Because of Winn-Dixie
Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn-Dixie has been on my list of books to read for a l-o-n-g time. Yet, I didn’t get around to reading it until I thought of introducing it to my book club. And I’m so glad I did! It’s a gorgeous book. It’s the kind of book that makes your heart ache and swell with its sweetness and its gentleness.
India Opal’s mother left her father and her, and it’s because of Winn-Dixie, a dog she adopts at the spur of the moment, that she begins to come to terms with her loss. Not just that; all thanks to Winn-Dixie, she makes friends and learns what it means to be part of a community where everyone not only has a story to share and but also has ghosts that haunt their past.
I can’t wait to read it with my book club!
Vocabulary
Playing with words is always fun! I have three vocabulary activities in mind for Because of Winn-Dixie. One, before we start reading, we’ll do a word search puzzle and then string together some of the words to build a story of our own. Next, we’ll try to make a list of words we associate with dogs. And finally, we’ll do a crossword puzzle based on the book. There are so many resources available online; I hope to use at least some of them!
Ten Things
As Opal is ten years old, she asks her father to tell her ten things about her mother. What ten things would you tell us about a parent or best friend? Do you think they give us a clear picture of what the person is like?
Letter to Mom
There are so many writing activities we can do with Because of Winn-Dixie! One thing I would love to explore is to get into Opal’s character and write a letter to her mother about Winn-Dixie. What would Opal say? Writing a little about how she feels about each of her new friends would be a great way to begin!
Come, read with us!
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A Flamingo in My Garden
We’ve read Talon the Falcon, The Golden Eagle and The Paradise Flycatcher. How can we not read A Flamingo in My Garden?
The entire Feather Tales series is stunningly illustrated in full colour, and that is most certainly part of the charm. Like The Golden Eagle, A Flamingo in My Garden is a story within a story. Mitalee is delighted to see a flamingo in Rose Garden, and she watches as her favourite squirrel–whom she calls Snowdrop–and the birds chatter together. In that little circle of birds, the skybird Longtail tells the story of how Sunglow the flamingo found his way to Rose Garden. It’s a lovely story full of suspense and the universal theme of good versus evil.
Here’s what we will do as we read the book.
Words
The sea is called bigwater. Police-birds are skybirds. Terra-staan is the earth.
During author events on The Prophecy of Rasphora, I often do an activity where children make up Rasphoran words for various English words. Similarly, as we read A Flamingo in My Garden, we’ll make up words in a language of our own – not bird-language, perhaps, but perhaps pup-language or bug-language!
Bird Similes
We’ve worked on bird idioms several times; it’s time to work on bird similes. How many do we know? As wise as …? As happy as …? As proud as …? Let’s explore!
Freedom
Just like The Golden Eagle, A Flamingo in My Garden is a story about freedom. Especially as this is the first book we will be reading in August, it will be the perfect time to talk about independence and the freedom struggle. What does freedom mean to you? Can we work on a piece of guided writing based on the idea of freedom?
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Art Workshop with Kripa
Each time a new writing programme begins, I feel it whizzes by. Twelve weeks are nearly over, and here we are, after our last guest session of the programme, an art workshop with art educator and children’s illustrator, Kripa. It was such a treat!
I’ve been looking at Kripa’s art for a while, and I love it. Her tea journal, her little dough babies, her city sketches … each picture she shares on social media is stunning. Art and writing go together, no matter how much I may say that I cannot draw at all, and that is why I invited Kripa to conduct an art workshop for us.
Watching all the children fill their pages with colour warmed me up. It’s a joy to watch them engage in the reflective experience of creating art, and I loved how Kripa guided them through it. The title of the workshop itself is lovely, isn’t it?
Purple sea and pink sky,
Nothing in art is a lie.
Kripa began by showing us her gorgeous artwork featuring the sky and the sea. Often, we restrict ourselves to traditional colours when we draw. The sky is blue, the sea is blue-green, and land is brown. Yesterday’s session was about experimenting with these colours, by using bold, unconventional colours to express ourselves.
I also loved Kripa’s first and most important rule: don’t erase. There are no mistakes! She asked the children to imagine that their eraser had fallen into the sea, or better, that the eraser had not been invented yet.
Beginning with a single horizontal line, Kripa taught them about positive space and negative space. Using non-traditional colours, the children explored mixed media to create seascapes of their own. Even as they worked, Kripa spoke about strokes, both for oil pastels and for poster colours, encouraging the children to create layers.
And voila! In an hour, each of the children had a work of art to show. I’m waiting for them to finish their pieces and send me pictures, but the little we saw was lovely too.
With that, another set of workshops comes to an end. But before I know it, October will be here, and I’ll be planning my next set of guest sessions …
Bookaroo Srinagar 2023
What can one say about a literature fest without being repetitive? Lit fests are special. They fill you up with energy and enthusiasm. They remind you of the joy of reading, writing, and stories.
And lit fests in beautiful spaces? They’re inspiring. Srinagar is lovely, and equally, Delhi Public School, which hosted Bookaroo, was charming. Look where I conducted both my sessions!
Over the last few years, I’ve been invited to several lit fests. Last year alone, I did events at lit fests in Vadodara, Gurugram, Jaipur and Pune, in addition to smaller ones at various schools in the country. I’ve shared pictures and anecdotes, and at the risk of repeating myself, I will say that lit fests always leave me on a high.
Yet, for a writer, lit fests are a means to an end. They’re a way for children to get to know about our stories. They help create some shelf space for our books at stores that are dominated by Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, the Famous Five, and Geronimo Stilton.
Of course, the author interactions themselves are lovely. It’s grand to address a full house and have dozens–sometimes hundreds–of enthusiastic children in the audience. But we are finally writers first. We want our stories to be read.
And that’s what makes Bookaroo truly special. The fact that there is a space for authors to be seen. Their books are celebrated, not just for the way they bring children together at an event, but for the way they bring children together through the stories themselves.
