Memories - Renewed and our Indian Jack-O'-Lantern!

 

I wouldn’t be wrong in saying that books also serve as memory boxes for some of us. Some books are held closer to your heart than others, either because of their literary value or because of your memories associated with them - some books may evoke memories of your own childhood, or the early childhood of your son or daughter, or reminiscent of your state or mind or your situation at the time of reading the book and pulling it out from the bookshelf affords you a chance to look back and reflect on those times. For instance, I happen to read Harper Lee’s “Go set a Watchman” soon after the birth of my daughter in the year 2015 and while the book was indeed a disappointment, a mere glance of the book’s cover takes me back to my own frame of mind and insecurities that I had harboured about whether I will ever be able to get back to work with the responsibility of two kids!   Some books are a throwback to the happy memories of the past that makes it harder to let go …. and its not unusual to be on the lookout for someone you believe is worthy of your memory box..isnt it? 😊

We were delighted to be the beneficiaries of what must have been a treasure trove of memories from my mother’s cousin who was looking to hand over a wonderful collection of books that they had enjoyed with their kids back in the eighties. So joining our already overflowing collection of books, meet the newest member of Aadya’s books shelf – the well known “The Childcraft series” and we are glad to have this set of 15 books as a companion for Aadya during her growing up years. Thank you Mr. Suresh Rao and Mrs. Nirmala  Rao for this marvellous collection!  

As Aadya dived into the series, one of the stories had me relive our good old  "Portland days” that now seem like another era!  In fact, thanks to Beverly Cleary, we also developed a renewed interest in the all-American Halloween! Though Halloween has been part of Abhay’s early childhood in the US and the same continued in Bangalore  thanks to events in the Hippocampus children’s library, Aadya has had almost no exposure to Halloween and she had no idea what she was in for or rather  we had no clue what it would entail for us as we turned the pages of Volume no.2 “Time to Read” of the Childcraft series to “The Night of Jack-O’-Lantern”. Part of the novel “Ramona and her father", this a wonderful story that introduces the curious and cheerful protagonist, Ramona Quimby whom Aadya fell in love with. Of course, Beverly Cleary’s characters of Ramona and her older sister Beezus have been popular with the American kids, particularly in the State of Oregon, the author’s home state, but its been a while since I came across any of Beverly Cleary’s stories and  Ramona’s naughty innocence, the rebellious attitude of her adolescent older sister amidst the usual ups and downs in a middle class American family made for a refreshing read. 

The story begins with Ramona’s earnest attempt to diffuse the grouchy atmosphere at home with her own brand of humour, much to everyone’s chagrin. Patience seems to be in short supply on the given day with everyone snapping at each other, but as Ramona helps bring up the giant pumpkin lying in their basement, the entire family excitedly comes together to carve the Halloween harvest, and soon each of them including their pet cat, add their own personal touch to make the wickedest Jack-O’-Lantern in the whole world! A beautiful feel good story revolving around relatable family situations, laced with subtle humour and stimulating illustrations makes for smooth and relaxing read…and has us begging for more from the world of Qimbys!

Needless to say, we have had a renewed interest in Halloween this year and Aadya’s fascination with Jack-O’-Lantern has us (read the daddy!) carve out our very own Indian Jack-O’-Lantern! Happy Halloween! 

                                                    Halloween Illuminations!

A fluttering favourite!

Some say that second time parenting is a breeze as there will be “been there done that” moments all the way, while others say that raising a second child can be twice as tough. Hmm….I feel it’s a bit of both…there are definitely a few “dejavu” experiences that you can bank on to guide you through tricky situations when compared to rookie parents but it’s also true that you are dealing with an entirely different subject-matter who just happened to be related to your first born  as a sibling…so that’s makes it a whole new experience, plus there's always the sibling protocol you have to be conscious of…at all times…that only gets more challenging as the younger one gets older and starts to demand the lion’s share of the parental time … and when that happens, your only hope is that the older one reaches adolescence and becomes too jaded to even care! J

When it comes to books, my younger one has been introduced to them at a much earlier age, when compared to my older one, and to my delight, she couldn’t have been any more fascinated than she is with the pictures and imagery, any more thrilled with turning the pages of a board book and any more eager as I sit down to read her favorite book!  Thanks to Kutoohala, that houses a curated collection of some of the best children’s books both home grown and imported, my younger one is literally spoilt for choices when it comes to books for toddlers. Thanks to Kutoohala, I don’t have to wait for relatives or friends travelling from the US or UK to revisit the books that I had read to my son while in the US. Thanks to Kutoohala, our love affair with Bangalore’s children’s libraries continues to grow…! J

One such book that took me straight to Portland, where we spent a good part of Abhay’s toddlerhood is “Flutter by, Butterfly” by Petr Horacek, that has been drawn from his vibrantly illustrated “Butterfly Butterfly” which was one of the first books we read together when Abhay was a toddler. While “Butterfly Butterfly” is a very colourful  picture book, with a simple story line that follows little Lucy in the garden,  as she encounters many of nature’s garden splendours in her quest for the most beautiful of all – the butterfly, “Flutter by Butterfly” is a board book that takes off from the butterfly to focus on all these chance encounters from 'Busy Buzzing Bee', to 'Wriggly Wiggly worm', all presented in colourful cut-away pages to culminate in the grand finale of the crunching munching caterpillar! With vividly rich illustrations,  and alliterating phrases that can make for a great read-aloud, this is my little one’s current favourite which is a mini-version of my older one’s one-time favourite book…. So I’m not just reliving my own childhood, in a way, I’m reliving Abhay’s early childhood too! 

