The Vampire Boy
The Vampire Boy by Sharanya Deepak is another delightful hOle book – quirky and unique.
The government has decided that all children – including young vampires – must go to school. What is Kristofer to do? He knows he will be shunned, but off he goes, only to meet with curiosity and bullying. In a way that is perfect for this age-group, humour underlines everything that happens to Kristofer. Soon, he makes friends with not just Bo, but also Bran, the class bully. Together, they go to school, they go on a camp, and they even catch a chicken thief!
I’m waiting to read it at the October edition of my online reading programme. Here’s what I plan to do with it.
Book Discussion
Kristofer is a vampire who hates blood!
As this is the first book we will be reading together, a good way to begin is with a discussion on what makes us similar to and different from our friends and family. For example, perhaps all your friends love Geronimo Stilton and you do too. On the other hand, perhaps all your friends love cricket and you hate it. Let’s get to know one another!
Number Games
Kristofer loves numbers. He counts the stars in the sky. He counts blades of grass. He counts the number of grey hairs in Mr Gazillion’s head.
One of the reasons I choose a hOle book for each reading programme is that the entire set is perfect in terms of length. We have the time to read, share opinions and play games that link reading to other ideas and subjects. With The Vampire Boy, I look forward to playing number games with the children. From multiplication Bingo to counting games, there’s so much we can do with numbers!
The Five Senses
Bran and Bo are so noisy that no creatures in the forest come close to them. Yet, the great banyan tree is like magic, its leaves lit with fireflies.
This leads us to a lovely imaginative activity. Listening to a little music, the children will imagine what they can see, smell, hear, taste and feel in the forest. I’m intrigued to know what their responses will be!
Join a programme!
Registrations are now closed for all batches of my reading and writing programmes. The next set of reading programmes will begin in the first week of December. Registrations open in early November.
If you would like to receive email notifications about my programmes, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
Raise Hand
Children will be mischievous. They will always, always try to find ways to fool their teachers. The most common excuse during virtual sessions?
“I lost connection.”
Much as children like to believe otherwise, teachers can tell when children aren’t attentive. They stare at the screen and their eyes glaze over. At my book club, I know they aren’t reading along. For one, they shouldn’t be looking at the screen at all. If they’re gazing at the screen, they’re doing something else. Of course.
But when I ask them a question linked to what we’re reading, pat comes the response, “Sorry, I lost my connection. I don’t know where we are.”
So, yesterday, I told the children, very casually, to raise their hands immediately if they lose track. “Don’t wait until I ask you to read. If you lose your connection and can’t find where we are, raise your hand!”
I could see the bewilderment. A new plan was needed, and fast!
“But on my screen … I don’t have … There’s no ‘raise hand’ button on Meet!”
“Your real hand,” I said. “Just put your real hand up.”
The idea was clearly new to the child.
My real hand? Really?
Ah, virtual world problems.
Book Club Discussions
We just finished reading Sandy to the Rescue, the first of five books we’ll be reading at this edition of my book club. One of the joys of reading the hOle books at the reading programme is that the length is perfect. We have enough time to read and do activities during each session, which, for me, is what a book club is about.
In Sandy to the Rescue, six-year-old Aftab hides first under the dining table and then in the bath tub.
This made me ask the children, “Where would you hide? If you had to smuggle a friend into your house, what would be a hiding place?”
We discussed the storage cupboard, a balcony with newspapers (ideal for a little cushioning) and under the bed. I then led them to another activity – finding a hiding place for something a little smaller, like a secret note, perhaps. What could they write in the note? That led me to an unexpected discussion because one of the things I told them they could write about was what they’re afraid of.
“I’m afraid of God,” said one child.
I could see that this was a new thought for several of the others because they were thinking of other things that, maybe, they thought were more trivial.
Even so, one child said, “I’m afraid of dogs. I don’t like it when they come close.”
Unexpectedly, a child piped up, “Oh, I’m more afraid of zebras! Dogs are nice. Zebras are frightening.”
Before I had the time to process this, a fourth child said, “I’m afraid of cancer. It is the scariest thing in the world.”
Somehow, the conversation around cancer continued, with one child saying that cancer has a cure, so she’s not afraid of it.
“But cancer kills people!”
“But it doesn’t have to. You can fight it. Anyone can fight cancer.”
“No, it is frightening, and–“
The conversation went on until one child asked, “Could we stop talking about cancer?”
And we did. But that didn’t stop me from thinking about it.
Immediately, another child said, “I’m afraid of floods. Floods are the scariest of all.”
And that’s a thought that hadn’t struck me. Why is she afraid of floods? I asked her if she had ever seen a flood and she shook her head. But what causes that fear?
After the session was over, I began to think about what scared me as a child and what scares me now. Are we so frank about what really frightens us?
The Hodgeheg
I love Dick King-Smith‘s work. There was a time when I read nothing except his books. I devoured story after story, the way children do when they get hooked on to an author. I remember just one book I didn’t enjoy – Godhanger. But everything else? I loved.
And so, when I contacted my usual independent bookstores who supply the books for my reading programmes, I told them I would like anything by him. I would have loved The Merrythought or Saddlebottom, but just click on those links to find out how they’re priced!
The Hodgeheg is one of my favourites too! It’s a sweet story about one determined hedgehog who makes it his mission to find out how to cross a road safely. How do humans cross? Can’t a hedgehog do the same? Here’s what we’ll do with this book at my book club.