Authors are notoriously shy, and I fit into the stereotype perfectly. I don’t find it easy to ask the bookstore if they have my books. Nor am I comfortable checking with the festival director if they have a space for author signings.
At more than one lit fest I’ve been invited to, my books have not been available. Even when books are available and there’s a table for authors to sign books, I–and I know I’m not alone in this because of multiple conversations with fellow authors–often just stand around awkwardly wondering whether to sit because when we sit, we’re often mistaken for the cashier.
Smoothening the whole process makes the lit fest experience a treat. While you can never make someone buy a book, you can facilitate the process with volunteers who make announcements and guide writers to a desk with a name plate and a pen.
And that makes the whole process come full circle. You write a book, get it published, people find out about it through the event, and then finally, you write a little note and hand the book over to a reader, the one to whom the story finally belongs.
Bookaroo, thank you!
Read, Write, Race
Over two years ago, we read Hungry to Read by Arti Sonthalia at my book club. The children thoroughly enjoyed the story, and the book discussion was completely different from what I expected. I thought we would talk about stereotypes and about how judging reading speed isn’t ideal … but none of that happened. Instead, the children talked of how much they loved the book.
For me, Read, Write, Race was a much more enjoyable read, but I can’t help wondering how this one will go with the book club!
Very recently, I realised that even older children are not familiar with dyslexia. This surprised me, as several schools I’ve worked with have encountered dyslexia and spoken to children about it. While I have no idea how old I was when I first encountered the word, I look forward to talking to the children about learning disabilities. With Read, Write, Race, we’ll follow Raghav’s journey, as he struggles to read and write like a neurotypical child.
Dyslexia
The protagonist of Read, Write Race, Raghav, is dyslexic. What does this mean? I’ll share a few dyslexia worksheets to help the children understand the term better, following which we’ll read a reverse poem about dyslexia and do a few unscrambling puzzles.
Book Discussion
How inclusive is your school? Do you have children who are hearing impaired, visually impaired, or wheelchair bound? What do you think would change if your class was inclusive?
This is a subject close to my heart. I think it is worth discussing the idea that accommodating people with special needs is very different from including them!
Spell Bee
Spelling bees are fun, and they’re even more fun when you try to spell in a team, or backwards! Looking forward to quite a bit of hilarity as we spell words from the book and challenge one another!
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The Prophecy of Rasphora
It is always a little daunting to introduce a book of my own to my book club. But I’ve done so many events based on The Prophecy of Rasphora, and so many of them have gone so well, that I feel (hope) this will be fun too!
Tara, Afreen and Vandana discover a land behind a waterfall, the land of Rasphora. Vandana, ever practical, knows that they must get out of Rasphora as soon as they can. Life is not easy for them, and they cannot afford to miss a day’s work, even though they are just children. But when she learns that she is part of a prophecy of this beautiful, mysterious land, she can’t help but pause. She should, at least, listen to the prophecy before returning to her home in the hills. Shouldn’t she?
Language Games
What is the first problem you would face if you found yourself a new land? This question always leads to the problem of communication. How would we talk to people who don’t speak the same language as we do? Based on our discussion, we will do a fun language activity where we explore how quickly we can switch from one language to another.
Words and Worlds
How easy or difficult is it to create a language of our own? With cryptograms, we will try to figure out what the prophecy of Rasphora says, after which we will invent words of our own. This will also lead to a conversation about words we love and why we love them.
Fantasy
Most children I’ve met love writing fantasy. Step by step, I will take them through the writing of a fantasy story. How can we find inspiration in the world around us? How can we make the feeling of going through a portal come alive to the reader? And finally, how can we build a world that readers fall in love with?
Let's read together!
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Fortunately, the Milk …
Some time ago, we read Help, My Aai Wants to Eat Me! at my book club. As planned, one of the things we did as we read the book was to make a list of pros and cons, like the protagonist Avi. Look at some of what we discussed.
Out of all these ideas the last one stayed with me. When it comes to reading (and most other things), choice is key. If I want children to love books and reading, they must have the freedom to choose! Curating books is all very well, but every so often, it’s important to take suggestions.
And so, we chose Fortunately, the Milk … by Neil Gaiman. It’s silly, hilarious and all kinds of impossible. I know that some elements will not be every child’s cup of tea, but we’re going to have a lot of fun with it. It’s a quick read too, which gives us all the more time to do some activities.
Fortunately, Unfortunately
I love playing this game with both children and adults, and a book like Fortunately, the Milk … provides the perfect opportunity to explore it again. I begin with a statement, and then, in turn, each child adds a sentence, alternately beginning with fortunately and unfortunately. We’ll also read either Fortunately by Remy Charlip or Fortunately, Unfortunately by Michael Foreman as we do this.
Time Machine
Imagine you could use Professor Steg’s time machine. Or better yet, imagine if you could build a time machine of your own. How would your time machine work? Where would you go? Just like when we read Rattu & Poories Adventures in History: 1857, we’ll have some fun with time travel!
Puzzles
Word search puzzles, spot the difference activities, mazes … the internet has all these resources for Fortunately, the Milk … Let’s see how many of these we can use at my book club!
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Journey to Jo’burg
I picked up my copy of Journey to Jo’burg when I visited The Dogears Bookshop a couple of months ago. As I read it, I wondered whether I could introduce it to my book club. It is simply and beautifully written, but it touches upon difficult themes that I don’t know a lot about. I remember reading When Morning Comes, a YA book by Arushi Raina set in South Africa, but I’ve read little else set in the country.
Plus, talking about apartheid, inequality and injustice at an online book club isn’t always easy because we can’t quite judge the children’s moods. For instance, I remember a child writing to me privately in the chat box didn’t like the conversation about what frightens us because it made him even more scared.