School days...school days...those golden rule days!!!!

The month of June signals the start of a new academic year in most parts of India.  New academic year brings with it new friends, rivals, teachers and challenges (not necessarily in the same order!). As my nine year old steps into grade five, I can’t believe that he is already into middle school (or is it considered middle school from the sixth grade…I’m confused!)! With school work, home work/studies, assessment and grading system getting tougher with each passing year….it’s time  to pull up one’s socks and get serious……and mind you….it’s not just the child but also his or her parents who now need to be all the more involved in school work and studies. Plus there’s always growing up pangs with each phase of growing up throwing up new issues and quirks to handle and deal with……there’s never a moment in parenting, now…..is there?? J

Going to fifth grade also means transition into tween years and the way time flies …what do you know…within a year or two, he’ll be stepping into the dreaded adolescence! J Anyway…we always pick a book for the start of the new academic year and this time we’ve been reading two books  and both are connected through our current favourite author, Ruskin Bond…..of course! The first  “Whistling School boy and other stories of school life” written by Ruskin Bond which I have just featured in my previous post and another “The Puffin Book of classic school stories”, a compilation edited by Ruskin Bond. Isn’t it such a treat not only to be reading your favourite author but reading the favourite stories of your favourite author!?? 

This compilation comprises of excerpts from famous works from David Copperfield,   Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Jane Eyre that revolve around school adventures or misadventures of the protagonists, extracts from acclaimed school story classics like “Tom Brown’s School days” by Thomas Hughes and E.R.Braithwaite’s “To Sir with Love” to home grown school stories from R.K.Narayan’s immortal Swami and his friends and boarding school escapades of Rusty by Ruskin Bond. While most of the stories are set in the previous century, it’s amazing to see how these stories continue to appeal to the school goers today…a hundred years later. Still a work in progress in so far as our reading is concerned, these stories beautifully capture the various aspects of school life…friendships, resistance to authority, formation of secret clubs and societies, impressing fellow classmates and probably even teachers, rivalries and fights, examinations and competitions…..all those golden moments of care free school days! Though the language and narrative of some of the works may be a little challenging for a nine year old to read on his own, these time enduring school stories make for fantastic family story times…not just for a nine year old! Well….as Ruskin Bond mentions in his foreword that the purpose of this anthology is justified if any of these extracts make the reader pick up some of the classics from where they are taken…..these stories not only make you want to go back to reading those classics…but also in a way go back to school!! Have a great academic year ahead everyone!! 

Exam fever!

We are yet again approaching the end of an academic year and it’s the dreaded exam season in most parts of the country…that happens to coincide with the T-20 cricket season, much to the anxiety of ….probably not the kids but their parents! Though the month of March has always brought back memories of my own exam nightmares, I drew comfort from the fact that I still had a long way to go before I start stressing over my son’s tests and assessments. Little did I realize that this comfort feeling comes with an expiry date…..Grade 4 !!!  Most schools today peg Grade 4 as the year of reckoning ….when full-fledged academic assessments are introduced and kids (and their parents of course!) are expected to pull up their socks and catch up with rest of the studious world! So all of a sudden….it’s all about checking up on the syllabus, studying, revising and looking up practice questions…..making me relive my exam days once again and it’s only worse this time! It turns out that you are never free from exams and it was only a temporary respite after all because as a student, you may have been casual towards your exams but you cannot afford to be so as a parent! So whether you choose to wake up early or get off from work earlier than usual, or split the subjects between your spouse and yourself to coach your children, exams are a serious business ….. at least for parents!

So amidst his Maths, Science and Social Science subjects, I had Abhay scale back to reading an Early reader simply because it seemed perfect for the exam season! “The Worry Monsters” by Sally Rippin and illustrated by Stephanie Spartels is one of the twelve titles from the “Hey Jack” series for young readers brought out by Euro books. This is a simple story of how Jack, who is terrible at spellings, procrastinates and forgets to prepare for his spelling test and is thus hounded by what he calls “the worry monsters”. Its only when he opens up to his dad does he realize that playing truant with school is not the best of solutions to deal with his fear of tests. With a little help from his father, Jack not only manages to practice his spellings and drive away the worry monsters but also learned to deal with the worry monsters should they reappear again! So here’s hoping all our kids learn to overcome their own worry monsters too!