Slang
The Hodgeheg begins with another hedgehog having ‘copped it’. Later on, we have the phrase ‘that’s flat’.
What do these phrases mean? The way in which words and phrases develop regional variations is fascinating. I remember reading the phrase ‘I bet a monkey’ while I was reading Georgette Heyer. I first thought Heyer was just being funny. I looked it up and discovered that a monkey is British slang for five hundred pounds, American slang for five hundred dollars, and Australian slang for – wait for it – a sheep!
We’ll look at a few funny phrases from different parts of the world; I can’t wait to see what we’ll discover!
Unscramble
When the hedgehog Max is hit on the head, his words come out all scrambled, which is what gives the book its name.
Of course, this leads to a simple, fun activity – unscrambling letters to make words, putting words in the right order to create sentences, and putting lines in the right order to create a poem.
Creating Characters
The first thing that sets Max apart is his name. But there’s more to Max than a unique name. What makes a character leap out of the pages?
As my reading programme for ages nine and ten has a strong creative writing component, we will use the text to work on creating memorable characters. If you have a character that your readers will root for, your story is already half done!
Join a programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS READING PROGRAMME.
The next batch begins in the first week of October. If you would like to receive an email notification when I open for registrations, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
My June Reading Programmes – An Overview
“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 monsters right through the book! I think that was the highlight of our sessions together. We did a fun activity imagining things under our beds – I see a monster’s eye! What could it be? Ah, it’s just an old torch. This book was a treat!
Bookasura
Among the most exciting activities we did with Bookasura was growing something of our own. At Navaneeth Uncle’s farm, Bala discovers fruit trees; he digs a compost pit and fills it with kitchen waste, and he cleans the fish pond. What can we, in our urban setups grow? I grew mustard (picture below!). Some of the children grew moong, corn, oregano … Oh, and of course it helps that one of the children logged in from a cardamom plantation in Idukki! He had firsthand experience of a kind that none of us do!
Esio Trot
Speaking backwards is almost like speaking in code. Mrs Silver makes it even more fun by calling her backwards chant magic words. What magic can you do by saying things backwards?
emoceb elbisivni!
nrut otni a taog!
raeppasid!
At Least a Fish
There was so much that I wanted to do with At Least a Fish, but the reading itself took longer than I anticipated because of the number of discussions we had about fish, dogs and dragons! But page 8 of the book is just too much fun to ignore. We laughed, yes, but I was also astounded at how much children know about all kinds of animals! We discussed differences between an elephant and a duck, an octopus and a rat, and a lion and a platypus. We then looked at similarities and that was fun too! How are a hedgehog and a monkey similar? What about a seahorse and a dog?
Join a programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR ALL MY READING PROGRAMMES.
The next batches begin in the first week of October. If you would like to receive an email notification when I open for registrations, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
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 have no idea what I won. I just remember winning five of the Goosebumps series and five of the Babysitters Club series.)
How will a nine-year-old respond to a hand detaching itself from a zombie and attacking? Honestly, I don’t know. But I find myself thinking – if children can read books like The Witches, why not?
After going back and forth multiple times, I went ahead with this book because it has so much to offer at a programme like mine. Take a look at what I want to do with it.
Book Discussion
Tenzin used to be the school bully. When he returns to school as a zombie, he becomes the victim, leaving Karma conflicted. Is the monster really the bad guy?
A book like Karma Meets a Zombie opens up several discussions on heroes, villains and all the grey areas in between. I’m sure the discussion will be rewarding!
Witches, Zombies, and ... Vampire Potatoes?
Working with multiple genres is always fun. Karma Tandin is a delightful narrator – funny, snarky and often confused. This makes Karma Meets a Zombie the perfect story to discuss ideas like comic relief, building suspense and story structure. What standard non-human characters do we use? And how can we add a tiny twist to a standard character (like a vampire) to create surprise and humour?
Writing Horror
I was associated with the British Council’s reading challenge for several years, and Creepy House was one of the most popular themes amongst the participants. There’s something thrilling about being slightly afraid. From picture books like Book of Bhoots to middle-grade ones like A Place Called Perfect, children love to explore the darkness in tiny and not-so-tiny ways.
So, how do we write horror? I have a wonderful set of activities on writing stories full of suspense and I can’t wait to use them!
Join a programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS READING PROGRAMME.
The next batch begins in the first week of October. If you would like to receive an email notification when I open for registrations, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
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 it?
What else? What could a stick be, if you use your imagination a little? What about a little felt cloth? I’m looking forward to exploring a whole range of possibility!
Where are you?
Anything sets Dev off on a daydream – sticky eyes, a hot wind, a conversation …
What about you? What was the last place you read about? And what would you do if you were suddenly transported there?
A similar ‘where’ activity involves a map. I remember using a map with younger children at a British Council workshop once, and I was amazed. I’d love to introduce the children to different parts of the world. Each story in Ken Spillman‘s collection is dedicated to someone. Let’s find out who they are and what they have to do with the place where the story is set!
Travel Adventures
Language, culture, customs – we experience so much when we travel! Dev learns about piranhas on the Amazon, he meets a Sherpa woman when he climbs Mount Everest, and he learns about amana while traversing the Sahara.
It’s been a long time since most of us travelled, but the joy of travelling lies in the stories we create. I think I’m being slightly ambitious here, but I would love for the children to create a picture postcard about any travel experience they’ve had. And if I can have them send postcards to one another, all the better!
Unusual Animals
What’s a dromedary? What about a caiman?