Yet, books about difficult subjects are important. Books like Journey to Jo’burg give us hope. Although set in a different age, the book gives us a glimpse of a time that is not entirely gone. We feel the repercussions of apartheid in racism even today, and that’s why I decided we would read this book together. Having introduced a conversation about unfairness with Munni Monster, our first read next month, who knows how far we can go?
Geography
It’s astounding how many adults think that Africa is a country. Beginning with the map, we will look at the continent of Africa, examine what we know, and investigate what we don’t. I will ask each child at the book club to find out a little about one country and tell us what they discovered. I know we’ll all learn something in the process!
Newspaper Clippings
At the beginning of the book Journey to Jo’burg are excerpts from two newspaper clippings. These will serve as a prompt for two activities. One, I will give the children a headline and ask them to write a paragraph of the news piece using their imagination.
Two, we’ll play a game based on newspapers. If the children have access to newspapers, great. If not, I’ll share my screen and we’ll play a word-based game.
Journeys and Journaling
Naledi and Tiro, the two children in the book undertake a journey that seems impossible. The kindness of strangers makes the ending happy.
Journeys make for stories, though, and as creative writing is an important part of this book club, we’ll explore journaling in various forms. This does not have to take the form of travel writing! Instead, we’ll explore mundane journeys, like a journey to school. What do we see, do and hear? What could make the journey exciting?
Let's read together!
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Manya Learns to Roar
Manya Learns to Roar by Shruthi Rao is the first book I’m repeating at my book club. We read it at the very first edition of my reading programme, when I tentatively started out in 2020, wondering if I would be able to sustain an online book club for children. All those who read it with me then are now too old to be part of the book club, so it’s time to reintroduce a book I love!
Banyan High School, is going to present a play based on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, and Manya wants the role of Shere Khan. She knows it is the first step towards winning an Oscar, and she’s already writing her acceptance speech for that.
I loved Manya Learns to Roar because of how true it is to childhood dreams and the way each child is such a charming mixture of supreme confidence and deep vulnerability.
Before I even read the book, I was drawn to the idea of a child with a stammer determined to take part in a school play. Once I read it, I knew I had to work with it because there’s just so much you can do with a book like this!
Codes
When I started reading Manya Learns to Roar, I didn’t notice that the chapter numbers were written in the special code that Manya and her best friend Ankita share. I think I was on chapter six when my eyes widened. Ooh! The chapter names are in code! And as Manya and Ankita know, the very fact that it is bound to be dismissed as random doodling makes it the perfect kind of code. Codes, puzzles and cryptograms are thrilling, and I know that the children at the reading programme will enjoy them as much as I do!
Speaking
Did you know that tongue twisters are said to be a great way to overcome a stutter? Manya Learns to Roar provides the perfect opportunity to work on speech and recitation. Reading aloud is one aspect of the programme, and tongue twisters will make a fun addition to all the speaking we do.
Drama
As a book that revolves around the production of a play, it’s ideal for my ‘come as a character‘ activity! While I hope that children will come as one of the characters from the books we read together, I don’t mind if they choose someone else altogether. The element of surprise makes everything fun!
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Munni Monster
I read Munni Monster a few months ago and loved it. It’s a beautiful book, written with empathy and ending with hope. I knew I had to introduce it to my book club, and I can’t wait to do so.
Munni Monster is a book about a difficult subject, but for me, dwelling on only the subject matter of the book as we read is a bit of an overkill. The children will, I know, understand the messages the book conveys without any interference on my part. Of course, we will talk about cerebral palsy, but that cannot be the only thing we discuss without ruining the beauty of the book, so here’s what we will do as we read.
Secret Hiding Places
Mishti has her own little hidey-hole that no one else is allowed to enter.
Do you have a private place of your own? I know I did, as a child. I made my own hiding places too, with umbrellas in a corner, or saris under a dining table.
During an earlier edition of my book club, the children created all kinds of innovative reading nooks; let’s see whether we can make one for ourselves this time too!
Precious Objects
All of us have something precious that may not be so precious to anyone else. For Mishti, it’s her bed.
What is precious to you? What would you be very unhappy about losing? Through a show-and-tell activity, I would love to explore how the story of how we got something makes it precious.
Unfairness
How often do we complain that something is not fair? In Munni Monster, Mishti discovers just how unfair life can be. Through a guided writing exercise, we will explore some things we find unfair and what, if anything, we can do about it.
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Chitti’s Travelling Book Box
The most rewarding books to read at my book club are books about books. I remember reading The Reading Race, Book Uncle and Me, Bookasura and Koobandhee; it’s likely that there were others too.
Even as I read Chitti’s Travelling Book Box when it came out in February, I knew I would read it with my book club sooner or later. Here’s what we will do as we read!
Reading is Boring!
If your friends think reading is boring, what will you do? What do you think can make reading fun?
We’ll begin by talking about this and sharing ideas, but if we can, I’d love to implement the children’s ideas in class. If there is something the children think will make reading more fun, let’s do it together!
The Monster Game
Inspired by Chitti, we will play a game I love – the monster game! Together, we will create a monster and then maybe draw it and give it a name.
Book Scavenger Hunt
We love book scavenger hunts at my book club. Running around and hunting through our books is always fun. In a book about books, how can we not do this activity we love?
Here are two book scavenger hunts we’ve done in the past. I’m all set for another!
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Non-Boring Nonfiction
It is always so rewarding when a guest speaker repeats something you’ve been saying at your writing programmes for a long time! Thank you, Vaishali, for this session on non-boring nonfiction, and for reiterating so many things that keep needing to be said!
In November last year, I watched Vaishali Shroff conduct two sessions at Bookaroo Vadodara. One was based on Sita’s Chitwan; the other on Batata, Pao and All Things Portuguese. Right away, I was sure she would be the perfect person to do a nonfiction workshop with the children at my writing programmes. Unfortunately, working something out right away was impossible, but after much juggling of schedules, we finally managed to do it this time.