Another great read that makes for a refreshing break from the monotony of studies for both parents and kids is a story from R.K.Narayanan’s “Malgudi School days”, the complete collection of Swami and Friends brought out by Puffin classics. In fact, the story of Swaminathan “Before the examinations” couldn’t be any more similar to Abhay’s situation at home! Though we’ve read this book many times and I had featured this classic sometime ago, life and times in the fictional town of Malgudi  as narrated by the one and only R.K.Narayanan never fails to charm the reader, whenever and whatever the time may be! 

From Swami’s grim realization that his father was changing for the worse in the run-up to the examinations ( mother ..in Abhay’s case!), or the highly distracted Swami doing everything possible to escape from studies, including perpetually hovering around his baby brother (baby sister in Abhay’s  case!), or spending hours together mulling over the crooked boundary of Europe during his study of geography ( Ditto, more so when Europe is not a part of Abhay’s Social Science syllabus at all!)  and approaching his father with a list of required stationery just a day before examination( ditto-ditto!) …… it’s amazing how Swami’s tales are evergreen and are relatable even to this day and time, even though it’s almost a century since they were first published!!! Also goes to show that nothing much has changed when it comes to parent-child attitude towards exams! Here’s wishing everyone all the best during this exam season! 

The actual new arrival!

It’s been over four months since the arrival of our little one and after enjoying all the pampering and post delivery care at my mother’s place, I am now back at home! Mom’s house is truly the best…no matter how old you are and especially at a time like this…when you need all the help you can get! If not for keeping up with the infant schedule, the last four months almost felt like a vacation of sorts, all thanks to my super agile multi tasking mom! Not to mention, she almost ended up with knee joint strain owing to all the stress and it’s probably her turn now to take a vacation! J During my stay at my mom’s, Abhay continued to be at home with his daddy and paternal grandparents and here’s a word of thanks going out to them as well.  So except his weekend visits to my mom’s place, Abhay’s daily routine remained the same and the arrival of the little one hadn’t wrecked his life…...yet!!!  Well….in so many ways, Abhay continued to be the king of the house …and ended up being cosseted even more by his paternal grandma, lest he may miss his mommy ( which he didn’t…..of course!!!) So it’s only now that the arrival of a “new little person” has begun to impact his life!

I must say that it’s been so far so good and Abhay has taken quite well to the new member of our household. While he is excited to return home from school to his baby sister, I am not sure if he feels the same about the return of the stricter parent! J Anyway, to mark the arrival of his baby sister, we read the short story “A new Arrival” from  R.K.Narayan’s cult classic Malgudi Schooldays brought out by Puffin Classics, which is a slightly abridged version of the original “Swami and Friends” first published in 1935. Any gem of a story of Swami and his friends conjures up the nostalgic images of the 80’s Television series based on R K Narayan’s stories, but reading the same has a charm of its own! Though the stories are set in pre-independence era when the environment was a lot different from that surrounding the kids today, Swami’s world, his apprehensions, his ever changing dynamics with friends, his attitude at home, his run-ins with his teachers, are not very different from what kids go through today. Except for a few elaborations on the conditions that prevailed then and references that are principally of British origin  ( as opposed to American references that the kids today are more familiar with),  R.K.Narayan’s stories are truly timeless and will never fail to delight the generations to come! In this story, “The New Arrival” Swami misses his mother who has been in confinement for over two days resulting in the birth of his baby brother, the news of which he received without much enthusiasm, especially when the new arrival has ushered in some changes like mother’s absence in the kitchen or the presence of a lady doctor at home who behaves as if the house belonged to her!  Anyway since he had his granny for reassuring company, he couldn’t be bothered more! As he laid his eyes on the little one, he couldn't help but laugh at this “funny looking creature” with its eyes shut, folded hands on his chest, plump pair of small hands and a face red like a chilly! As he imitated the same to his friend at school next day, his friend cautioned him saying that “these things” grow up soon and before you know it….they hardly bear resemblance to their baby features!!! So Abhay….beware! Your baby sister may seem like a  benign ‘living’ teddy bear now,  quietly tolerating all the kisses that you almost smother her with…but not for long! J

Girls to the Rescue!

A part of this post was first published on Parent Edge blog. 

I have always wanted a daughter and have always been envious of my friends who’d dress up their little girls and show off their pictures! Of course I could have done the same but dressing up a boy is never the same as dressing a girl! I have made known my wish even on Onestoryaday every time I’ve come across a book especially for girls. So much so that the other day, my son observed that my dream seemed to have come true with the arrival of my second child – a little girl. When I quizzed him as to what dream was he talking about …..pat came his rather sarcastic remark  “Wasn’t it your dream to have a daughter ?” (Serves me right for coming out clean with him as to my preference the first time around!) Anyway, now that I have a daughter….I find myself confronting various issues that never seemed to bother me with my son! Of course…as of now….it’s more of minor issues like  “When is the right time to pierce her ears” or “What kind of accessories to pick up or are available to go with her frock?”, or  “OMG…I’ll have to ensure towards maintenance of her hair as well when managing my hair itself is such a chore”! But this made me realize that as she grows up, I am bound to encounter or worry about many such things that I wasn’t even concerned about when it came to my son…..and this indeed made me nervous! Well…raising a girl is a different ball game …isn’t it??