Animals are fascinating, more so for children. I would love for the children to talk about one unusual animal they’ve heard of or seen. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot!
Join a programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR ALL MY READING PROGRAMMES.
The next batches begin in the first week of October. If you would like to receive an email notification when I open for registrations, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
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 creatures, monsters hiding under the bed and jumping out of windows, monsters with superpowers – I met them all!
Fantastic Mr Fox
The written activities around this classic were all about limericks. How do we write a limerick? How can we pay attention to the rhythm of the poem when we work with rhyme?
One child wrote a set of limericks that were also acrostic poems – poems about SHAPE, CLOUD and SPACE. I love it when children are ambitious enough to try something new!
The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop
A quick game followed by an introduction to characters, setting, plot and structure made our writing activities for The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop quite intensive! We worked on creating magical characters of our own followed by a quick free writing activity. The best way to finish a workshop on reading and writing is with the possibility of more stories and unbridled creativity.
Join the next programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR ALL MY READING PROGRAMMES.
The next batches begin in the first week of October. If you would like to receive an email notification when I open for registrations, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
The Chocolate Touch
The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling is an old book, unlike most of the others I select for my book clubs. Its copyright dates back to 1952! And that’s not the only thing that makes it different from the books I usually choose. Another important distinction is that it has a clear moral, something I usually avoid.
But the story is such fun! Plus, it’s about chocolate, so it’s already a win, isn’t it?
John Midas loves chocolate. He can eat it all the time. Or so he thinks. It is only when everything that touches his lips turns to chocolate that he begins to realise that there might just be a limit to the amount of chocolate he can eat.
At first, no one believes him. How could they? He has to be lying. How can everything he puts in his mouth turn to chocolate? That’s absurd!
Eventually, however, everyone realises he is telling the truth. Even the doctor has no choice but to believe him. The question is, of course, what can he do about it except to look at him as an exciting specimen?
With all the Midas touch references, The Chocolate Touch is both unique and familiar. It’s perfectly paced and an utter delight. Here’s what we’ll do as we read the book at my reading programme.
Colouring Coins
John acquires the chocolate touch when he discovers an odd looking coin. What odd coins can we find?
I love combining non-reading activities with reading ones. I remember how much fun it used to be to put a piece of paper on top of a coin and shade with pencil. I would love for the children to find some unique coins – old ones or new – and see how they look on paper!
An extension of the same activity is to repeat the activity with different interesting textures. Metal vases, pencil stands – anything textured could work!
What else?
Toothpaste. A trumpet. Cutlery. A pencil. What else do you put in your mouth?
Make a list and then, for each one, imagine a different sort of magic. I chewed my nails and they turned to plastic! I put my handkerchief in my mouth and it turned to dust! What else?
Invent your own!
Invent your own chocolate! Give it a name, design a wrapper and tell us what makes it unique. What would you put in it?
Join the programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR ALL MY READING PROGRAMMES.
The next batches begin in the first week of October. If you would like to receive an email notification when I open for registrations, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
Sandy to the Rescue
Another reading programme, another delightful hOle book! I remember reading a YA book by Rupa Gulab, Daddy Come Lately, and I enjoyed it. How would a chapter book be?
The answer? Lovely.
Sandy, aka Sandip when his mother is angry, makes a new friend, Aftab, who needs rescuing from Mrs Gupta, the witch next door. The problem is that he needs to sneak Aftab into his house, feed him and give him a place to stay. And of course, Sandy has got to be braver than Aftab when it comes to an adventure of this sort. After all, Sandy is a whole year older.
I’m sure this hOle book is going to be equally fun to read at my book club! Here are some bookish activities we’re going to do.
Making Up Words
‘It’s greeny blue, not bluey green. It’s, um, grue!’
‘You need spectacles,’ Aftab scoffed. ‘It’s not grue, it’s breen!’
What words can you make up by combining two words? What do these new words mean?
Hiding Places
Aftab hides under the table. And in the bath tub with enough pillows to make him comfortable.
Where would you hide? Make a list of your favourite hiding places. Where would your friends (or parents) NEVER find you? Do you have any secret places?
Write a secret note and hide it in a place where only you can find it again! Show us the note at the end of the reading programme! (Don’t worry, you don’t have to read it out to us!)
Similes
Sandy to the Rescue is full of similes. Sandy’s mother’s tummy is like a football. Mrs Gupta is like a witch. Her bhindi tastes like snot. Sandy’s heart races like a sports car.
What funny similes can we come up with at the book club? I can’t wait to find out!
Join a programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR ALL MY READING PROGRAMMES.
The next batches begin in the first week of October. If you would like to receive an email notification when I open for registrations, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
The ART of Stories
And just like that, the third and last guest session at this edition of my online creative writing programme is over! This one was an illustration workshop, conducted by children’s book illustrator and author Tanvi Bhat.
As always, the participants had so many questions! Here are a handful.
How do we create our own style of illustration?
I loved how Tanvi explained that finding your own style is not as important as the content. Isn’t that the same with writing too?
I also found interesting the idea that an illustration does not have to be perfect; it has to carry the story. I think, here, the idea of ‘perfect’ is well worth examining. As a child, I was disturbed and annoyed by pictures that were untrue to the story, but if the big toe were on the wrong side of the foot, would I even notice?
How long does the process take?
The eternal question. Children are often aghast at how long it takes for a book to become a book. In fact, the illustration happens much faster than the rest of it!
How do you get a commission?