Step by step, Vaishali took us through the writing of engaging nonfiction. With an exercise inspired by something as simple as the picture of a mango, she helped the young writers understand the difference between a bland visual description and a hook that draws the reader in. I loved how different the first pieces the children shared were from the pieces they shared at the end of the session!
With examples from her books, she stressed the importance of research and fact-checking. Bringing a plot and story into our nonfiction is important too! And all the while, as she worked with mentor texts, she kept the children active, making them write and share one short piece after another.
Most importantly for me, there were several things Vaishali said that made me rejoice quietly, simply because it’s great to have someone else repeat something I keep trying to bring into my writing programmes.
One, don’t be lazy about rewriting. If something doesn’t work, delete it!
Two, focus. Your piece must have focus. I usually refer to this as purpose, and I keep asking: what is the purpose of this piece?
And three, research. Don’t just write things you find on the internet! Fact checking is important.
Guest sessions are rewarding; the next one will be here in June!
Poetry in Collaboration with Sampurna Chattarji
My first guest session of the season – Poetry in Collaboration – was such a success! With sixteen enthusiastic participants and one lively, energetic facilitator, the hour flew by before we knew it. Haiku, renga, nonets, free verse–we explored it all.
Often, we believe that writing must be a solo activity. We have creative thoughts and ideas, and we want to have full control over them. However, collaboration can lead to unexpected, sometimes beautiful, consequences. Sampurna is a serial collaborator, as she describes herself, and the stories she shared about her collaborative writing experiences were lovely. Step by step, she led the participants through their own work. How does one begin? What methods can we follow? How do we go on, while being mindful of our own creative impulses as well as those of our partner’s?
In a whirlwind of a workshop, Sampurna visiting one breakout room after another – there were eight in all! She helped overcome roadblocks, gave the pairs suggestions and feedback, and helped each writer ask questions about the choices they made. The poetry module of my writing programmes is almost over, and this was a grand way to bring it towards its conclusion.
A few key takeaways:
- Listening to your partner is important! Collaboration is about working together with a clear goal in mind.
- Collaboration works well when your partner is different from you. If you already have similar tastes and ideas, you are much more likely to create something quite predictable.
- Choosing a setting that both partners are familiar with, but in different ways, leads to surprising results.
There were so many more ideas and thoughts, but an hour’s workshop has never felt shorter. Here’s to more workshops filled with ideas and magic!
The Adventures of Tootsie Lama
We read The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop a couple of years ago at my reading programme for ages nine and ten, and we loved it. That’s why I picked up The Adventures of Tootsie Lama. It has the same kind of craziness, which makes it perfect for my book club.
Tootsie Lama is reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking in her independent, almost amoral, way of functioning. She wants thukpa, and she will steal it if she must. Her friend Tenzing is the perfect ally, more than willing to be part of her madcap schemes, even if it means getting into trouble with his mother. But in this adventure, perhaps Tootsie Lama goes a little too far and has to face consequences that she didn’t quite imagine … It’s such a fun story!
Food
Tootsie Lama goes to astonishing lengths for a bowl of thukpa. What food would you do anything for? And if we’re being completely wacky, how far would you go to get the food you want?
Darjeeling
The Adventures of Tootsie Lama is set in Darjeeling, a place that, for many of us, is a holiday destination. I think this is a great time for the children to tell me about their own hometowns, or the city in which they live. What makes their city special? Where do they like to go on holiday?
Best Friends
Tootsie finds a perfect friend in Tenzing. Without a friend, would she be able to do everything she wants to do?
Childhood friendships are special, and I want to hear about what makes each child’s best friend the best best friend of all. What do they do together? What do they want to do together? We’ll try to write a little poem about it too!
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Dungeon Tales
We read Dungeon Tales II in September last year and loved it. In fact, it was everyone’s favourite read from the August-September selection, even though it competed with Paati Vs UNCLE and Frindle. So how can we not read Dungeon Tales, or, as the children at my book club call it, ungeon ales?
A brilliantly crafted collection of stories, this book takes us through the creation of the tome we encounter in the second book. The Badmash Badshah is all set to make heads roll, until one young prisoner comes up with a plan – of regaling the emperor with stories. One by one, the prisoners are brought before him, and they tell him their magnificent, fantastical, hilarious tales.
Word Choice
Why does the author Venita Coelho use the word ‘dungeon’ rather than a word like ‘prison’ or ‘jail’? How does word choice affect a story?
Through a quick vocabulary activity, we’ll discuss synonyms for simple words like said and walked. How do writers change the mood of their stories by choosing specific words?
Ballads
The stories in Dungeon Tales are old-fashioned ones with a twist, the perfect way to explore old-fashioned storytelling styles like ballads. Can we take a section of a story and rewrite it in the form of rhyming narrative verse? This is the perfect way to introduce the importance of meter and rhythm when we write rhyme!
Prisoners
Creative writing is an integral part of Read, Write, Explore, and so we’re going to write a story of our own. Imagine you’ve been thrown into the Badmash Badshah’s prison. Why are you there? What is your story?
At my creative writing programmes, we will be working on fractured fairytales, and this exercise will follow much the same pattern. What stereotypes and norms can we invert while telling a fantastic story?
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Ottoline and the Yellow Cat
I love Chris Riddell! I read Ottoline Goes to School sometime last year, but I couldn’t introduce it to my book club because it wasn’t available in India. Less than a month ago, I learned that Ottoline and the Yellow Cat is available, so of course we must read it!
I love serious humour. I know that’s an oxymoron, but for me, it’s the kind of book that’s earnest and written in such a way that something utterly ridiculous reads like it is perfectly normal. And that’s what makes the Ottoline series delightful. Lovely pictures and a perfectly lovely story come together in this quick, beautifully illustrated story about a girl and her unusual friend. Here’s what we’ll do as we read Ottoline and the Yellow Cat at my book club.
