Our Happy Place!

Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference to your world. It may be a beautiful rendition of your favourite song that’s playing on the radio or FB live program, or a serendipitous occurring, or managing to catch a premiere of the new season of your favourite show, or a hobby you’ve resumed after years of lassitude, or a flip-kart buy arriving earlier than expected, or chancing upon a book that you have been longing to read, or finding a book that your little one is sure to love and watching her expression as you read it…… its these priceless moments that make your day and lift your spirits enough to carry you through the mundane transactional daily life!

One such mood lifter, happiness dispenser and my very own great escape is a nice little Indie book store, a travelling book store called “Funky Rainbow”! It is a bookstore whose presence is ubiquitously found in many public events in Bangalore related to books and children’s literature. A book store that never fails to excite you in terms of their vast collection and some like CBT and NBT books that feel like they've been  retrieved from your very own childhood memory. A bookstore run by book lovers who are always full of recommendations from the latest children’s publications in India. A bookstore that will give you a shopaholic’s guilt as you can never stop at buying just one book! The travelling bookstore that makes the long wait at my children’s PTM bearable and no matter how well they fare at school, I can always take solace in being  able to lay my hands on a few good books in the end (for them!).  An indie bookstore we are so glad to have, in South Bangalore!    I always look forward to visiting the bookstore and have felt a childlike excitement as we  approach the entrance of Nandi Garden, J P Nagar.

Funky Rainbow and its team have spared no efforts to popularise reading and books amongst children and parents alike. Right from organising author visits at school and book release events during pre-covid days, to Lockdown quizzes,  pre-paid book vouchers and Saturday morning live Book Buzaars on Facebook during Covid times,  Funky Rainbow and their team have been trail blazers in adapting to the changed circumstances. Here’s wishing Funky Rainbow and its team of trio a very happy seventh birthday and wishing many more to come!

Today we read “The Happy Place”, a Ramya story, a part of the Ramya and Ramu series brought out by Ms Moochie publications as a part of the Little Book Lovers’ reading series, of course another one recommended and picked up from “The Funky Rainbow”. Its obvious that Ramya stories have been quite popular with my little one and we’ve followed the precocious little Ramya as she took up the cricket bat, donned the Santa costume for her fancy dress at school and other such adventures. Today we learn about her Happy place… and how she works hard at building and turning it around from the dump that it was, enduring all the jeers from her school mates and braving natural and man-made challenges,   and day by day she watches it grow and delights in the fruit of her labour to form a pleasant surprise for her loving granny. Narrated in a limerick-like style by Samatha K and pictures by Chetan Sharma, this is a lovely read for young children, and an earnest attempt to impress upon them the pleasures of every-day creative initiatives in order to find your own little happy place! Funky Rainbow is surely one such happy place of our entire family....and as Abhay puts it.."Its the Best book store one can dream of having in one's town"! 

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! 

Inspiring life of a woman.......!

This year’s women’s day in India assumes great significance in the light of some recent events, particularly the misogynist views of a rape convict made known vide a documentary film that has now become the center of controversy. While not commenting on whether or not the ensuing ban on the film is an appropriate response from the establishment, I do believe that airing such views does not tantamount to endorsing the same but only goes to highlight how primitive and regressive such thinking is …..that too in this age and day!  Though the views opined by a deranged convict do not necessarily represent that of the mainstream society in general (or at least I hope so!), the very fact that this is the mindset of certain sections or even a fringe of the society ….is shocking enough to make one shudder….particularly when it is the apparent view of an age group that is less than 35 years…meaning that it’s not only our generation but even the future generation that may be subject to such scourge! Anyway, one way to counter such thinking is to start young and by that our role as parents, particularly of young boys, seems even more momentous, as our current Prime Minister puts it. So this Women’s day, it is time to reflect on how ……as mothers….we can contribute to changing the way our boys look at girls today….and that will in turn having a bearing on the future lives of the women of tomorrow! So going with the 2015 theme for International Women’s day….calling all mothers…… “To make it happen”!!!!