Visit the websites of publishers and follow their guidelines. They’ll get in touch when they have a project that they feel will suit you.
Finally, Tanvi gave them an exercise – creating thumbnails for the illustration of a story. Four participants shared their work during the session, but for the rest, with all the questions and interaction, we ran out of time!
Pirates, Legends, and Historical Fiction
Yesterday’s guest session was full of stories! While we are familiar with Long John Silver and Davy Jones’s locker, how many of us are equally familiar with Kanhoji Angre and the pirates of the Malabar?
We began with a discussion of myths, legends, and historical fiction, and this, I think, is an important idea that is well worth repeating. A myth is not history or historical fiction. It is a story created by human beings in an attempt to make sense of the world. Even if a myth helps us understand something about the time when it was created, it isn’t a true tale.
A legend is not true either! My mother, Dr Radhika Seshan, told us the story of the emperor Jahangir and his bells of justice. Legend says that a donkey rang one of the bells one day, and Jahangir proclaimed that a donkey deserves justice too. Is the story true? We have no idea, but legends are often built around people who slowly, through stories, emerge as beings larger than life.
What, then, is historical fiction?
Historical fiction has a very sound foundation in fact, based on evidence. This is what makes it difficult to write. If we write about Kanhoji Angre or Ram Koli, we need to understand their times and set our stories accordingly. We need to know about the boats they used and where they lived. We cannot make them use Mediterranean ships! We also cannot change the course of history.
What, then, can we, as writers, imagine? We can imagine their conversations. We can imagine what went on in their heads. Kanhoji Angre was clearly a strategist. How would he have planned his course of action? Would he have been afraid the night before an attack? Or excited? The emotional and mental aspects are ours to play with.
I’ve given the children who attended the workshop a couple of writing assignments based on yesterday’s session. I can’t wait to read them; I’m sure they’ll be fun!
Mark your calendars – the next workshop is on illustration and will be conducted on the 19th of June! More details as soon as I open for registration.
The Playwriting Module – Reflections and Resources
And just like that, the playwriting module of my creative writing programme is also over! We read two plays, played with props, explored dialogue, imagined the stage, examined the differences between writing scripts for stage and for screen … And I’m exhilarated. As always, the generosity of the community of teachers and writers online is astounding. Some resources work for me; some don’t, but each one I come across is useful.
So, it’s my turn. Here are a few activities I used successfully in class this time.
Writing Natural Dialogue
Writing dialogue that reads naturally is challenging. Even though I have been writing for so long, I sometimes find myself using long, winding sentences in dialogue and have to remind myself that we don’t regularly use long sentences beginning with ‘although’ or ‘despite’. And can you imagine using them when you’re excited?
This led me to create an activity that is ideal for small batches of online creative writing programmes. Give the children a situation and let them speak. Record what they say and play it back to them. What do they notice? Do they use complete sentences all the time? How long are the sentences?
Here are two topics I created for them. Feel free to use them too!
- All of you are in a library. Suddenly, a book starts glowing. What happens next?
- You discover a secret door in your school. How do you and your friends react?
Common Mistakes
Short videos always help, even if the children listen to just your voice yet again. If nothing else, a video gives them a break from having to focus on your face! Based on everything I encountered and everything I read, I made a video about the common mistakes made while writing plays.
Sounds
I use sounds in class all the time. Most presentation softwares have some sounds that you can insert into your work. Playing short sounds and asking children to describe them is a way to make children pay attention to more than just the visual world around them.
This time, I used a linked series of sounds – a creaking door, the clopping of shoes on wood, a wolf howling and wind. This led us, of course, to a discussion of genre and how to make different kinds of plays come alive.
Reflections
Reading what children have to say about a module that is over is always heart-warming. Even though the sheer amount of work they share on the forum speaks volumes, reflections like these are reaffirming!
At Least a Fish
I love Anushka Ravishankar’s books. Whether it’s Moin and the Monster or Captain Coconut or At Least a Fish, I find myself chuckling as I read, shaking my head at her wacky humour.
Ana, the protagonist of At Least a Fish, wants a dog. She really wants a dog. But her parents go and get her fish instead – not one, but three! Ana’s friend Zain would call them Fishyone, Fishytwo and Fishythree, but Ana being Ana calls them Socrates, Aristotle (Totty for short) and Plato.
That’s just one of the dozens of crazy things in the story. From a dragon in a filthy pool to a dog who thinks he’s a fish, At Least a Fish brims over with humour and madness. I can’t wait to read it at my reading programme!
Differences
At Least a Fish is such a wonderful book to talk about differences – both obvious ones and not-so-obvious ones. There’s one hilarious page in the book where we have a list of differences between a dog and a fish. There’s also a lovely illustration of a fish mutating into a dragon. What happens there?
From a simple ‘spot the differences’ puzzle to a more thought out list of differences, there’s a whole lot we can do with this idea!
Letters
Ana wants a dog so much that she writes to ‘the person who is charge of reading letters at Adopt-a-pet’. She tries to pretend she is an adult in her letter. I wonder if the children at my reading programme will figure out why she isn’t entirely convincing!
I love working with letters and one of the things I will do at my reading programme is to ask the children to write a letter of their own. Let’s see, depending on whom they choose to write to, maybe I will print their letters and post them. That promises to be fun!
Animals
Ana once adopted a frog and made Zain hide it. She now has three fish. But she wants a dog. What pets do you think are fun to have?