Anyway, whether I expect the road ahead to be easy or difficult or just plain different from the earlier one, I guess I will always have books to come my rescue! So when Tulika came up with “Girls to the rescue” by Sowmya Rajendran and illustrated by Ashok Rajagopalan . I had to pick it up. When it comes to reading to your girls…have you ever wondered  why are we still stuck with the age old fairy tales with princesses being boring and one-dimensional characters whose only role is to wait to be rescued by their Prince Charming? Given a choice, most moms would want to skip reading the fairy tales like “Sleeping beauty” or “Rapunzel”  as they perpetuate the primitive mindset wherein the ultimate destination for any girl is to find her Prince Charming!

So if you are such a parent, this is a book that offers a refreshing take on six fairy tale princesses …..who receive an “empowerment makeover”! J  Though the reading level is most suited for children aged 10 and above, the book presents excellent read aloud stories for younger children.  I will probably have to wait for over five years for me to read this to my daughter ….but who says you can’t have your boys read them too! Of course Abhay is so much a boy’s boy that he had no idea about the original princess stories. So we first read the age old fairy tales and then I had him read Tulika’s upgraded version!  I must say…he found the latter much more interesting!

The princesses in this book have a mind of their own, think for themselves and not only dare to dream big but also make their own destiny without waiting for someone else to step in. With the touch of realism, a pinch of quirkiness, a dash of satire and topped with humour, these stories make for a fresh and healthy palate as opposed to the stale diet of Disney princess stories. While the basic plot of each of the fairy tales remains the same, the difference lies in the narrative, factual and situational details and of course the ending which is way better than “happily-ever-after’! Who wouldn’t want to read about what happens to “Rapunzel” who imitates her astronaut mother and dares her barber-father into going against the “tradition” or find out about who the real wolf is,  in the complex and layered “Red Riding Hood” or further learn about the princess who willingly becomes a “Sleeping beauty” or get inspired by no-longer-kitchen bound “Cinderella” who takes charge of her own life and gets her sisters to ‘share’  the house work or laugh along with the rebellious princess when the frog meets its destiny after being kissed by her or empathise with “Snow White” whose mother worries that she may not find a suitable groom due to her (hold your breadth) her extra-ordinary fairness! Well..do all of them meet their respective Prince Charming….yes ..but don’t expect wedding bells …but simply enjoy the moment! So enjoy reading "Girls to the Rescue" with your little girls! 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Over the last weekend, we went for a performance of Frank L Baum's “The Wizard of Oz” staged by the students of Bangalore School of Speech and Drama. (BSSD) Though we’ve been to a number of children’s plays mostly at Rangashankara, or some at Jagriti and Chowdiah memorial hall, most shows have been performed by professional theatre artists or productions by well known theatre groups. This is the first time we watched a performance put up by a group of talented children from BSSD aged five and above ……and what a grand show it was! Abhay sat enthralled through-out the performance which  resembled a Broadway musical….with the live performances by kids…err actors, spectacular lighting and sound effects and amazing dance choreography that’ll put even the most popular television dance reality shows to shame!  Like Dr. Zulfia Shaikh, the Founder-Director of Bangalore School of Speech and Drama says ….we all know the story of Wizard of Oz, but to recreate the magic of Frank L Baum’s American classic on stage with kids/actors like our little ones and put up such a magnificent show  ….is truly a laudable initiative! Kudos to the staff and students of Bangalore School of Speech and Drama!

 

It can be anyone’s guess that the story of the day on Onestoryaday is of course Frank L Baum's “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. Although I would have preferred to read a picture book or a Junior fiction version of the story,  but what I could lay my hands on …….just in time before the play was a graphic novel by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young brought out by Marvel Publications.

 

 

The Eisner Award winning author teams up with artist Skottie Young to present an imaginative rendition of the Wizard of Oz that includes certain lesser known sub-plots of the American fantasy adventure. The narrative is featured in a graphic novel format that will surely have your young reader sit in rapt attention! The creative artwork speaks volumes about the turn of events while unraveling the mysteries of the land of Oz. We particularly loved the portrayal of the flash back moments of Tin Woodman, Winged Monkeys or the Great Oz himself!!!! Though a tad long, this is a great introduction to graphic novels for young readers. However a note of caution to parents who plan on making this a bedtime read for it can turn into a daily night-time soap opera on print like it has in our household…..

The reading of Frank L Baum’s “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young     

Timings: Daily from 9.30 PM  to 10 PM 

Venue: Abhay’s bed             

Dates – 24.06.2014 to 04.07.2014 (hopefully!)

Enjoy your journey into the World of Oz!!! :-) 

 

The Big snuggle-up!