Women’s day is a must-post day on Onestoryaday and I always make it a point to read a women-centric story to Abhay. In fact, this year, Abhay got to know about women’s day, through his school as they held a special event, one day before, with Dr. Malathi Holla as the Guest of Honour, a Padmashree and Arjuna Awardee for representing paraplegic sports on International Sports Tracks followed by a karate demo for urban street survival strategy. It is a pity that I couldn’t make it, with Saturday being a working day for me. So here I am trying to make up for the same by having Abhay read about an inspiring woman achiever in “A girl named Helen Keller”, a Level 3 Scholastic Early Reader by Margo Lundell and illustrated by Irene Trivas.

 

 

Ideal for early readers transitioning into chapter books, the young reader is introduced to the amazing journey of Heller Keller, who at the age of two is struck with high fever that leaves her visually and hearing impaired and leaves her parents helpless. Though her parents are not able to cope with her wild and untamed ways, her mother strongly believes that Helen is very smart but is unable to connect with her. So with the help of Alexander Graham Bell (even I didn’t know this!), they bring in Anne Sullivan, a young teacher from Boston whose painstaking efforts to help Helen feel and understand the ways of the world finally yields results, notwithstanding the reservations Helen’s parents have about her strict methods. Anne Sullivan is not only able to communicate with her but also able to get Helen to connect with the world around her! Thereafter, there is no stopping Helen as she learns to read, write, goes  to school and graduates from Radcliffe College with honours…becomes a famous writer who travelled many places, addressed and delivered lectures and met many kings, presidents and heads of State, and fervently worked towards helping different-abled people. Helen Keller is one woman who’s extraordinary life continues to bring hope and inspiration to people. So here’s celebrating such women today …happy women’s day to everyone!

Wildlife in a City Pond!

This weekend saw another celebration of the dwindling water-bodies and its attendant greenery within the city at our neighbourhood kere (lake in kannada) at the Puttenahalli kere habba. Organized on the lines of a similar kere habba (literally meaning lake festival in Kannada) at Kaikondrahalli lake at Sarjapur Road by Namma Bengaluru Foundation, this festival attempted to draw the spotlight on the importance of conservation of lakes amidst the growing concrete jungle. Though we missed the habba due to confusion regarding dates ( assumed it was to be held on Sunday instead of Saturday), we have been regular visitors at the lake. So much so that my father-in-law’s day is incomplete without his refreshing morning walk around the lake! Puttenahalli kere is also home to many species of birds and a true delight for bird watchers and naturalists alike. But I must say that Puttenahalli lake would not have been the same, if not the continual efforts of Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT) to rejuvenate and maintain the lake and the surrounding environs. Further, events and initiatives like these not only help sensitize our kids to the environment around them but also garner support for retention of parks, lakes and such open spaces, lest they get swallowed by land sharks!

 

 

So in this background, today we read  a beautiful story titled “Wildlife in a city pond”  by Ashish Kothari and vividly illustrated by Sangeetha Kadur, a level 4 Reader from Pratham publications. Narrated in first person, the author is puzzled by a deafening cacophony emerging from below his balcony as he moved into his new home in Pune, only to find the mystery solved the next morning as he discovered a small pond below in an abandoned quarry. Over the next year, he saw the pond undergo transformation through the seasons, especially during monsoon when the pond came to life with a host of plant and animal life finding shelter. What a joy it was to wake up hearing the chirping of mynas, watching brilliant blue kingfishers swoop into the water for their daily feed of fish  …baya weaver birds resting in their tailor made nests…. even flapshell turtles swimming in the pond and finally being lulled to sleep  by the croaking frogs at night!  However one day, the pond and its wildlife were threatened from the so called development plans to the drain the wetland to make space for more buildings. However, thanks to the efforts of the residents who sought help from all quarters from the media and environment protection groups to the city commissioner….the pond was declared off limits for any construction!  So just like the author in the book, we residents of J P Nagar VII phase are lucky to enjoy to a mini sanctuary amidst the bustling city!  Kudos to PNLIT and Namma Bengaluru Foundation for making Puttenahalli kere the pride of J P Nagar VII Phase area!  :-)

Booked!

'Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose.' 

I was reminded of this quote by Neil Gaiman when Divya contacted me to pen a post on some of our favorite children's books. My four year old is an avid reader who loves to read anything from 'Clifford the Big Red Dog' to a blender instruction manual (true story!), so picking out a few of her most-loved books is not easy.