We won’t just discuss pets; we’ll play a game too, one that I’ve played before. I begin by asking children to make a list of ten animals. Then, they make a list of ten things various animals do – a lion roars, a hippopotamus yawns, a frog eats bugs.
Finally, one child begins.
I have a pet. It is a ____
And the next child reads the first animal on their list.
Then, the next child reads the first thing on the ‘verb’ list. The instructions take a while to explain, but the results are always hilarious!
Join the programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS PROGRAMME. The next edition of the programme will be held in August.
If you would like to receive email notifications when I launch new batches, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
Creative Writing Workshops – Reflections and Resources
I spend hours scouring the internet for creative writing resources. I love those hours, even though sometimes I find myself panicking. There are so many wonderful ideas out there! What can I use? I want to use them all! At those times, I need to step away from my laptop and remind myself that I cannot do everything in twelve weeks.
The weeks always fly by once I start a writing programme. I’m more than halfway through. Here are a handful of activities I used successfully this time!
Rhyming Opposites
This seems like an overly simplistic activity, but it works with people (I won’t even say just children) of all ages. It is based on something I came across in the book Writing with Children, by Jackie Reilly and Vanessa Reilly and serves as a great way to begin a session on rhyme! How would you fill in the blanks?
Musical Writing
I have no idea why I’ve never done this before! Once more, adapting an activity from the same book, I chose a piece of music and then asked the children to write as I asked them guiding questions. I love how the same piece leads to completely different results!
13-year-old Shreshta felt that she was in a chocolate factory, while 12-year-old Shreya felt she was in a fun music video with shapes floating around her.
Reflections
Poetry is always fun, and we did so much in four weeks. Haikus, sonnets, cinquains, riddle poems, list poetry, concrete poetry … Here’s what a couple of children have to say about it!
More Resources
Another wonderful resource I discovered this time was Kenn Nesbitt’s poetry website. It’s full of not just poetry, but also step-by-step guidelines to write your own poem!
We’ve moved on to drama, and I’ve been using Drama with Children by Sarah Phillips as my prime resource book. There are several websites I’ve referred to recently, and I hope to share them soon.
Explore the Resources category to discover other reading and creative writing activities for children and adults.
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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 it down before saying it aloud. Let’s see whether we can figure it out!
'Say it with expression'
That’s what Mr Hoppy tells Mrs Silver. Just saying the words isn’t enough; magic words need expression.
Children love to recite poems, especially rhyming ones, so here is the perfect opportunity. During one class, I will ask them to read or recite something – with expression! How much drama can they bring into what they read?
Growing
How do children grow? How does anything grow? Can we watch something grow?
Mrs Silver does not even notice that Alfie grows to double his weight. With Esio Trot, I hope to have the children do an experiment of their own. Especially as most children come back for one edition of the programme after another, this should be fun. They’ll measure their height at the beginning of this book and then again when we end the next reading programme. Let’s see what we find!
Additionally, if we can, I’ll ask them to plant and water mustard seeds. I enjoyed doing that as a child. I’m sure they will too!
Join the programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS PROGRAMME. The next edition of the programme will be held in August.
If you would like to receive email notifications when I launch new batches, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
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 little treasures to me, and nearly all of them had kept their ‘little thing’, as we all called it, safe!
Spellbound! by Nalini Sorensen was fantastic fun. We made up magic words and had all kinds of conversations.
“Why is the pimple on Weyona’s nose red on the cover? What mood is she in?”
“Does Oat-Penguin Oil really contain penguins?”
“Why didn’t they show us a picture of Weyona after her annual bath?”
Nalini was kind enough to answer the first two questions for us. As for the third, I asked the children to send me pictures!
– Zayn
– Sohum
It’s amazing how much fun we can pack into two hours of class time because this is just the tip of the iceberg!
Our third book was The Absent Author, and this was was delightful. For me, reading programmes are about having fun. In the story, we have a character called Ruth Rose who always dresses from top to toe in a single colour. So, we did that. We chose the colour green – because the absent author’s favourite colour is green, because the story takes place in Green Lawn and for other reasons I shall not reveal. It was such fun!
I loved the guesses the children made as we read on and the mischief in the faces of those who’d already read the whole book. A few snippets:
“It shouldn’t be kidnapped, right? It should be adult-napped!”
“If they want to check if the author actually came to the hotel, why don’t they just look at the CCTV footage?”
“The book was published in 1997, so they would not have had CCTV cameras!”
“What? No CCTV?”
“But cameras were there in 1997. Why didn’t they have CCTV?”
Of course, we also created detective clubs of our own. How could we not?
One child created the Thriving Three – comprising his parents and him. Another said her club consists of her dog and her, and anyone else who wants to join would need to do a test. Yet another created the Lime and Lemon Detective Agency. I promised to pass on their coordinates to anyone who had a mystery that needed solving!
The fourth book we read was Book Uncle and Me. For most of them, it was their first book in verse. They took a while to wrap their heads around it, but it was fun!
As Book Uncle has the BEST recommendations ever, I asked the children to create a list of books for me – books they think I should read. Here are a few they suggested that I have not read yet!
The next edition of my reading programme is here! This time, we’re going to read The Monster Hunters, Bookasura, Esio Trot and At Least a Fish. On popular demand, I have not one, but two batches of this programme – a weekday batch and a weekend one. Children from Mumbai, Surat, Chennai, Hyderabad and Idukki (which I had not even heard of!) have signed up so far. Join them?
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 Fox and family are so dapper, the whole thing made sense in my neat and orderly universe.