Collections
Ottoline’s parents travel all over the world and collect all kinds of things, including masks, extremely small paintings, and portable fishbowls. Ottoline loves to look after the collections, and I think most children do! I collected perfect pencil shavings, for instance. And my sister collected tissues from restaurants. What do my book clubbers collect? Through a small Show and Tell session, we’ll find out.
Make Your Own Business Card!
I love bringing artsy activities into my book club! Lots of people who take care of Ottoline and Mr Monroe. One spread of images shows us all their business cards, so let’s make our own! What special services could we offer? What are we good at, and what would we call our business?
Maps
Ottoline’s story is full of maps, not all of which seem very useful. Nonetheless, maps are entertaining and could be fun to explore.
Can you draw a map from your front door to your room? What about a fictitious map? Can you draw one of those?
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A Boy Called Bat
What does it mean to be autistic? What exactly does the word inclusive mean?
I think these are conversations we must keep having, and the earlier we have them with children, the more likely it is that they will be sensitive to neurodiversity, and the fact that we can look at things from other points of view.
For me, the best way to have these conversations is through books – books like A Boy Called Bat.
Bat, aka Bixby Alexander Tam, is an unforgettable character, and his story is both funny and lovely. Bat may be autistic, but the truth is that all of us – neurotypical or neurodiverse – know what it is like to want something with all our heart.
And what does Bat want?
To convince his mother that a skunk kit is the perfect pet.
A story about friendship, sibling rivalry, and being different, A Boy Called Bat promises to be a rewarding read at my book club.
Our Five Senses
I’ve read so much about needing to rethink how we teach the senses. When we’re hungry, for instance, isn’t that a sense? Sure, we stub our toes and hit our elbows once in a while, but what sense prevents us from doing this all the time?
Understanding autism is also about understanding our senses and how they work. We’ll talk about the five senses we study at school, explore sights and sounds we like, and then move on to discussing what senses we have but take for granted.
Animals
Thanks to A Boy Called Bat, I learned that the young one of a skunk is called a kit! It’s a good time to explore a few others – foxes, wolves, kangaroos, and maybe a few unusual ones too.
Points of View
Bat’s mom thinks his dresser drawers are a mess. Bat thinks they’re organised. Janie is upset about her unicorn pajama top, even though Bat has a very logical explanation as to why he gave it to the skunk.
This is the perfect time to write two diary entries – one from Janie’s point of view and one from Bat’s. What would make them different? Which of them is in the wrong?
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The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories
As a child, I adored animal stories. Dick King-Smith was a favourite, and I scoured the British Library for his books. Another favourite was the Animal Ark series – completely different in the sense that the animals aren’t anthropomorphic, but fun, all the same.
That’s one of the reasons we’re reading The Lizard of Oz at my book club. Although I haven’t worked with short stories with my book club for ages seven and eight before, they work excellently with the older ones, so I’m excited to read this set next month. Humour, adventure and sparkling surprises come together in this collection that I’m sure we’ll have fun exploring!
Word Puzzle
Several years ago, the theme for the reading challenge at the British Library was ‘Animal Agents‘. I loved the books in the collection, as well as all the activities we did! One of those activities is a word puzzle that I’m sure my book clubbers will enjoy. Searching for words is always fun!
Favourite Animals
When we read A Very Naughty Dragon, the children at my book club made wonderful presentations on animals they find intriguing. I discovered animals I hadn’t heard of, and this was rewarding for all of us! This is an activity well worth repeating because children are treasure troves of trivia that they’re eager to share. Here’s our chance to learn about more animals from around the world, while also giving each child the chance to talk about something that excites them!
Creating an Animal Story
The Lizard of Oz and Other Stories features all kinds of unexpected animals – a mosquito, a bee, an ant, a mouse … What animals can we write about? What strange characteristics could they have? Together, as well as individually, we will create protagonists for animal stories of our own.
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Pinkoo Shergill: Pastry Chef
When the publishers sent me a review copy of Pinkoo Shergill: Pastry Chef, I devoured it. Even as I read it, I knew I wanted to introduce it to my book club soon. The only question I had was as to whether to introduce it to ages seven and eight, or nine and ten. Ultimately, I chose the latter for several reasons. For one, there’s so much we can do with the book in terms of creative writing! For another, it’s rather longer than the books I usually read at my book club for seven and eight-year-olds, so I felt I would not be able to do it justice with younger readers.
Pinkoo’s story is filled with a sense of urgency, which makes it a pacy read. I like the characters, the storyline and the telling – what more do I need?
Here’s what we will do with the book at my reading programme.
Portmanteau Words
We’ve worked with portmanteau words at my book club for the younger ones, and each time I do vocabulary activities of various kinds, I realise how much fun they are! Some activities are also worth repeating, simply because each time we do them, we enjoy them more. Fabtastic! Wowmazing! Spectaculous! These are words that Vibha Batra uses in the story. What can we come up with?
Recipes
In a book that is all about food, let’s create recipes of our own! The best thing about recipes that we don’t actually have to follow is that we can let our imaginations run wild. What ingredients could we put together? What cheftastic creations can we conjure up?
Creative writing is all about having fun with words and enjoying the process of writing. I can’t wait to see what this activity will lead to!
Genre
As this is the first book we will be reading in March, it is a good time to explore genre.
What genres do children enjoy reading? What kinds of stories do they like to write? We will do a genre quiz, following which we’ll briefly explore how we classify and categorise stories.
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Petu Pumpkin: Cheater Peter
Petu Pumpkin is a cheat!
Or at least, so Jatin is convinced.
And if Petu Pumpkin continues to cheat and lie, what will become of him? One day, he fakes a stomach ache. He used to be a tiffin thief. Tomorrow, he’ll be a pickpocket. And then soon, he’ll be a murderer! His friends have a duty. They must get him to confess, no matter what it takes. That’s the only way they can save him from a life of crime.