While 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', 'Goodnight Moon', the Olivia series etc have been through repeated readings in our house, nothing is more dog-eared than the Mouse books by Ellen Stoll Walsh. I first found 'Mouse Paint' at our local library when Saachi was two. The story is about the adventures of three mice having fun with paint while outwitting a cat. The book also introduces concepts of colour and what happens when primary colours are mixed. With big bright collage illustrations and just a single line on every page, this turned out to be something that Saachi easily understood and enjoyed when read to. 

Her fondness for the simple narrative and colorful pictures in this book led me to look for more by the same author and I was happy to find 'Mouse Count' and 'Mouse Shapes' that follow similar themes about mice outsmarting their predators while playing with numbers and shapes. 

Though its been more than two years since we discovered these delightful stories, Saachi is yet to get bored of them. These much-loved books have been thumbed through many, many bedtimes - so much so that they are nearly in tatters but she refuses to get rid of them. 






I highly recommend these simple, colourful books for your little ones. Watch out for the cat!





Congrats to Divya, Abhay and this blog for sharing Abhay's reading journey with us for four years! I hope to enjoy many more years of posts and suggestions on reading material and resources. Happy Birthday and a very Happy New Year!

Petu and gang!!!

Bangalore has been host to a multitude of activities revolving around children’s literature…so much so that parents are left with little time for themselves!:-) Every weekend has some storytelling event, book launch, book-reading sessions for kids, with some of them conducted by friends and picture book enthusiasts like me! For instance, this weekend, the Story-telling event (conducted by friend and fellow blogger Cuddles and Reads) at Atta Galata on the occasion of International literacy day is in competition with children’s events at the Bangalore Literature festival or the event related to Tulika’s “Minu and her hair” at Kutoohala rivals with same in the evening at the Lightroom Bookstore! Added to it…there are many such events at the numerous children’s libraries and learning centers that have sprouted in every corner of Namma Bengaluru! With such a large spread…..who can blame us parents for choosing such inclusive events over “adults only” programs! J

Anyway, a few weeks back, I received an alert from the Bookalore team regarding their next monthly event …..to be held in surprise of surprises…J P nagar!!!! ( I cant believe that I found time to write about it only now …when we are already approaching the October event!) I was particularly keen on attending this time as it featured Arundhati Venkatesh’s early reader series “Petu Pumpkin” as we had missed some of her earlier events. But alas…..mommy proposes and work (in my case the Court) disposes!!! As I was stuck in Court that day, Abhay’s daddy did the needful!:-) Though Abhay seemed a little distracted at the event, given that some of the boys seemed to form their own secret society within the audience , he had insisted on buying both the books “Petu Pumpkin  Tiffin thief” and Petu Pumpkin Tooth troubles”. Of course we bought much more than that and also received a special prize from the Funky Rainbow, their travelling bookstore for having bought ten books!!!!

Though I only write about the pictures books on Onestoryaday, the excitement with which Abhay took to Petu’s tales, like no other “Hole books” ….surely deserved a post on Onestoryaday! In fact he devoured both the books within a couple of days and they even kept him from boredom during our annual family pooja!

Petu Pumpkin series is something Abhay could instantly could relate to, considering it revolves around a boy named Pushkin, fondly called Petu pumpkin studying in Class three. However there are times I wonder why as my son is hardly a foodie that Petu is so famous or infamous for! 

The first book "Petu Pumpkin Tiffin thief" starts off with a new academic year in school where Petu pumpkin is found prowling other’s tiffin boxes prompting the others in the class to start a secret society and the second book “Petu Pumpkin Tooth troubles” has Petu trying everything from pulling out his tooth to writing to tooth fairy requesting for a football to fit in and be accepted into the “Gap club” while helping them challenge the fourth standard foot ball team! It makes a hilarious read …and not just for kids….believe me I couldn’t put down the book either…! Besides being appropriate for the reading level of children between the age group of 6 to 9 years, the stories are very well written and the  author beautifully captures the mind of the big little boys in transition! Whether it’s the easily relatable characters and class room situations, intra and inter class politics that younger readers can identify with or the funny limericks that run through the narrative  - a must read for all young and emergent readers….. “petu” or not! 

Before the monsoons are over.....