At my reading programme, I’m going to explore all this. I’m going to explore why I loved Dahl as a child and why I still admire his books today.
Literary Devices
This reading programme has a strong element of creative writing. With Dahl, there’s so much we can do to play with figurative language!
- Fantastic Mr Fox
Boggis, Bean and Bunce - thin as a pencil
dead as a dumpling
What better way to understand and explore language and wordplay?
Animal Stories
I would love to say that all children love animal stories, but I am wary of generalising. I do know, however, that practically every child I’ve met loves animal stories.
Though this is not a full-fledged writing programme, I do introduce the concept of genres. Animal stories can take so many different forms. I’ve worked with The Sheep-Pig before; it’s time to do Fantastic Mr Fox. My head is exploding with ideas of written activities we could do – anthropomorphic characters, environment stories, traditional tales of wit … Let’s see what the children come up with!
Humour and Disgust
Humour is close to impossible to teach. Often, when we begin to dissect humour, it is no longer funny. At the same time, however, I think conversations about humour are enlightening.
Why do some things appeal to us while others appeal to someone else? Is there a clear distinction between quirky and odd? Can anyone identify what humour is all about or understand how disgust is linked both to humour and to horror?
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REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS PROGRAMME. The next edition of the programme will be held in August.
If you would like to receive email notifications when I launch new batches, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
The Monster Hunters
Another reading programme, another hOle book! The first book for the June 2021 edition of my online reading programme for ages seven and eight is The Monster Hunters by Parinita Shetty.
Abhay is convinced that his mother has eyes at the back of her head. She knows everything and sees everything. Yet, she does not seem to believe that there are monsters in every child’s room! Why can’t she see them?
It’s time for Abhay and Nitya to get to work. They must find the monsters. In fact, they decide they will go one step further. For a school project where they have to narrate a real-life story, they will hunt down a monster and talk about the experience.
I love books with driven characters, determined to prove something against all odds, and Abhay and Nitya are perfect. The book had me chuckling, shaking my head, but rooting for the characters anyway – and what more could I ask for from a book?
Monster Games
I love monster games! The wonderful thing about a monster is that it can be anything you want it to be. It could be tiny or huge, one-eyed or a thousand-eyed. As we read this book at this time’s reading programme, we will create a monster, name it, and describe where that monster can be found.
Under My Bed
I’ve played this game before, and I love it each time. It’s a little make-believe game, where each child says something along these lines, “Oh no! I can see something under my bed! It looks like the eye of a monster! Whew. It’s just an old torch.”
What will I ‘find’ under the beds of the children who join my reading programme?
What would you need?
We had so much fun exploring The Absent Author at the previous edition of my reading programme that I realised (again) how much fun it is to work with investigation, hunting for clues and finding evidence. What would your monster-hunting kit consist of? Do you need bicycles and helmets and nets? Or do you need something else altogether? And finally, what would you do if you found a monster?
Join the programme!
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS PROGRAMME. The next edition of the programme will be held in August.
If you would like to receive email notifications when I launch new batches, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
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 2021
Dates for the weekend batch: 29th May to 17th July 2021
Online interactions: Tuesdays and Fridays, 3-3:45pm (12 online interactions)
or
Saturdays, 2-3pm (8 online interactions) –
Age-group: 7-8 years
Early bird offer (until the 15th of May): ₹3,500
Fee: ₹4,000
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS PROGRAMME. The next batch will begin in August.
If you would like to receive email notifications when I launch new batches, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
Earlier Programmes
Online Reading Programme (Ages 9 to 10)
Here’s the second edition of my online reading programme for ages 9-10! There is no weekend batch for this programme. It is six weeks long and involves 12 video interactions. However, instead of reading four books together, we read just three. This is because one session every two weeks is devoted to exercises that introduce creative writing, closely linked to the books we read.
This time’s books are Moin and the Monster, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop.
Details
Dates: 1st June to 9th July 2021
Online interactions: Tuesdays and Fridays, 4-4:45pm
Age-group: 9-10 years
Early bird offer (until the 15th of May): ₹4,500
Fee: ₹5,000
REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THIS PROGRAMME. The next batch will begin in August.
If you would like to receive email notifications when I launch new batches, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – for regular updates.
Earlier Programmes
Writing about Cyber Crime
What a fun session we had with digital forensic investigator Shweta A. Chawla yesterday! The children had all kinds of questions, and all kinds of stories. Nearly every child had a story of a parent or relative receiving a call and asking for an OTP or bank details. It just shows you how close cyber crime is to us!
One child said, “We should keep changing our passwords, but it’s difficult to remember them. So I write them in an Excel sheet.” Before Shweta could respond, he said, “The Excel sheet is password protected.”
And I found myself thinking, Do I even know how to create a password-protected Excel sheet?
We spoke of how stories no longer need masked robbers going into banks with guns, and the fact that you are much more likely to encounter a hacker online than a smuggler. Sure, we love our Enid Blyton stories of smuggling and crime, but perhaps stories can reflect something much more accessible – a criminal working from home, just like the rest of us.
Finally, if we create a character who is a digital investigator, what would that investigator’s line of thought be? What questions does the investigator ask to start tracing the criminal?
Character motivations, procedures, forensics, passwords – we learned so much during the session!
This was just the first of three sessions planned for this writing programme. Mark your calendars for the next one, which will be on the last Saturday of May. Registrations will open shortly, but here’s a teaser – we’ll be talking about pirates during this one!