Humorous and fun, Petu Pumpkin: Cheater Peter has that element of silliness that I know my book club will enjoy. Here’s what we’ll do as we read it.
Book Cover
The episode featured on the cover of Petu Pumpkin: Cheater Peter is probably my favourite part of the book. It’s as mad as it looks, and so, I’m going to begin by asking the children what they think is happening there. Is that … an egg? What are the boys doing?
And with all the hypotheses my book clubbers come up with, we’ll begin to read!
Renaming Old Games
When I learned that Ludo simply means I play, I was amused and amazed. What do you think would be a better name for it?
Petu Pumpkin and his friends play ‘Firebreathing Dragons and Spiralling Staircases’, which is just a fancy name for Snakes and Ladders. What other names can we come up with?
And connected to that, what other games can we come up with?
Two Truths and a Lie
How easy or difficult is it to tell if someone is being truthful or lying? Let’s find out through this game we play together – two truths and a lie!
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Writing Poetry
I’ve been conducting writing workshops for a long time, and if there’s one thing I love working with, it’s poetry. Nearly every writing programme I conduct begins with a poetry module. Why? Because it’s accessible. It’s far easier to write a poem in a week than it is to write a story in a week.
And so, each time, I try to work with different kinds of poetry. We’ve done list poems and narrative verse, limericks, rhymes, poems with strong verbs, and much, much more. Everything serves as a poetry prompt for me, and I think it can work for anyone!
For instance, what we read always helps us to get creative, and so, my reading programmes too have an element of poetry sometimes. Here’s a brief look some of the kinds of poetry we’ve explored recently.
Cinquains
The first poem below is a cinquain, which the children wrote when we read I Survived: The California Wildfires, 2018. Climate change is a phrase children encounter all the time. What signs of climate change do we see around us? Cinquains push children to pay attention to each word they choose. Teaching cinquains creates opportunities to brainstorm, explore our vocabulary, and attempt to find the perfect fit.
List Poem
I led the children through the second poem below when we read Crenshaw. Guided writing exercises, with poetry worksheets, work so well! In the story, Jackson and Robin put together a keepsake bag, and this prompted us to write about a keepsake bag of our own. I think it’s a lovely way for children to think about what is precious to them.
Of course, writing programmes allow us to explore even more. With each writing programme I conduct, I, too, become more ambitious. During the last two editions of the programme, I chose the best pieces and put together a zine (download issue 1 here and issue 2 here). This pushed the children to work even harder, editing and rewriting their pieces until they were satisfied.
Free Verse and (Rhyming) Puzzle Poems
In the April to June session, I introduced the participants to Emily Dickinson’s Hope is the thing with feathers, and then I guided them through a poem in free verse, comparing an emotion to an animal. I also worked with puzzle poetry because I love riddles, particularly rhyming riddles. Plus, it was the perfect pre-writing activity for us to work on detective stories!
Free verse allows children to become more familiar with metaphors, similes, personification, onomatopoeia and the like. It allows them to look at these literary devices as more than just terms, understanding what poetic effect they create. And the puzzle poems we wrote? While working on rhyme and meter, we also find ways to involve the reader!
Haikus, Acrostics and Reverse Poetry
In the latest edition of the writing programme, we grew more ambitious. I came across Brian Bilston’s review haikus, and I wondered whether we could do something along those lines. We took this idea further and explored recipe haikus too.
In keeping with the same idea of testing our limits, I also wondered if we could take a form that every child explores at some stage – acrostics. Whether it’s for greeting cards or for a chart in school, children write, or at least read, acrostic poetry at some stage. So, we took this familiar form and tried to do something new. Can we write a backwards acrostic? Take a look at one of my favourite ones below!
Our most ambitious project so far has been reverse poetry, and I was impressed with the poems the children wrote. I’m not usually someone who is effusive with praise, but the reverse poems they created were clever and lovely. Of course, we read multiple examples, and of course, I guided them through the process. But to successfully write a reverse poem – which conveys the opposite meaning when read in reverse – is a feat. There are many more in the latest issue of WORDS, our very own zine!
Writing poetry is fun, and getting children to write it is, honestly, equally rewarding. When creative writing seems difficult, I turn to poetry. Not because it’s necessarily easier, but because it is liberating. More importantly, especially when working with children, I think it’s important to play with poetry. Explore it, enjoy it, create something new. Rhyme is great. But there’s so much more that all of us can explore.
Do read our zine, and tell us what you think. Before you read it, though, I’d like to say – I’m sure there are typos. I’m also sure that lots of people could have designed it better – I’m a writer, not a designer. Even so, I can unabashedly say that I’m proud of it and I’m waiting for the next edition.
Tara and the Friendship Theorem
Maths and Logic are fascinating. I remember when I studied Descartes, who tried to prove the existence of God using pure logic. I understand the drive to do that – just like I understand Tara’s need to use a theorem to find friends. Can a foolproof Friendship Theorem exist? Can we actually use a Venn diagram to find friends?
Tara and the Friendship Theorem is a lovely book about big changes and making friends. Like with Ramanujan, I enjoyed the facts at the head of each chapter; they help me get into Tara’s very particular character. Just like Tara (and the author Chitra Soundar), I, too, played pallanguzhi as a child too, though my rules were a little different from the ones at the beginning of the book. But I played all things mathematics – Cheese Buzz, Magic Squares, even mental maths games.
Unlike Tara, however, I never attempted to use Maths to find friends. And more importantly, I loved the great outdoors as much as I loved Maths. But what can Tara do at a camp where no electronics are allowed at all?
Cheese Buzz
When we’re reading about a protagonist like Tara, how can we not play a maths game? Cheese Buzz and Magical Mathematical Squares promise to be fun. We’ll play one for sure, and the other if we have the time.
Skills
Part of the process of making friends is finding out what the others are good at. Kapil loves extreme sports. Millie loves to juggle, and is good at it too. What can my book clubbers do that they’re proud of? Solve a Rubik’s cube? Say the alphabet backwards? Fold their tongues? Let’s find out!