With the Ganesha festivities over, it's time to enjoy the last of the monsoon magic as it lingers on in the coastal region, before we head back to Bangalore. Though the rains don't seem to let up in some areas, they  are almost on their way out in other parts of the country. Before it's too late.... I thought I should do a monsoon recap on Onestoryaday! 

 

 

 

 

When you think of the Indian monsoon, you can't miss Uma Krishnaswami's "Monsoon", illustrated by Jamel Akib which highlights the importance of the yearly rains in a tropical country like India. Another foreign publication that remains close to our heart is Kashmira Seth's "Monsoon Afternoons", as I remember reading  the monsoon escapade of a grandpa-grandson duo to my son in the US when it got me so nostalgic that I almost immediately wanted to return to India! (and we did the same year!)

 

 

Pratham publications have a lot to offer ranging from Peacocks and Pakoras by Mala Kumar and Manisha Choudary and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan as a part of the Rituchakra series on seasons and the Level 2 Early Reader  Rain Rain by Sanjay Jaiswal "Sanjay" and Ajith Narain to the recent “Wildlife in a City Pond” a Level four reader by Ashish Kothari and Sangeetha Kadur.  

“Going home in rain” by Nancy Strikland and Jigma Lodey, a story revolving around three young girls and their attempt to brave heavy rains in a mountainous region in Bhutan.

There's Ruskin Bond's The Angry River, a story of survival and friendship during flash floods in the rainy season, put together in an Amar Chitra Katha format along with another one of his stories titled "The Blue Umbrella". 

Tulika's  Raindrops by Vaishali Shroff presents a vivid picture of monsoon in a city, with its soft water colour illustrations by Ruchi Mhasane enhancing your reading experience! 

Another addition to our rainy-day reads is Tulika's "The Red Umbrella" a bi-lingual by Nandini Nayar and pictures by Sowmya Menon which we received as a part of the picture book exchange hosted by Bubbleink just in time for this year's monsoon!

 

 

 

This story reminiscent of classics like "The Mitten", with a monsoon/ rainy twist also reminds you of Gulzaar's famous song, "Ek akele chhatri mein jab aadhi aadhi bheeg rahe hain"! J The rain goes drip drip drip and all the animals from the mouse to the cow scramble to fit in under the red umbrella…..which in all makes a perfect read-aloud book for younger kids!

Monsoons may come and go, but you always have these monsoon reads to transport you back to the rainy season and let you vicariously enjoy the rains.....!! For now, enjoy the monsoon while it lasts!:-)) 

Friends for life!

When Google plus asks you add people and categorize them into different circles, the “circle of friends” has probably most number of members…right?? That’s because people you bond with in many cases may outnumber the people you have been bonded with!:-) Friendships can blossom from various places and circumstances….. for instance being in the same place at the same time over a considerable period of time. I had read about life-long friendships between people who travel by the same local train, who share everything from their lunch boxes to life stories, but have never visited each other’s homes!  So one may have friends touching upon every facet of one’s life, current and past… from school-bus friends to morning walk or gym buddies you meet  only for a short time in the morning to colleagues and chai buddies at office, from kitty party friends to weekly music /tennis classes mommy friends, from blogger friends online to community comrades offline, friends from a bygone era now with  renewed ties thanks to Facebook and Whatsapp, family friends who mean more than extended family…..truly friends make your life richer, happier and  much more fulfilling …….and this is a day to wish them all a Happy friendship day!

 

 

While we all have been blessed with company of good friends in our lives, here’s hoping our little ones too enjoy the company of friends….at every juncture of their lives. What a better way to celebrate friendship day than to read about two friends who despite their differences and oddities and best of friends! “My Friend is sad” an Elephant and Piggie Adventure by Mo Willems, is a book we received from my blogger friends at the picture book exchange initiated by friend and fellow blogger Bubbleink. Gerald, the Elephant is feeling low and Piggie in her attempt to cheer him up tries many things from putting on a cowboy costume to dressing up like a robot  only to realize that all the while Gerald was unhappy as he wanted to enjoy the sight of a cowboy, clown and a robot with his best friend Piggie! A nice little story that conveys a simple message that most growing kids can relate to - it’s no fun when your best friend’s not around!!! Isn’t it??

Football fever!