Books and Important Conversations
No, I don’t believe that every book needs to teach us something. Absolutely not. I read to laugh, have fun and unwind. Yet, every so often, I come across a book that invites discussion and makes me think.
At my reading programme for ages 9 and 10, we’re reading Flying with Grandpa. Yesterday, we were to read the section where Grandpa refuses to eat. He makes a fuss and keeps banging his fork on the table.
I paused as I reread this section in preparation for my reading session. The children at my book club had clearly said that they had never encountered adults behaving like children. The idea, to them, was absurd. I knew we needed to have a conversation – about dementia, Alzheimer’s and growing old. There would be no better time than this, but how could I go about it?
A Story
I lost my grandfather six years ago. He was a remarkable man, a retired Air Vice Marshal, whom I respected and loved.
In 2015, he when my sister Nisha and I went to visit my grandparents in Coimbatore, he was already declining – and rapidly. It was frightening and saddening at the same time.
One day, the two of us were sitting on the bed, talking together, and my grandfather paused at the doorway. He stared and demanded of my grandmother, “Who are those two?”
“The children!” replied my grandmother, horrified.
“What children?”
“Nisha and Varsha – our grandchildren!”
“Oh.”
Even with that response, we knew that grandfather had no idea about us. He was confused, but he just let it go.
Thoughts and Explorations
We encountered just brief moments of confusion, but it isn’t the same for everyone. Plus, neither Nisha nor I was a child when this happened.
How do we talk to children about dementia? How do we build empathy and prevent them from ridiculing the idea of an adult forgetting how to eat?
As I thought about all of these, I discovered video after video on how to explain Alzheimer’s to children. Here are a couple I used:
The length of the first video is perfect! To introduce what dementia is in a sensitive, gentle way, I think it works very well.
The second video is lovely too, though slightly long to share with children. I did use parts of it because it’s clear and has a person who is sundowning explaining what Alzheimer’s does to people.
And finally, books. I wrote about Where’s Grandma?, a book I learned about from Maria Alessandrino at the AFCC four years ago.
In their own gentle ways, books prepare us for what can be. At my reading session yesterday, I showed the children pictures from Where’s Grandma? and we continued to read Flying with Grandpa.
When we reached the section where Xerxes helps his Mamavaji to eat, I think there was just a little more understanding, a little more empathy. And that made me more than a little glad.
Writing about Cyber Crime
During my writing programme last year, I met many children who wanted to write detective stories. What would a detective story involve? How did investigations really happen?
This got me thinking.
What could I do that would be new and unusual? I’ve never solved a crime. I have no inside knowledge. And if children (and I!) don’t want to write about smugglers and private islands and the like, what detective stories can we write?
My answer was cyber crime. And that led to the very first guest session of my creative writing programme.
About the Facilitator
Shweta A. Chawla is an independent digital forensic investigator with over 15 years of experience in digital forensic and cyber investigations. She is the founder and chief investigator at SC Cyber Solutions, and has acted as consultant to various police departments in investigations into cyber crimes. Shweta is a member of the prestigious, international High Technology Crime Investigation Association, as well as of the Cyber-investigation Analysis Standard Expression (CASE) community.
Writing about Cyber Crime
- What is a cyber investigator?
- How do I write a story about a cyber detective?
- What do we mean by digital forensics?
As this is a guest session at my writing programme, participants who are part of my current batches will be part of it at no additional cost. However, this session is also open to non-participants on payment of a fee of ₹400.
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.
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 run his little enterprise. What can Yasmin do? Will all the books she’s read help her find a solution?
Through Yasmin, we live the life of a young reader, determined to devour one story after another. And through her, we learn about the power of the individual as well as the power of a group. Yet, like any good story, Book Uncle and Me is not about what we learn from the book. Rather, it is about what the book makes us feel and how it makes us think. What better book could one read at a book club?
Here’s what I plan to do with the book at my reading programme.
Book Lists
Book Uncle shares wonderful book recommendations with Yasmin, which help her discover stories she loves. A book club is the best place for children to create book lists for one another. What books would be on your “must read” list? What books make you want to read more and more and more? At the end of the programme, I hope to have at least seven (I have seven registrations so far) brand-new lists of books to read!
Neighbours
I love the descriptions of all those who live in Yasmin’s building! From the newly-weds to the gentleman who plays the ghatam, we meet a host of interesting characters.
So, it’s time to get creative. Who do you think would be an interesting neighbour to have? Do you think you are an interesting neighbour? Do you have neighbours who make you curious or annoyed?
What would you save?
Children today grow up with the idea of needing to save the world. They know they must close taps, switch off lights and reduce plastic. What else is important to them? The question will lead to all kinds of discussions, I’m sure. What is in danger? Are libraries in danger? What about bookstores? Do these need saving? How?
I hope to start this conversation by asking children to draw a map of their neighbourhood to build an understanding of the environment that makes us who we are and helps us grow. Which parts of their locality go unnoticed? Which ones are important?
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Book Uncle and Me is the fourth book we will be reading at my reading programme for ages seven and eight.
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 the all-important question – “Well, then, why don’t you?”
And so, a wonderful journey begins, a journey that takes Wisha to the Marketplace of Ideas, the Superhero Salon and the Bargain Bazaar. With Wisha, we explore protagonists and antagonists, form, structure, style and inspiration. If this isn’t the ideal book to introduce creative writing, I don’t know what is!
Elements of a Story
What goes into the writing of a story? Wisha wishes she was a writer. What stops her?