Most of self-help books on babies and parenting have more than one chapter dedicated to bedtime! It certainly helps to get an expert perspective on how put your little one to bed and ensure he or she stays there! That said, no one is a better expert that you on what works for you and your baby! Isn’t it?? J Having been through different phases of the bedtime business myself,  the good news is that while the ladder to sleep gets shorter as your little grows up, but the bad news is that the climb isn’t any less treacherous!  You may progress from setting up the white noise machine to playing soothing music, from chanting shlokas to singing lullabies yourself, from reading books to letting them read on their own……and yet they would still want to snuggle up to you for…… juuuusssst five minutes that at times may stretch up to the entire night! J

An absolute must read for bedtime is the classic “Goodnight Moon” by Margret Wise Brown and pictures by Clement Hurd which makes a perfect setting for bedtime and you can almost feel the night closing in on you!

Does your bedtime reading feel like forever with your little one not satiated with a book or two? We again read “Interrupting Chicken” by David Erza Stein, a 2011 Caldecott Honor that best illustrates the unenviable state of parents who have their kids interrupt at every juncture of the bedtime read making it a never ending story…..and the parent is seen dozing off only to have the little one completing the story!

We have the home grown Baby Bahadur series with titles “I'm so sleepy” and “Snoring Shanmugam” by Radhika Chada and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan and the recent read Junior Kumbhakarna by Arundhati Venkatesh and illustrated by Shreya Sen.

Today we also read “I’m not sleepy and I will not go to bed” a Charlie and Lola story by Lauren Child. Charlie’s little sister always stays up late and so their mom enlists Charlie’s help to get her to bed. So Charlie goes through what every parent in charge of bed time routine suffers through! Lola refuses to go to bed and plays mischief at every juncture of the bedtime routine from bath time to being tucked in! So Charlie plays along with her and offers pink milk Tiger soft toys, pretends to have his toothbrush gobbled up by her lion, and shoed off the whales from her bathtub and played hide and seek with her doggies to fetch her pyjamas….until he almost gives up when Lola is finally seen fast asleep in her bed, after having tucked her hippo in Charlie’s bed!  This book only underlines the most proven mantra of bedtime routine –“Just go with the flow ..……and they’ll be zzzzzing in no time”! J

Happy Holi!

Holi, the spring festival of colours though not traditionally observed in South India has now caught on with Namma Bengaluru witnessing both spontaneous celebrations in local colonies alongside various paid events organized around the Holi theme. As usual everyone on the retail side is jumping onto the bandwagon and cashing in on the Holi spirit! Hey….even some of the Kannada serials are running Holi specials! J Anyway, it was a quiet Holi this time (actually it was always quiet except for some random colour splashing by neighbours!) as the festival of colours this time happens to fall inconveniently during Abhay’s final assessment week! L Added to it…..Holi is not yet officially a Government holiday in Bangalore. So in between getting him to revise his division and his Kannada vattakshara and my regular Monday Court schedule, splashing colours is not exactly a priority! J

 

But thanks to Bubble ink, we get to vicariously experience the festival of colours through the medium of books! “Festival of India” was a book I had picked up for today’s prompt “Holi-colours”, but since Abhay had just finished his EVS assessment wherein he’d already read the story of Holika, and Radha Krishna, he vetoed this one L We are talking about colours, and so what better book on colours than the Quentin Blake classic titled “Patrick”!  This is a story of a young man named Patrick who set out of his house one day to but a violin and finds it in Mr.Onions’ junk shop and buys it with the only silver piece he had and Boy! he couldn’t be more pleased! He ran as fast as he could to the fields and blew out the dust and sat by a pond to play the violin when colourful fish in the pond began to jump out and fly, dancing in the air! Just then two kids named Kath and Mick amble over to the pond and enjoy the music and Kath is delighted to discover red ribbon appear around her hairdo and Mick finds his boots turned into blue ribbons! The three of them walked down the road together and come to an apple orchard and when Patrick played his violin which changed the green of the leaves to all kinds of colours. Instead of apples, the trees began to grow pears and bananas and cake and slices of hot buttered toast and the children were thrilled to savour all the goodies.  As Patrick and gang continued on their journey, they are joined by a flight of pigeons and a herd of cows who also begin to sprout beautiful colours, a la Patrick and his violin!  The colourful entourage met a tramp who looked unkempt and had whiskers and smoked a pipe puffing out smoke from it. As he enjoyed Patrick's tune, he was transformed into a man wearing colourful clothes and the sparks from his pipe got bigger and brighter until they were a shower of colourful foreworks. They all continued on the road lead by Patrick, the fish, pigeons, the cows, the whiskery tramp puffing out fireworks from his pipe paint town red and spread music and cheer to the people around! Isn't holi about spreading colour and cheer in everyone’s lives …..here’s wishing everyone a very happy holi!!!!!

Breaking gender barriers on Women's day!