It’s the soccer season once again! We are not exactly soccer fans at home, but what’s the harm in joining in all the sporting entertainment that FIFA 2014 offers…isn’t it?? In fact, everyone from sports bars, retailers, clubs to Google  seems to have caught the football fever!  So much so that a popular daily soap on the television channel Star plus had one of its child protagonists scoring the winning goal in a football tournament played to an eager audience comprising of the said character’s “large” extended family ……the suspense stretching to almost a week! (which of course had our entire family watching with bated breath!!) So how can we at Onestoryaday be left behind?? I couldn't believe my luck when I chanced upon the perfect book at the British Library for Abhay to read by himself (which almost never happens as the book I want is never available). My excitement was short-lived though as it turns out that the library too had jumped into the bandwagon, and I got a call requesting me to turn in the said book a little earlier than my due date as it  is required for a special program in the library on.....no prizes for guessing.... soccer!!!! I guess....no one can escape from being FIFAfied!!! :-)

 

I was hoping to feature this book a little later  in the football season, but I had to concede to the library's request and had Abhay read this at the initial play-offs. "Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend" by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross, an early chapter book in presented in an Early Reader format. as the football fever heats up...Though I am not a great fan of the popular young reader fiction such as Horrid Henry or Geronimo Stilton, you however cant deny their universal appeal and easily relatable subjects amongst the primary school kids. As Henry daydreams in class, about scoring the winning goal for his football team his teacher Miss Battle Axe shocks the entire class by her announcement related to football. It turns out that their local team Aston Ahtletic had made it to the finals of the FA cup and was set for a face-off with Manchester United and so every primary school was given two free tickets to the match. Thanks to Miss Battle-Axe’s good luck during the teachers’ lucky draw, the lucky winner would be chosen from Henry’s class and Miss Battle Axe decided to hold a football match with the player of the match winning the tickets. So Horrid-Henry, Aerobic-Al, Beefy-Bert, Jazzy-Jim and the favourite Moody- Margret (who has the distinction of being the first best, second best and third best foot ball player in class) battle it out on the field, tripping and tackling each other for the prized tickets. Finally as “the hand of God” comes to Henry’s rescue, Henry is so certain to win the tickets that he is already planning on picking his guest for the other ticket….but does Miss Battle Axe award him the tickets?? Have your young reader read on and find out what really happens in the football field!  Go on stay up late….to catch the Hot-foot Henry’s football match ….packed with fun, action, and don’t-try-this-in school football strategies! Enjoy the soccer season everyone! :-)

Theatre Gold!

Summer’s here and so are summer camps!  Two years, when I first began exploring the summer camp scene in our neighbourhood, I so wished I could enroll my then five year old into one of the summer activities held at Rangashankara but couldn’t as the minimum stipulated age was seven. This year however, there was no doubt that Abhay was getting on board the Summer Express 2014! If we could, we would have enrolled him into all the workshops that he was eligible for, but alas, with vacation plans already made much before the announcement of the Summer Express schedule, we could only do the workshops in April. We enrolled Abhay into a five day workshop called “Theatre Gold” conducted by Padmavathi Rao (a.k.a Pinty akka), a summer express veteran, a gifted story teller and a writer-director of plays for children. Essentially meant for children of the age group of seven to nine years, the endeavour of this workshop was to introduce the children to the theatre, identify the common and not so common sources to draw inspiration from, and recognize if not fully understand the process of onstage and off stage activities involved. This year’s theme for “Theatre Gold” being ‘values’,  each parent was asked to scrawl out a proverb or a saying that best reflected the values they hoped to imbibe in their kids which, was then mounted on a chart board for “Pinty akka” to weave them into her interaction with the kids.  

Each day, the kids worked around the theme along with Pinty-akka and her team who tried to convey the essence of their parents’ messages and helped them understand and develop their own value based sayings, while throwing light on various aspects of performing on stage. The kids were also involved in constructing and creating their own props, through origami and papier machie with the help of organic materials and home made glue. On the last day yesterday, the kids put up a small presentation comprising of a series of 30-second acts/skits in groups of threes, with the plot, dialogues and delivery all managed by the kids themselves! 

