Yesterday, to round off our letter-writing activity, we wrote two more letters.One began with 'Dear Reader', and this is an activity I've done more times than I can count. I tweaked it slightly this time because of the idea of posting their letters to them. Instead of telling them that what they wrote would go into books in the library, I told them their letters would go in the mail to someone else in the room. They enjoyed it tremendously!(Here is an explanation of the activity, plus a link to a video you could use.)The second was a letter to a fictional character. I asked the children to choose any fictional character they love, and write a letter, sharing whatever they liked with that character. Among all the letters to Hermione Granger, Tom Gates, Silky (Faraway Tree) et al, here's one letter I found:I couldn't stop chuckling at this! Of course, I'm thrilled … [Read more...]
The Lit Bug Fest 2017
Do you see all the red marks? That's what I attended at the Lit Bug Fest yesterday!The first event of the day was a play written by a young girl and performed by Pushkar Rangmanch. A sweet story, performed with enthusiasm!A few months ago, I invited Leela Gour Broome to address the Writers' Club at St. Mary's. Yesterday, I watched how she told a story to children of varied ages. I also watched Kakoli Bagchi tell a story for the first time. With lovely little puppets, they brought Mrs Broome's story Red Kite Adventure to life! After that, she told the story of a shiny red ball that travels the globe ... I enjoyed the story as much as the children did!My event was next on the agenda, and I loved it! I did have a wide range of children there, and I'm afraid the older children weren't as involved as the younger ones, but all in all, it was such … [Read more...]
My Stamp
"My Stamp": the brand name for personalised postage stamps. Karan saw the ad outside the GPO, and guess what we got made?The only problem with using a book cover, rather than a passport sized picture of a person as advertised, is that we need a square image, not a rectangular one. Even though we had to crop the images quite a bit, how can I not be excited about these Duronto and Toy Train stamps? I can actually use them when I send letters (though I'm not yet convinced that I will!)!What I loved about the process of getting these made was that the person at the post office was lovely! He did not just make these for us; he wanted to learn how to crop and resize using paint! He was so happy with the stamps that he made me pose with them in front of the Madhubala stamp so that he could take a photograph. He even went out of the philately department and into the post office … [Read more...]
Duronto and Level Crossing Resource Packs!
I wrote about first prints and the joy of having the resource packs in hand. But how could I cut up the one electric loco kit I had? Now, armed with a spare set, I'm ready to make my own electric loco model.As a child, I loved jigsaw puzzles. I loved them so much that I used to compete with myself as I tried to make my puzzles faster and faster. And I had enough puzzles to make a mat of puzzles on the drawing room floor. Do you see the whizzing hands? Old habits die hard!And then, we have stage one of the electric loco for The Duronto Adventure. We're cutting the sheets, slowly but surely. I cut badly, rarely in a straight line. But does that stop me from enjoying it? Never!The process is slow ... Working on it a little every day, and loving it! … [Read more...]
Launch at National Rail Museum
I wrote about the launch of The Duronto Adventure and Bholu at the Level Crossing about three weeks ago. Finally, here are some pictures!The National Rail Museum was set up on the 1st of February, 1977. So, on the 1st of February this year, we were keen on launching at least the first book for each age-group.The Duronto Adventure, the first book for older readers, explores the electric locomotive, so here's a model that you can make for yourself if you have the kit!Bholu at the Level Crossing, the first book for younger readers, shows you a goods train. The goods train has (as one of my characters puts it) a 'big iron face'. The kit has a jigsaw puzzle of the big iron face!These books are not yet available at your local store, but they've officially been launched! And I'll keep you updated ... … [Read more...]
The Duronto Adventure Resource Pack
Of course I'm delighted with the books, but each book is also part of a complete resource pack!Each pack contains: A story A CD (with the ebook and lots of animation) A kit to build your own model of an electric locomotive! … [Read more...]
Two new books by Varsha Seshan!
It's been nearly four years since The Story-Catcher was published. Finally, here are two new books!Launched at the National Rail Museum yesterday, these books are currently available only at the Souvenir Shop of the museum. They are part of a kit that also contains a CD and an activity! Pictures of those will come soon ...The Duronto Adventure Chitra, Rohit, Priya and Deven are travelling by themselves for the first time. They are excited about their newfound independence, but little do they know that their journey is going to be even more adventurous than they imagine! When the train stops at Igatpuri and Rohit goes missing, Priya panics. Yet, this is only the beginning of a crazy ride ...Title The Duronto AdventureAuthor Varsha SeshanIllustrator Rishi BhardwajGenre AdventureAge-group 10+ Bholu at the Level Crossing Welcome to the … [Read more...]