Harriet isn't your typical protagonist. She lies, she's selfish, and she's often sulky and bad-tempered. Even as I read Just Harriet, I mulled over whether to introduce it to my book club. We've read and loved two books by Elana K. Arnold - A Boy Called Bat and Bat and the End of Everything - but this one's quite different. The protagonist is younger; she's just finished third grade. More, she behaves a lot younger; she's not the sophisticated child we often see around us. But doesn't that make her more real?The answer, to my mind, was yes. And that's why we're reading Just Harriet at my book club for ages nine at ten next month. Names Harriet is named after the protagonist of Harriet the Spy, but whenever grown-ups make the link, she's quick to say that she's "just Harriet". Names are important to all of us! What does your name mean? Who … [Read more...]
Mini’s Books
Books about books are always a joy to read at my book club! We're reading In the Woof of Time at my reading programme for ages nine and ten and Mini's Books at the one for ages seven and eight.Anyone who grew up on Enid Blyton wanted to eat scones, crumpets and treacle. I was one of them, and so, this book is all the more believable. Mini wants to eat the food the Big Little Monsters in the books she reads eat. And through her summer holidays, she slowly learns more and more about these monsters--and discovers all the surprising consequences of reading books! Thanks to her stories, she makes a friend, becomes a detective, learns to entertain herself and even starts to cook! Monster Stories I love monster stories! The wonderful thing about monsters is that they can take any form whatsoever. They can be tiny or huge, friendly or ferocious. … [Read more...]
In the Woof of Time
A book club mystery - of course I had to explore the possibility of introducing it to my book club!Samar and his friends find themselves in the middle of a spate of thefts - a dog, milk bottles, and even jewellery. They love reading mystery stories, so this they must investigate the mystery that surrounds them! Will they do it in the woof of time? Clues and Puzzles As we read In the Woof of Time, we'll engage in a little code-making and code-breaking of our own. Detective stories and cryptograms go together! Alibis and Red Herrings A lot of words and phrases are associated with detective stories alone. As we read In the Woof of Time, we'll do a vocabulary quiz, testing how many of these words are familiar to us. Creating a Detective Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, the Five Find-Outers and Dog ... So … [Read more...]
The Perfect Present
We've read two books from the Ready, Freddy series at my book club, and I'm happy to read another! While I cannot say I love the books, I see how well they suit a book club. They are easy to read, full of illustrations, and great conversation starters. The Perfect Present is a Christmas story. Freddy is making a list of everything he wants for Christmas. His list is endless, but predictably, the story leads us towards an understanding of the spirit of Christmas. Book Activities The Ready, Freddy series is full of readymade activities - finding the hidden fin in each picture, a word puzzle, and a craft activity too! Festivals I remember a book club session some time ago when a child told us all about Onam! A book about Christmas will be the prompt for the children to talk about their favourite festivals--which ones they celebrate, … [Read more...]
The Worst Witch to the Rescue
I used to read The Worst Witch as a child! I had no idea whether I would still enjoy reading about the hapless Mildred Hubble, though. I picked up The Worst Witch to the Rescue without having decided whether to introduce it to my book club--and I loved it all over again! It's funny, sweet and full of action; I'm sure my book clubbers will enjoy the book too. Quizzes and Vocabulary Games Most children love fantasy. I look forward to doing a few magical games with them - a word search puzzle on words related to magic, a quiz about famous magical places, and perhaps an activity on creating a witch together too! The Rule of Three It's never too early to get children to start looking at how books are structured. The rule of three, for instance, is a fascinating one. How many characters come together at the centre of the story? What … [Read more...]
Sita’s Chitwan
Last year, I invited Vaishali Shroff to conduct a workshop for my writing programme on nonfiction. It was aptly called 'Non-Boring Nonfiction'. I rarely read nonfiction, and I don't think I've ever read nonfiction with my book club. I find it easier to introduce nonfiction elements through books like A Cello on the Wall and A Giant Leap.Once more, that is what I will be doing with Sita's Chitwan. Half the book is a story, the story of eight-year-old Sita, who lives on the outskirts of Chitwan National Park. The other half of the book lets us explore Chitwan National Park, introducing us to its vegetation, people, animals and birds. I'm waiting to read this book with my book clubbers next month! Paw Prints Often, when we visit the jungle, guides tell us that the job of a guide is much like the job of a detective. Following tracks, looking for … [Read more...]
Peanut Has a Plan
We read Peanut Vs the Piano over two years ago at my book club, and it was such fun! I wrote a blog post about one of the activities we did as we read the book, and I look forward to repeating the activity with a fresh batch of book clubbers as we read Peanut Has a Plan. This hOle book is a lovely little chapter book about determination and kindness. With an enterprising character at the centre of the story, what starts off as a desire to earn money becomes much more than that. Peanut, together with her twin brothers Papad and Pickle, comes up with one plan after another to show that she's responsible and can do something worth talking about at Show and Tell in school! Names Peanut, Papad and Pickle - I sure hope their parents named them after things they like! What if your parents named you after their favourite food? What would your name … [Read more...]
The ABCs of Blogging
What an informative session we had with Anupama Dalmia! Anupama began by discussing what blogging is. From there, we went on to so much more - blog formats (including vlogs and micro-blogs), finding your niche, and starting your own free blog. She then introduced the children to SEO and the backend, showing them how easy it is to start the process of blogging. Importantly, she answered the question of why blogging could be a good idea - to build a discipline around writing. Once we start blogging, there is often a sense of accountability, the idea that writing and posting content is something that we need to do regularly and systematically. Where do we begin? How do we get noticed? What can we do to increase the reach of our blog posts? Anupama discussed all this and more in a single hour! When guest speakers repeat something I keep saying in class, I'm always happy. For … [Read more...]
Character Design with Priyankar Gupta
Practice. What a difference practice makes! Right through yesterday's guest session on character design, I marvelled at how swiftly Priyankar Gupta created his characters. Talking all the time, explaining what he was doing, he was able to draw not one, but six full forms in fifteen minutes! Characters, both human and non-human, are led by three parts of the body – the chest, the nose and the pelvis.An inquisitive person tends to hunch. The whole body structure is led by the nose. A confident person is led by the chest. This is why people in the army, or even dancers, tend to have accentuated chests. All of us also have an aspect of us that is lazy, one that likes to sit and watch the world go by. This sort of character is led by the pelvis. Once Priyankar had shared a few sample drawings, he asked us to draw characters of our own. Soon, the children shared sketches … [Read more...]
Ottoline at Sea
As far as possible, I try to source books from independent bookstores for my book clubs. And so, when Eureka Books informed me that Ottoline Goes to School was out of stock with the publisher, I decided to read Ottoline at Sea with the June edition of my book club instead! It feels like a win-win for me because I'm reading one Ottoline book with my May batch and another with my June batch!Ottoline at Sea is another delightful book featuring the intrepid Ottoline and her friend Mr Munroe. Just like the others in the series, it is a perfect mixture of serious and hilarious because of the seriousness with which it addresses impossibility. I know that humour of this kind is not every child's cup of tea, but the illustrations are sure to delight them all, even those who aren't drawn into the story! Collections Just like when we read Ottoline and the … [Read more...]
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