We’ll read this book slowly, talking about the imagination that went into the writing of the story and the ways in which these ideas are linked to our own journeys as writers. Can we have a story without a villain? What do we mean by form? When do we need to flesh out a story and when do we need to cut it down?
What if...?
What if is one of the best ways to begin a story, especially when you’re stuck for ideas. A popular way of looking at many of Disney’s movies is with the question ‘what if’. What if cars had feelings? What if toys had feelings? What if feelings had feelings?
Each of these questions became a movie!
With Wisha Wozzariter, we’ll discuss a few more ‘what if’ questions. What if your protagonist was a mouse? What if you were all alone in an imaginary world? I look forward to seeing where these questions take us!
Write a Story
Since this is the last book we will be reading together, we will work on the actual writing process too. It’s easy to have ideas.
It’s a little less easy to jot these down.
The most challenging is to get these ideas together and write the first draft of a story. Let’s see what we can achieve together!
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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 to figure out when exactly the author was kidnapped. Step by step, they examine clues and investigate. Where could Wallis Wallace be?
Puzzles
Solving a puzzle is among the most satisfying things in the world. Isn’t that what draws us to detective stories? All the clues are right there in front of our eyes.
Dink, Josh and Ruth solve the mystery of the absent author in a simple, systematic way. We’ll do a puzzle or two too – a jigsaw puzzle, a simple logic puzzle and a word puzzle!
Journaling
The three young detectives solve the mystery successfully because they have with them a detailed itinerary that Wallis Wallace was supposed to follow. This is the perfect prompt to get children to write about their own days. How do they spend their days? I’ll be giving them a template that they can fill in and send back to me. Journaling is a lovely way to be more attentive, and to start the process of writing for fun.
Setting up a club
As a child, I read so many books by Enid Blyton that I set up more clubs than I could count. I even set up clubs where I was the sole member so that I could have meetings with myself! Dink, Josh and Ruth are a gang of detective kids much like the ones I read about as a child. As we’re reading the book together at a book club, let’s have fun! We’ll think of a name for the club, perhaps make badges. I can’t wait to see what the children come up with!
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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 of another kangaroo word for yourself!
All the while, I could think of not one word myself.
By the end of class, an eight-year-old piped up, “Miss, miss! I thought of one! Instructor! It contains the word tutor!”
Do you see why I love my reading programme so much?
I did read up about kangaroo words before I conducted this session. If you’d like to discover more words, here are two sites I visited:
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 not caring a jot about his Nav Jot.
What can Xerxes do to be happy? He doesn’t feel like he belongs with the others in his class. His mother is stern and proper, and he can’t even spell her profession. He just wants to be with his grandpa, who, his mother says, is a bad influence. Can he make sure that he isn’t separated from his Mamavaji? How?
Working with Diverse Characters
Recently, I was asked to judge a creative writing competition. I read 16 stories in all, and in four of them, the lead character was called Mary. I also encountered Brenda, Julian, Olivia and Andrew. For the most part, the stories with Indian settings had a clear moral and a fable-like writing style.
I’ve written before about why this happens, but first, it comes down to what children read. If entertaining stories are overwhelmingly about Laura and James, those are the characters that find their way into what we write. The more we read about diverse characters, the likelier we are to write about them.
A book like Flying with Grandpa is a wonderful place to begin a conversation about diversity and then go on to creating a unique character without a whitewashed identity.
Write What You Know (And Research What You Don't)
‘Write what you know’ is one of the basic tenets of writing, and it’s important to discuss this with children who set out on their writing journeys. I’ve had children set their stories in Pennsylvania, only to spell it Pencilvania (without trying to be humorous). I’ve had stories about boys called Margaret living in Italy. Fantasy is great, imagined worlds are wonderful, but when we’re writing, we need to be aware of how we use characters that have backgrounds unfamiliar to us. Similarly, when we create the setting, if we want it to come alive, we need to begin with something believable – and not set a story in Zaire, South America. (I’m not making this up.)
Book Discussion
Everything about the reading programme isn’t about writing. I want there to be space for the participants to discuss anything the book freely. Participant-led sessions are wonderful because they lead to so many conversations about what we like and dislike, as well as what we think about literature in general. I want to have fun with the book too, creating alternative endings, and using the pictures in the book as writing prompts.
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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 knowledge of a special script and much interpretation and tweaking thereafter. When Maalu Paati is invited to a Herbologists’ convention, she must figure out how to keep her formula safe, even as she crosses treacherous waters full of people out to get her.
A delicious combination of hilarity and suspense, The Mystery of the Secret Hair Oil Formula has so much to offer to young writers!
Ideas to work with: Plotting, Humour and Character Creation
How do we keep readers engaged through a story? How can we figure out how much is too much? Are there any standard formulas to follow?
None of these questions has foolproof answers, but investigating ideas through the structure of a book like The Mystery of the Secret Hair Oil Formula promises to be fulfilling.
Discussing what we find funny is interesting too. While some children thoroughly enjoy silliness and humour, others find it pointless. How can we decide what and how to write?
This book is full of all kinds of crazy, enterprising characters. How do we create vivid characters that stand out?
Writing Activities and Prompts
The point of a workshop is to work together on a piece of writing. Though the scope of this programme is necessarily narrower than that of my writing programme, we will work on small written exercises linked to the book, creating new characters and attempting to flesh them out.
Please do note, however, that the participants will not be given access to the forum to share work and will not be engaging in long written exercises that require detailed feedback and edits.
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