"Ooh! I see something suspicious!" one child cried out, holding up her copy of The Monster Hunters. "Look! A monster at the window! Page 2!" "On page 33 of Bookasura, Bakasura is so big. How did he become so small on page 39?""I don't think Mr Hoppy should have lied to Mrs Silver about Alfie. How can you make friends based on lies?" This from a seven-year-old reading Esio Trot."This is so funny; I want to read the next book about Zain & Ana," says one child."I didn't like the book," says another. "They say dogs are a nuisance and they call the dog Buddhu! That's not nice."What fun I had at both batches of the June edition of my reading programme! Take a look at what all we did. The Monster Hunters From the very first reading programme onwards, I've begun each edition with a hOle book. This time, it was The Monster Hunters. What fun we had spotting … [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...]
The Absolutely True Adventures of Daydreamer Dev
Daydreaming! Sigh. You can be what you want to be. You can do what you want to do.And Dev is the ace daydreamer. In The Absolutely True Adventures of Daydreamer Dev, the boy embarks on three adventures. He climbs Mount Everest, travels along the Amazon and then across the Sahara. Each adventure is real to him, and so, of course, he has no time to pay attention to mundane things like school and marks. In fact, even when he is being told off by his father, he's off on another flight of fancy.Dev's stories are full of possibility, and that's why I chose to include them in my reading programme. Imagination has no limits; let's see how far-fetched we can get! What could it be? Look at the cover of The Absolutely True Adventures of Daydreamer Dev. There he is, lying on a Kwality Carpets carpet and dreaming. A carpet can take you on an adventure, can't … [Read more...]
Another Reading Programme Comes to an End!
"Moin and the Monster was my favourite book because there's a sequel!" said one child, holding up Moin and the Monster Songster."Mine was The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop," said another. "It was mysterious and magical!""I liked Fantastic Mr Fox. But my all-time favourite is The Witches."And in the midst of all that, one child held up Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells, her eyes shining as she told me she got it, was reading it and loved it so far.How could I not have enjoyed this reading programme? Six children, three books, 12 online interactions. It was perfect in so many ways! Moin and the Monster The first book we read together was Moin and the Monster. With this one, we did an all-time favourite activity - creating a monster together and naming it. Then, the children worked with rhymes and then made a monster rhyme of their own. Shapeshifting … [Read more...]
Esio Trot
Who doesn't love Esio Trot? Teg reggib, esio trot, teg reggib!There was a time when I knew the book so well that I could say the whole chant that Mr Hoppy tells Mrs Silver to deliver to little Alfie. Have you come across the tweet about how children's books should not be given star ratings but 'again' ratings based on how many times a child asks to read the book?By that reckoning, Esio Trot is very high up on my list!It's one of those perfect transition books - neither a short story nor a chapter book. Neither a picture book nor a book with just words. That makes it ideal for my reading programme for seven and eight-year-olds! Backward Games A book club is all about having fun with books. It's about celebrating the joy of reading. And that's why one of the things we're going to do is talk backwards, just for a bit. Plan what you want to say and write … [Read more...]
Looking Back at Another Reading Programme
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...]