Today, being Women’s day, it is a mandatory-post-day on Onestoryaday! I have always tried to key in a post celebrating this day dedicated to the fairer sex. Besides, celebrating our differences from men , thanking the women in our lives or spreading the message of equality and respect for women amongst the men, I guess what we really we look forward to is to be able to break free from gender stereotypes.  For instance, on the domestic front, if the woman of the house has a working Saturday, the man needn't hesitate to play host to visiting relatives, while at the same time, the woman needn't hesitate to drive them up to the airport! J  As mothers, however, it is important that we ensure our children, and especially our sons don’t grow up perpetuating gender stereotypes! A couple of weeks ago, I found Abhay casually referring to all girls as being “stupid” and not matching up to the boys. When I confronted him, he backed out and said that his comment was only meant for the girls in his class. That only made it worse and I wondered where he’d picked it up from. I then took him aside and explained that it is wrong on his part to carry such a gender bias and that girls are just as smart as boys. While I hope that he got the message, I know that constant and consistent reinforcement against bias will go a long way in helping our boys turn the men we women want them to be!

 

While we are on the subject of breaking gender barriers, I picked up “The Worst Princess” by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie. As the title goes, this is not the run-of-the-mill story of a princess being rescued by the handsome prince. Sue is a princess leading a lonely life in a tower, has been waiting for the last hundred years for the prince to free her from this boredom and show her the world. At last she rejoices as the prince arrives, claiming to have slain all kinds of wicked and vice. While she doesn’t hesitate to make the first move, the prince finds her too quick for his groove! As she marches shoulder to shoulder with him, excited to be freed and ready to explore only to realize that the prince is  a bore! The prince leads her to a castle where she is expected to doll herself up with dresses and tresses. But she protests as she wants to ride a horse and go on adventures with him to which he declines saying that the job of slaying dragons aren’t meant for girls. So from  a lonely princess in the tower, she is back to being the lonely princess in the castle. As she spots a fiery dragon charging towards the castle tower, she befriends him and vents out her frustration against the prince when it turns out that the dragon too has a grouse against the prince. So the dragon and the princess join hands and blow the castle tower, much to prince’s chagrin, who calls her the worst princess ever. Sue in turn snaps back that she doesn’t care and hops on the dragon’s back to take flight on Dragon air! J So from then on, Sue and the dragon explore the world from end to end, making mischief for royal twits and naughty knights……realizing along the way that they make a great team after all…..and thus live happily ever after! A refreshing change to the traditional princess stories and a must read for all our little princesses and princes…especially on women’s day! Why should boys have all the fun....isn't it?? Cheers to womanhood and happy women’s day!

 

Sunday with Dr. Seuss!

Today being the birth anniversary of one of the most celebrated children’s authors of all times, Dr. Seuss, we decided to make it a Seussville Sunday on Onestoryaday! Frankly, Abhay has never taken to Dr. Seuss books like the other kids and I don’t know why. I guess one of our first Dr. Seuss books was the vintage “"And to think that I saw it on Mulberry street"”, a book that got even the library staff nostalgic as I checked it out of the library. Later, I had to read Dr. Seuss “"Happy Birthday to you"” on his sixth birthday, though we could hardly match up to what would have been his birthday celebration in Katroo! J When we flew back to India on “The Emirates”, all my worries of how to handle a then fidgety four year old in a 15 hour flight were put to rest as Abhay was gifted a nice little kit to keep him company and in that was a small little Dr. Seuss book! So amongst many of Dr. Seuss books we read…..this is the one book I remember the most!

So today we decided to revisit the same memories and had Abhay read with his eyes

shut!J  Like many other books of Dr, Seuss, this one  too in narrated in verse and highlights the fascinating world of reading and books.  “I can read with my eyes shut” is a book that Abhay enjoyed reading even today and couldn’t stop giggling when the ubiquitous character in most Dr. Seuss books ‘Cat in the hat’  throws light on the things one can read about if one opens one’s eyes – “You can read about anchors, and all about ants, you can read about ankles and crocodile pants”........complemented by hilarious illustrations! Of course…who can forget “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” I guess, one is never too old for Dr. Suess..isn’t it?? J

 

Shakespeare for kids!

 

When I began blogging about the books I read to Abhay, I had meant it to be a daily affair and that is the precise reason for the name “Onestoryaday”! More or less I managed to live up to the name during my “stay-at-home-mom” phase in the US, the first year of Onestoryaday,  and all thanks to the fantastic US public library system that allows for free access to some of the best children’s literature! As we moved back to India, one story a day became one story every other day as even with the combined membership of over three of Bangalore’s libraries…….I still couldn’t borrow over 30 books which I could in the Hillsboro public library! (And that’s true!)  Now that I’ve traded my “easy-going-stay-at-home” status to “always-on-the-run working mom” phase…one story every other day….has been demoted to twice a week! While it is still one story/one book  a day at bedtime everyday or even two books if it’s a holiday for Abhay, (if not, my seven year old refuses to sleep!)…. blogging about it everyday ….is a different matter altogether! Now that I have joined the “30 books in 30 days” challenge, an event launched by friend and fellow blogger Bubble Ink, I hope to key in a few sentences on the book of the day…everyday until the next 30 days! Thanks to Bubble Ink …..Onestoryaday is now actually One story a day!