Change
Two books we’re reading this time are about big changes – shifting house. Lily in The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips has to move because of the war. Tara has to leave her best friend behind in Chennai and move to the UK for two years. Change is never easy, but it happens all around us. As creative writing is an integral part of Read, Write, Explore, we’ll look at changes around us and write a poem in free verse about change.
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Amelia Bedelia Goes Wild
We read our first Amelia Bedelia (Amelia Bedelia Means Business) at the second edition of my reading programme, and what fun we had with it! Even though there were children who didn’t understand much of the word play, the humour came through, and we enjoyed the book thoroughly.
Amelia Bedelia Goes Wild promises to be just as much fun. Amelia is “sick as a dog”, and she can’t go to the zoo with the rest of her class. But it isn’t like Amelia to give up and give in. Oh, no. If she can’t go to the zoo, she must make one of her own!
Powered by her optimism and bursting with ideas, Amelia can do anything, as she shows us in this humorous chapter book that I’m waiting to share with my book club.
Wordplay
How can we read an Amelia Bedelia and not engage in wordplay? From idioms to homophones, this series explores the madness of the English language, delighting in the confusion its oddities create. We’ll go wild with a quiz on animal idioms, exploring how language can make you go bananas.
Animals
There exists a very special relationship between animals and children, and a book like Amelia Bedelia is perfect to explore this relationship. What strange animal facts do you know? What is your favourite animal and why? And most importantly, do you think it’s right to keep an animal in a zoo?
Figures of Speech
Amelia is sick as a dog. Are dogs always sick? And yet, the phrase sick as a dog exists. What other similes can we explore? Amelia Bedelia Goes Wild is perfect to (re)introduce similes, metaphors and hyperbole.
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Often, when I read a well-known book like Amelia Bedelia, a few children have already read it. It doesn’t matter in the least – they enjoy rereading it and laughing aloud once more. And the fun of a book club is that it’s not just about reading; it’s also about all the activities we do side by side.
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
I read The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips several years ago. And like most of Michael Morpurgo’s books, it’s a classic. In the cruellest, most inhuman of times, we find stories of courage and love – Morpurgo never fails to remind us of that.
Through a series of diary entries, we learn about 11-year-old Lily, who lives in Slapton in 1943. The war seems very far away, even though several “townies” now study in the same school as Lily. Life goes on as usual–until the people of Slapton are told they must evacuate in seven weeks. Lily’s grandfather refuses to move, but the time comes when he accepts that he will help the war effort by moving, so he does. The problem is that Lily’s precious cat, Tips, goes missing, and everyone begins to hunt for her, including the Yankee soldiers who are now in Slapton.
As the hunt for Tips goes on, relationships are formed, and these relationships drive the story, leading to the astonishing end of the book, one that fills us up and makes us rejoice.
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips is a beautiful, heartwarming story – I can’t wait to share it with my book club!
Adolphus Tips
Lily renames her cat Adolphus Tips after the soldier Adolphus, whom she meets in Slapton. Whom would you name an animal after, and why? What about toys? Have you ever named a toy after someone?
Journalling
The story of Adolphus Tips is revealed to us through Lily’s diary, the perfect prompt for us to write a journal entry or two. We will begin by writing a little about ourselves – our day, and what makes it special. We will then move on to a more imaginative entry–about a day when we have to move out of our home to a new place.
Autobiography
We learn about Tips’s adventures through Lily, but what if Tips could write for herself? What would her diary look like?
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The Egghead Detective Agency
What child has never dreamed of being a detective?
The Egghead Detective Agency is perfect for my book club in so many ways. For one, there are clues to solve within each story. For another, the characters are young children, accompanied by a friendly ghost, making the book fun to read. I enjoyed the cases too – raining cupcakes, a missing chicken, a pink pool and more!
Here’s what we’ll do as we read the book together.
Solve It Yourself!
Can we all become detectives? We’ll begin by trying to solve the clues in the stories, but we’ll move on to observing the world around us. What unusual things do we notice the moment we pay attention? A mark on the wall? A strange smell? Good detectives are, first, good observers!
Magical Chairs
Many children are familiar with Enid Blyton’s wishing chair. Here, in The Egghead Detective Agency, we have another kind of magical chair – one in which a ghost appears. Can we imagine something new? What else could a magical chair do?
Story Worksheet
Story worksheets are always fun, and a set of detective stories provides us with the perfect opportunity to write a mystery story of our own. Using a worksheet, we will write a complete detective story – an activity that is always satisfying.
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Talon the Falcon
We love the Feather Tales series at my book club! I didn’t choose to read Talon the Falcon earlier because it is much shorter than The Golden Eagle and The Paradise Flycatcher, but when children fall in love with a series, how can we not read the whole lot together?
Set in the familiar Rose Garden, Talon the Falcon opens with a beloved character, Shikar, who wonders where all the birds have disappeared. He soon finds the reason – the presence of a falcon in the neighbouring garden! Of course, the birds, terrified, have flown away. But everything isn’t as it seems, and Shikar soon realises that the mighty falcon needs their help.
Here’s what we’ll do as we read Talon the Falcon together.
Idioms and Proverbs
Birds of a feather flock together.
Bird-brained.
Chicken-hearted.
I never tire of working with theme-based idioms with children. A quiz always brings a surge of energy!
Birds
The stunning pictures in Talon the Falcon add magic to the story. More, illustrations like these are perfect to learn about birds around us. As a child, I knew nothing of bee-eaters, drongos and sunbirds. Books like this can change that! During one class, I will also ask the children to talk about a bird they love, and what makes that bird special.
Poetry
The falcon and the other birds sing two beautiful songs, which will serve as the perfect introduction to list poetry. I love list poems, and I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve worked with them. Here’s one that a child wrote at one of my first creative writing programmes. It’s time for more!
