surely he can catch a Timor deer! No, it's too fast.A civet cat? No again.A butterfly? Nope.But Draco doesn't give up. He tries again … [Read more...]
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