 

 

 

 

Abhay enjoyed the workshop and was in fact begging for more! We as parents were delighted and felt relieved that the workshop was more process oriented than result oriented. On a personal note, I happened to reconnect with an old schoolmate after almost two decades, whose son happen to attend the same workshop. Overall, it was a one-of a kind workshop that Abhay will always remember …..all thanks to Pinty Akka and team and not to forget her  personalized bookmarks for all the summer express travellers!! J

 

 

So celebrating Abhay’s first Summer Express adventure, I had him read “School Play” by Susan Nees, a part of illustrated Early chapter books brought out as the Branches series by Scholastic as to help Early readers transition into chapter books.

 

 

This particular story is a part of Missy’s Super-Duper- Royal-Deluxe series. Missy loves to be on stage and dreams of being a big star, so famous that she doesn’t have to go to school. Her mother ferrets out the reason she is reluctant to go to school – her class is putting up a play and she doesn’t get a big part, in fact not even a speaking part! Despite all her pleadings and protests, Missy is sent to school where she is annoyed to find nothing going right for her – from her school report being shot down by the teacher to her music teacher chiding for singing too loud…it’s just not Missy’s super deluxe day! To add to this, she discovers to have forgotten her lunch and is forced to eat her school lunch made of bruzzels sprouts! To her dismay…all her classmates talk about is the play …and their substantial parts with dialogues, colourful costumes and music. So Missy decides to take the matter into her hands and slightly tweaks her dialogue-less role and dull costume and adds some much needed sparkle to the play, while also helping a fellow performer with his dialogues that ultimately saves the play in a super-duper-royal deluxe way!  We loved the realistic portrayal of the issues that confront a primary school kid and particularly the call outs that represents her confused yet determined mind! Though the story has a usual ending, this Early chapter book aided with apt illustrations takes the young reader through various facets of putting up a performance, including music, costumes, props, dialogue prompts, settings and of course team work! So there’s lot more to theatre than what we see on stage ….which hopefully Abhay was able to identify through one of his first workshops at the Summer Express! Here’s hoping he gets on the summer express next year too!! J

Little Monsters!

"Let the wild rumpus start!!!!!" .......is the first thing that came to my mind as I got to know about today's reading prompt - Monsters and Dragons. Children are fascinated with magical creatures like monsters and dragons. These so called monsters are hardly the scary creatures you would keep your little one away from, but silly little characters they can  can easily relate to and have a hearty laugh over. Who wouldn't be amused by a nose-picking, burping monster trying hard to look scary??  Not to forget...monsters make great tools for pretend play and dress up! What's life without a little mischief and muddle with your little one...huh? Go on …….let your little monster explore his wild side!!!!

 

Let your little one roar his terrible roar, gnash his terrible teeth and show his terrible claws....like little Max in Maurice Sendak’s "Where the wild things are"! A must-read classic that explores the power of a child's imagination! We first revisited the world of wild things today!

Another book that comes to my mind is Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by our favourite author Mo Willems which beautifully conveys the message to accept who you are and to make peace with your true self. We had just read "The Rumblewick and Dinner Dragons" by Hiawyn Oram and Sarah Warburton, a quirky comic tale on how to befriend the dragon by a story pie!

While we've been reading together, Abhay has also been reading on his own "The Monster-hunters" by Parinita Shetty and illustrated by Pooja Puttenkolam, part of the hole book series for younger readers by Duckbill publications. A delightful read that  revolves around two best friends Abhay (Yes.....and our seven year old was totally kicked about reading his namesake!)and Nithya who go finding  monsters in theirs and their friends rooms as a part of their class project. Abhay enjoyed the book and in fact imagined himself and his friend doing the same! :-)

 

For our reading adventure together, we also read "Vile - A Cautionary Tale for Little Monsters" by Mark Robinson and illustrated by Sarah Horne. At the start of a brand new term at Beastville, little monsters are faced with the choice between 'The Ancient school of Manners' for bright, smiling and friendly little monsters and the 'University of Vile' for the mean little monsters. The University of Vile encourages the monsters to explore their true potential of being the naughtiest, meanest and the dirtiest monsters of all! So at University of Vile, its vital that the students are messy, loud and spiteful in classroom, play with food and burp loudly at lunchtime,  experiment and explore with toxic and stinky gases without goggles or safety wear, and then be unfair and not take turns at the playground! Wow....University of Vile sounds fun...right?? One day, two little monsters are out playing when they fall into a big hole in the ground. As they try to shove one another to get out, they realize that there is only one way to do so - is to co-operate. The next day when everyone, including the Principal gets to hear of their good act, they are banned from the University of Vile as having disgraced the mecca of mischief! The two little monsters join the ancient school of manners instead and learn the right way of life and graduate as good little monsters at the end of the school term. Well...not quite .....as they indulge in what is probably their last act of mischief - as the university of Vile is shown exploding to bits! A funny little that is sure to have your little monster in splits! 

