A long awaited visit to the Bookstore and more.....

Bookstores are one of our favourite hang-outs, where we love to spend hours and hours just browsing through the bookshelves and wishing we could own the entire collection….. whether we later find time read or not! More so, when it’s a children’s bookstore……..it’s not just me but my little one can be seen yanking out every book of his favourite author …whether he’s already read them or not! It was Geronimo Stilton series a while ago and his combing operation is now targeted at the Roald Dahl collection!:-)

For quite some time now, I have been wanting to go to the “Lightroom Bookstore” located in the Cooke Town area of Bangalore, but simply couldn’t as I reside in practically the other end of Bangalore. A couple of weeks ago, we managed to drive down and finally look up the quaint little children’s bookstore that is as true to its name - enlightening and enchanting! The bookstore has a wide selection of books children of all age groups and what’s more – they are beautifully arranged in a way that is not only striking to the eye but also easy to locate. Added to it, its friendly staff and its owner, Aasthi, a children’s book enthusiast herself, guide the parents into choosing the right book for the right age. I found many of the mainstream bookstores lacking or rather restricted when it comes to good children’s literature, and our only retreat being independent bookstores. Lightroom bookstore not only has a good stock of Indian mainstream and independent publications but a sizeable collection of foreign publications. So if you are children’s book enthusiast, you know here your next stop is!!!

What are the odds that we visit a children’s bookstore and there’s a book related event scheduled and what’s more, we seem to be right on time for it!!!

 

 

We happen to stumble upon the book launch of “Whackylicious!”, a compilation of stories by fifteen children between the age of five and twelve brought out by Timbuktoo Young Authors Publishing, as a part of the Timbuktoo creative writing workshops conducted by its creative director Aparna Raman and her team. Each of the works reflect the wild imagination of its young authors who seem to “have embraced the nonsensical, the bizarre and illogical with open arms” (sic)! Aptly titled, and complemented by vibrant and creative illustrations,  the poems and stories revolve around a world as our little ones would imagine it to be or would love to imagine in a “what if” situation or their understanding or whacky explanations of how the world came to be!  For instance, It’s a delight to read about the apple eating ghost in the  “Ghost who to eat apples” or Harry Potter inspired (probably)“Sorcerer in the family” or  about a hilarious  incident of what happens when “One day I peeled a banana and inside there was a fish” or an out-of-the-box attempt to explain “Why Parrots can only repeat” or Abhay’s favourite “Ninja Ninja” a poem calling on the ubiquitous Japanese warrior to do “Dhishoom Dhishoom” and many such works that are not only well written but also something young readers would be able to relate to ……and not to forget also relatable to the child in you! :-)