 

So kick-starting the challenge the first day of March, I thought I should begin with the master storyteller of all times – William Shakespeare! I know….all works of Shakespeare may not exactly be age appropriate…but I hoped to engage Abhay with “The Tempest”, brought out in a comic book format by Wonderland Books as a part of Illustrated Classic Works series, as with Alice in Wonderland that we had read earlier. Though I hope this will not be the only version of Shakespeare’s works that Abhay may ever read, I guess this will do for now! J I was quite surprised that Abhay quite liked the story and was fascinated by the magical world of Prospero, intrigued by the treachery of his brother Antonio and the twist in his fate as Prospero seeks revenge. Though not a typical children’s book, this is a great way of introducing famous works of literature to our kids…..so as to inspire them read more and more!

A ‘stand-up’ book and a ‘stand-out’ book

Guest post by Pika Nani (author of  'Little Indians' a Tulika publication)

Congratulations to One story a day on turning three. Thanks Divya for inviting me to contribute to your wonderful blog.

As a little child, every night at bedtime I would ask my father to tell the same story – the ‘Topi story’ as I called it, better known as ‘The Cap seller and the Monkeys’ (A quick recap: A cap seller with a bundle of caps is sleeping under a tree. The tree is home to many monkeys and one by one they take away all the caps. The cap seller wakes up to find the monkeys wearing his caps. He is furious when they start imitating his actions, but it gives him an idea. He throws down his own cap and the monkeys throw their caps too. The cap seller quickly collects them all and is on his way.)

Many years later, when my father told the same story to my daughter Ananya, the first question she asked was, “What were the colours of the caps?” not surprising, considering she has been growing up surrounded by books with colourful and beautiful illustrations, that are as much a part of the story as the words (if not more).  

One such book is a ‘stand-up’ book called ‘Home’ by Nina Sabnani. This interactive book is shaped like a house with a ‘window’ and open-able panels. Each fold opens to pictures of an eclectic mix of people and animals and the many different places and ways in which they live. Ananya loves to play with the book, opening and closing the panels, reading the sentences, observing the pictures, asking questions, sometimes making up her own answers and exercising her imagination.

Going back to my own childhood, a book that ‘stands-out’ in my memory is ‘Little Prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was the pictures of this book that had captured my imagination.

At the beginning of the book the narrator shows his drawing to grown-ups and they all think it is of a hat.

                                                       

The narrator says “My drawing was not a picture of a hat.  It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of a boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My drawing number two looked like this:”

                                                      

Once we learn to see beyond the obvious - unlimited possibilities open up..... with imagination.  As a children’s author, it’s an invaluable learning for me.

Creating your own wonderland!

 Over the weekend, we took Abhay to an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s  “Alice in Wonderland” that was playing at Rangashankara. Performed by the Mumbai based theatre group Tram theatre with the aid of objects, puppetry and shadow play, this is a play not be missed and mind it,  not just for kids! Not only did the play stay true to the original elements of the classic, but in a way took the story to a whole new level with its adaptation into a modern setting that had us introspect into the way we look at our own lives! Should we surrender to the daily hum-drum of life without taking time off to enjoy the moment? Should we go about our routine totally devoid of any sense of wonder or fascination? Should we see the world with a black and white lens as opposed to a coloured one? Growing up doesn’t have to mean that we stop being imaginative or grow out of our little wonderlands that we once cherished as kids! Actually, it’s not the kids, but we adults have a lot to learn from Alice and her wonderland! :-)

Alice in wonderland was also of special interest to Abhay as his class has been rehearsing the same play for a performance in their upcoming annual school day!  So on the eve of watching the play at Rangashankara, I  picked up “Alice in the Wonderland”, an illustrated graphic novel from Om publications. Of course there are numerous publications of timeless tales such as this, but frankly this was the only one I could lay my hands on just when I needed one! Narrated in a graphic book format with vibrant and vivid illustrations, this one is sure to engross your early reader into the wondrous world of Alice following the hurrying hare into a tunnel only to land in a hall full of doors of various sizes until she is of a perfect size for the door leading up the garden full of rapid races and mad tea parties that gives her courage to challenge the queen of hearts and just as she is about to have her way, she wakes up all envigorated to find that it was one adventurous dream after all! So don’t underestimate the power of imagination and the wonders it can do to your once boring world! 

Poetry for kids!