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My Year in Workshops: 2022
The year 2022 was all about flexibility.
Conducting online sessions from cafés and hotel rooms.
Finishing an online session before boarding a bus to do an in-person session in another city.
Adjusting schedules.
Cancelling some editions of my book club because children were – finally – travelling.
Competing with swimming and cricket coaching and all the other things that weren’t factors I needed to consider at all in 2020-21.
And it’s been quite a journey. We did so much; I met so many people; I travelled extensively for work. I can’t help wondering what 2023 is going to be like!
Book Clubs
I launched my first book club in December 2020, and look how far we’ve come! Yes, we read ALL these books in 2022. I read 14 with ages nine and ten, and 18 with ages seven and eight.
Yes, there were sessions I had to cancel. In 2022, children started going to school again, and their schedules slowly filled up. Yet, before I could wonder what I was doing wrong and why people weren’t signing up, parents would write and ask me for a different time-slot. They wrote and wrote and wrote again, reaffirming that they loved the book clubs, loved reading with me … but just couldn’t fit my book club into the children’s schedule.
And that’s what keeps me going. I did have to cancel three sessions across age-groups in 2022. But that hasn’t stopped me yet!
Writing Programmes
My writing programmes remain as rewarding as ever. With children signing up time and again, it’s wonderful to see them blossom and grow. Poetry, drama, nonfiction, fiction … we’ve explored it all. Just like in 2020-21, I invited experts from various fields to address the children, and these were a treat!
During each edition of my creative writing programme, there are so many pieces I love that in April 2022, I decided I would bring these pieces together in a zine of our very own. So, June 2022 saw the launch of the first issue of WORDS, written by children aged nine to 14! The second issue came out in January 2023, and I’m sharing that here too, since all these pieces were written in 2022.
In-Person Workshops
And of course, with schools reopening, my offline workshops began again too. Teacher-training sessions took me to Nagpur, Mumbai, Aurangabad, Goa, and all over Pune. Lit fests took me to Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Vadodara and Jaipur–but more about those when I write about how 2022 was for me as a writer.
My 2023 calendar is already chalked out. My reading sessions continue, new batches are around the corner, I have sessions lined up in Mumbai and Goa … I’m waiting to see what the year brings!
Building Dramatic Characters
What fun we had at ‘Building Dramatic Characters’ – a guest session conducted by Neha Singh for my creative writing programme!
To quote Neha, anything can be a character. Maybe even a chair talking to the moon! The strength of a character simply depends on how much you have invested in the character to make it full-fledged and believable.
Step by step, she led us through the process of creating dramatic characters of our own, and before we were even halfway through, here are the characters we met:
- Bland – a lonely blade of grass
- Orange – a carrot with no friends
- Slippmery Slippers – an unwanted pair of slippers
- Mr Squeak – a mouse who loves to build things
- Madame Gabriella the Fifth – the poltergeist who simply cannot do something mischievous
- Gray – a sidewalk that’s about to be dug up
- Alexandra or Alex – half a personality in search of a human home
- Six-Face – a Rubik’s cube whose owner has sharp nails
Each child chose three props and gave their character a unique voice. Neha asked the characters questions, and we explored how we could help each one reach its goal. Now, I wonder what stories the children will come up with based on the characters they created today!
Flipped – Mystery Stories and Sci-Fi Stories
With Flipped – Mystery Stories and Sci-Fi Stories, we have another first at my book club – an anthology! Full disclosure – I have a story in Flipped too, but we won’t be reading that one.
I love the idea of the Flipped books. You read a few stories, then decide you want another kind of story, so you just flip the book over and discover another genre. Short stories work well at my book club too, so there’s a lot we can do as we read this anthology.
Sci-Fi Stories
A couple of years ago, I invited a friend and NASA scientist, Dr Sreeja Nag, to conduct a session for my writing programme on science stories. Like every other guest session I’ve organised, I learned a lot from the session. What is science fiction anyway? What kinds of stories make for believable science fiction? Taking an idea from another session Sreeja conducted, we’ll explore a few writing prompts. Set a story in a place without gravity! Imagine an alien visits the earth. Create your own spaceship. What else?
Mystery Stories
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again – I love codes! We’ll play with a few simple codes and then write coded notes to each other in the chat box. Perhaps we could even invent a code of our own!
Writing a Story
Mystery stories are fun to read and fun to write. We worked extensively with mystery stories at my writing programme in April, and two stories the children created feature in issue 1 of our zine, Words. We’ll take small steps in the same direction as we read mystery stories at Read, Write, Explore in December ’22 – January ’23
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Crenshaw
I read Crenshaw over two years ago. In fact, it was one of my top reads of 2020, and it’s a story that has stayed with me since then, a story I think about often because of its portrayal of friendship, loneliness and vulnerability.
Crenshaw is the story of a boy, Jackson, and a giant cat. What role can a giant cat have in the life of a boy who loves facts? How can Jackson reconcile his need for truth with the … fact … that he has an imaginary friend? I’m waiting to share this beautiful story with my book club!
Book Discussion - Imaginary Friends
Do you have an imaginary friend? Have you ever had an imaginary friend? Children make up all kinds of companions; after all, that’s what dolls and toys are for. I’d love to know what characteristics they give either temporary or more permanent imaginary creatures in their lives.
Words, Books, and More
As always, the advantage of reading a popular book that is often used in schools and book clubs is the wealth of activities I can find online. We’ll play word games and discuss the keepsakes Jackson and Robin treasure – the books A Hole is to Dig and The House on East 88th Street. If time permits, we’ll read excerpts from these two books too and talk about why the children in the story treasure them.
Poetry
What I love most about Katherine Applegate’s writing is her simple, poetic style. It makes each emotion come alive, hitting all the right spots. Can we write poetry like this? During the creative writing class for Crenshaw, we will try to write a list poem in free verse about someone in our lives whom we treasure.
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