I love sharing stories with children, and this time's batch of seven and eight-year-olds was even more fun than most. With each workshop I conduct, I treasure the stories we create together. The little anecdotes, the bubbles of laughter, the wide-eyed astonishment - these make workshops special! I wrote about a class where we spoke about monitors and Maya in a Mess; that was just the first of four books we read together, and each one brought joy. One of the activities we did with the book was to try to keep something safe for six weeks. Maya loses the cupboard key. How about the children at my workshop?During the first class, I asked them to find something smaller than the hole in the hOle book, wrap it in paper and keep it safe. I did it too, as you can see, and the paper has my name and the date on it.During the last class, I asked them to show their … [Read more...]
Fantastic Mr Fox
Fantastic Mr Fox is a classic. And the combination of Roald Dahl and Sir Quentin Blake is magic.I've never yet chosen a Roald Dahl for my reading programme because I reckoned that most children would already have been exposed to his books, and a book club is about discovering books you haven't read before. Yet, as I mulled over what to include this time, I asked myself, again, what the purpose of a reading programme is. Often, I use the tagline 'Celebrate the joy of reading'. If it's about the joy of reading, how can I not include books I've adored and devoured as a child?Rereading Fantastic Mr Fox now, I'm astounded at how much I liked it when I was younger. I was never one to like disgusting humour. I didn't like toilet jokes. I didn't like anything that was yucky. What made Dahl different?I think, possibly, it was the fact that the disgust was not the point of the story. Also, when Mr … [Read more...]
Workshops Launching in May and June 2021
I've received an overwhelming number of queries this time around, and I'm not surprised. Summer holidays! Registrations are now open for two reading programmes beginning on the 1st of June.Do note that with lockdowns in several places, book deliveries are experiencing delays. I will try to get the books to you in time for the programme, but the sooner you register, the easier it will be for me. Online Reading Programme (Ages 7 to 8) We're on the fourth edition of this programme, and the four books we will read this time are The Monster Hunters by Parinita Shetty, Bookasura by Arundhati Venkatesh, Esio Trot by Roald Dahl and At Least a Fish (Zain & Ana Book 1) by Anushka Ravishankar. On popular demand, I have also launched a weekend batch of the same online reading programme! Details Dates: 1st June to 9th July 2021Dates for the weekend … [Read more...]
Workshops During a Pandemic
Last week, I started reading Maya in a Mess with my book club for seven and eight-year-olds. As part of the discussion, I asked them, "Have you ever been a monitor in class? How do you feel?" "I feel like a king!" said one child."I love it," said another. "You don't have to just stand in line with the others. You can actually do things.""It feels good," said a third. "You feel responsible." One avid reader in the batch isn't seven yet, but she's at par with the others. When it was her turn, she said, "I haven't ever been a monitor." "Do you want to be a monitor?" I asked. There was a minuscule pause. "I don't know. I've never been to proper school. When I was in kindergarten, we didn't have monitors. Last year, it was all online. So I don't know what it would be like to be a monitor." My heart broke just a tiny bit. I've never been to proper school.Sigh. … [Read more...]
Book Uncle and Me
I discovered verse novels quite recently. I began by reading a few for young adults and then I slowly went down the age ladder. I love them. I love how much they say with such few words. Would I have enjoyed verse novels as a child? I have no way of telling, for I was such a mix. I liked things that were familiar, so it is possible that I would have rejected them out of hand as weird. On the other hand, I was never a fan of long paragraphs, so I don't know. I do know, though, that I want to introduce young readers to this form, and Book Uncle and Me is ideal. Yasmin has a mission. She wants to read a book a day for the rest of her life, and she has accomplished this for over a year thanks to Book Uncle, who not only runs a free lending library but also recommends the best books. One day, however, Yasmin discovers that Book Uncle is packing up. He's been told he needs a permit to … [Read more...]
Wisha Wozzariter
Wisha Wozzariter. Say it aloud. Wisha Wozzariter was what pushed me to launch this reading programme! Several parents have called to ask if my online creative writing programme is suited to children who want to begin the process of writing. The answer is 'no' because, for the most part, the children who enroll already enjoy writing. They write regularly and don't find written assignments a chore. For children who don't already write, the course could be daunting, and the last thing I want to do is to put children off writing altogether! So I wanted something that would introduce creative writing in smaller, more accessible chunks. And just as I was thinking about it, I came across Wisha Wozzariter. Wisha wants to be a writer. When she reads a book she loves - like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - she thinks, "Now that's a book I could have written." Enter Bookworm, who asks … [Read more...]
The Absent Author
The Absent Author. The Bald Bandit. The Haunted Hotel. The Zombie Zone. Isn't this the kind of series you could see any child longing to collect?Book series are special and that's why, for each reading programme, I try to introduce at least one. They're sure shot ways of getting children hooked to reading! During my first reading programme, I introduced the hOle books with Trouble with Magic. During the second, it was the Amelia Bedelia series. Now, it's the A to Z Mysteries.Dink invites his favourite author, Wallis Wallace, to Green Lawn, and joy of joys! He receives a note from the author accepting the invitation! Unless he's kidnapped, Wallis Wallace promises to come to the Book Nook and meet Dink and his friends. When he doesn't show up, Dink has a mystery on his hands - the mystery of the absent author!Meticulously, Dink, Josh and Ruth go through Wallis Wallace's itinerary, trying … [Read more...]
Playing with Kangaroo Words
When I wrote about using Friends Behind Walls for my online reading programme, the first thing I thought of doing was playing with words. Putti loves breaking words up to make sense of them. Brouhaha = brew+haha, but has nothing to do with brewing tea or being funny. Yesterday, we thought of words like this. We thought of 'unfortunately' and 'perspective', as we hunted for humorous ideas."Is 'guin' a word?" one child asked me. Of course he wanted to do something with what a penguin is not. One idea led to another and we came to kangaroo words. I'm not good at coming up with these, but I love the idea! A kangaroo word is one that carries a synonym of itself in the word. We discussed just a handful in class - masculine contains the word male, blossom contains the word bloom, chicken contains the word hen. "I know this is difficult," I told the children, "but see if you can think … [Read more...]
Flying with Grandpa
I read Flying with Grandpa some time ago and enjoyed it. I wanted to read it with children, but had not yet figured out how. The book is slightly difficult for ages seven and eight, the age-group I was working with. When parents started asking me about writing programmes for readers who are reluctant writers, the seed of an idea took root. A reading programme with smaller elements of creative writing would be perfect - and there! I had the perfect setup to read Flying with Grandpa! Xerxes wants to be like his grandfather, his beloved Mamavaji, but his mother has other plans for him. She wants him to be like JRD Tata. She is fierce and determined, pushing Xerxes to do things the correct way all the time. But his strict mother is just one of Xerxes's problems. His classmates tease him, calling him 'Xerox, Xerox'. When his Navjote approaches, they make up a rhyme about … [Read more...]
The Mystery of the Secret Hair Oil Formula
The first edition of my online reading programme for ages 9 and 10 is here! For a while, I've had queries from parents about children who love reading but don't know how to get started on their writing journeys. They want to write, but they don't know what to do or how to go about it. I began mulling over it. Would a writing workshop help? Perhaps it would, but I felt that beginning on familiar ground - reading - would work better. And so, here it is - my first reading programme for this age-group. What better way to begin than with a book by Asha Nehemiah? I began my first reading programme for younger children with her Trouble with Magic, and we loved it. The Mystery of the Secret Hair Oil Formula is similar in so many ways, but still entirely different. Someone is trying to steal Malu Paati's secret hair oil formula. It is a special formula indeed, one that requires … [Read more...]