I had read in the recent issue of Books and more that children are natural with poetry and though they are exposed to catchy rhyming verses quite early in their childhood the form of nursery rhymes, the same trend does not continue as they grow up. Vaishali Shroff, the  writer laments that poetry seems to have gone out of the lives of children these days and emphasizes the importance of reading age appropriate poems to children. In introspection, I am not a great fan of poetry myself, partly because I am guilty of harboring the belief that that poems are profound and layered sometimes making the same a difficult read for us adults, let alone for the kids. I found myself able to relate much better to prose rather than the poetry prescribed for study at school or college.  Anyway, while it is true that the essence of a great poem lies in its underlying meaning, it is also true that all poems need not be deep and weighty, especially poems for the young. As mentioned, parents have been advised to read poems that children can easily relate to – poems which make them happy, make them laugh or cry, or poems that get them to think and reflect – in short poems that connect with them! As once they grow up with poetry, poetry grows on them too!:-)

Taking a cue from Vaishali Shroff, I looked up some works of poetry for the young, besides the recommendations featured in her article. I have delightful “Beastly tales from here and there” by Vikram Seth…which of course deserves another post altogether! Co-incidentally, last week was Roald Dahl’s birth anniversary and I happen to find at the British Library the hilarious “Revolting Rhymes” by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. This book features six classic tales recited in verse with a unique twist in the end. I particularly liked “Cinderalla” and the “Goldilocks and the three bears” retold from the perspective of the bears and Abhay’s favorite was the “The three little pigs” that has even Red Riding Hood making a cameo appearance!  It’s not just the magic of words in verses but the unconventional yet realistic treatment of the story’s ending that makes it a “must-read” for your little one on her way  to  discovering Roald Dahl! Take for instance, when the fairy Godmother meets Cinderalla, “Cindy” sounds just like a kid of today’s generation – she wants it all!

“She beat her fist against the wall,

And Shouted “Get me to the ball!”!

There is a Disco at the palace

The rest have gone and I am jalous

I want a dress, I want a coach!

And earrings and a diamond brooch!

And silver slippers, two of those!

And lovely nylon panty-hose!

Done up like that I’ll guarantee

The handsome prince will fall for me!

The fairy said “Hang on a tick!

She gave her wand a mighty flick”

With each line better than the previous one,  you know it’s nothing but the master story-teller’s sheer brilliance that translates into a whole lot of “LOL” and “ROFL” moments for you as  and your little one!  Roald Dahl’s poetic rendition of age old fairy tales has not only the kids but the parents enthralled….especially after a revolting day like I had today!J

Fairy Tales retold!

In the recent issue of “Books and more”, the young readers’ section carried a feature on children’s non-fiction and noted how all kids do not necessarily connect with fairy tales. Well, I must confess that I was never into fairy tales while I was little and thus never really fond of reading the same to my little one.  I concede that fairy tales are moral based stories, but in an attempt to drive home the point, the children are sometimes exposed to needless brutality or led into believing in outdated stereotypes. I had read some time ago that the US Supreme Court, while deciding on the constitutionality of a California legislation that intended to ban the sale of certain violent video games to children without parental supervision, had questioned as to whether violent video games are any different from other forms of media with similar violence exposed to children, such as fairy tales of "Hansel and Gretel" or Grim's fairy tales. Given the wide range of children's literature we have, the stories of  “Pinocchio” and “Rapunzel” seem hackneyed when juxtaposed with picture books like “The Gruffalo” or “Knuffle Bunny”. I’m not sure how we were as kids, but today’s children seem a lot more discerning than to simply blindly believe in fairies and witchcraft! How long can your little one believe that lying can cause his nose to grow like Pinocchio’s or that the ultimate purpose of Snow White is to meet her prince?:-) 

Speaking of fairy tales, I recently found two books by Anthony Browne that beautifully adapts the vintage tales into something much more interesting. “Me and You” by Children's Laureate Anthony Browne is as described  “an enchanting new take on the Goldilocks story”.  “Ella” by Alex T Smith, touted as “A Cinderella story with a difference” breaks the usual mould of “waiting for the prince” of the Cinderella story and ideal for young girls. Abhay’s favorite though is “Into the Forest”, that seems like dream sequence inspired by the story of Red Riding Hood story. Narrated in first person, a young boy is woken up by a terrible sound to find his father missing with his mother having no idea of his return and is then asked to take a food basket to his sick grandma who lives on the other side of the forest. In a classic Red-Riding Hood style, the boy decides to cut across the forest where he meet familiar fairy tale characters on the way, including, a boy with a cow  who tries to lure him into exchanging his cake for a cow (who I presumed was the Gingerbread boy), or a girl with golden hair, (who I thought to be Goldilocks without the locks) or two abandoned children (who were most definitely Hansel and Gretel), each of whom appears at every turn or corner of the strange forest with ghostly trees. As he proceeds, it begins to get very cold making him wish he’d bought a coat when he spots a red coat hanging from tree. He puts on the coat but instantly gets an eerie feeling that he is being followed reminding him of his grandma’s story about a bad wolf. After braving the snow and nearly getting lost, he finally reaches grandma’s. But as the boy calls out for his grandma pushing the door open, he finds a surprise waiting for him! Read on as your little one discovers the real magic behind this age old fairy tale – the magic of a young mind’s imagination!