Abhay's prized top!

Abhay's latest fascination is the "Beyblade" which is nothing but our good old spinning top packaged as a prized merchandise of the Japanese animated series! Abhay has had his eye on the said toy for a long time now and knowing better than to expect his mom to buy it for him, he tapped the daddy! Nevertheless, it wasn't a complete walkover with his dad too! Daddy managed to extract a few promises (well done daddy!) here and there about Abhay eating on his own and sleeping on his own, and Abhay finally became the proud owner of a Cosmic Pegasus Beyblade!  But as it turned out, neither was the Beyblade an original (so claimed his Beyblade brethren at school!) nor were his promises fulfilled !!:-)  Gone are the days when kids regard a much sought-after toy as their  most cherished possession.... now with every other wish fulfilled, where's the thrill in it? Anyway, after all said and done, the Beyblade or it's imitation is nothing but a spinning top! So when we saw a couple of local boys playing with spinning tops at a playground last week, it rekindled my husband's childhood passion. Overcome with nostalgia, he made a pit stop at a local shop and bought one for Abhay. When he wound the string, tight and taut and released it into action, we realised that the pleasure is the same, or may be even better! The only difference being one cost Rs.590/- (plus the ignominy of not being the original) and the other just Rs.15!!!

Today I had Abhay read “Mangu’s Top” by Kamakshi Balasubramanian and illustrated by Amitava Sengupta brought out by National Book Trust publication. Mangu longed for a toy but couldn’t afford one as his parents were poor. Mangu sat outside watching other kids play with toys like top, marbles or a kite, when suddenly he stumbled upon a top that lay by a large stone in the corner. Mangu found that it was an old, pock marked toy with hardly any colour on it. Mangu brought it home and began to play with it. As it spun, Mangu thought it looked dull and tired and did not exhibit the same vibrancy like the other tops. So Mangu decided to give it a makeover – he rubbed the top with a piece of brick, so as to cover up its pits. He then coated it with a spoonful of oil that his mother gave, some leftover paint that his father borrowed and left the top to dry overnight, while Mangu slept dreaming about the top. During the night, the colourful top rolled towards him as if to surpise him in the morning when he opened his eyes!  But while he was delighted to find his colourful top all ready for play, he was also dismayed to see a gaping hole on his top that ran from one end to another that made sadly conclude that the top may never spin again. Without giving up hope, Mangu wound a string around the top and as he released it, his red and yellow top spun merrily reflecting colour, sunlight and what’s more, his top even whistled as the wind blew through the hole. Finally, Mangu had his own spinning whistling top! A nice little story of longing that our kids today may find it hard to relate to! Well…who’s to blame??  

Abhay in the race!!!

Abhay’s latest predicament is that he is always the last in a running race – be it during his weekly physical training class, or at a friendly game during recess, or while racing to the school van in the evening! Last Friday, he woke up with a foul mood at having to repeatedly lose to a couple of other kids as they raced him up to the school van from their classrooms and thus didn’t want to go to school…..talk about ingenious excuses to cut school! :-) I have always maintained that Abhay has never been as kinesthetically driven as the other boys and that he couldn’t have cared less if other kids beat him in a race or a game. Added to it, the scope for a regular physical activity was affected by our move to India, owing to fewer public parks (like in the US) and the fall out of living in an independent house as opposed to an apartment complex. So barring a few exceptions, Abhay has lagged behind other kids his age, when it comes to sports. So as long as Abhay wasn’t bothered, we couldn’t be bothered too. But now as Abhay seems to want to better his kinesthetic skills…. here we are doing rounds of sports camps/coaching academies in our area. So now our latest predicament is to fit in a sports/games class in our perpetually busy weekly or weekend schedule! J

So while we zero in on the right class for Abhay, I had Abhay read “Boris for the win” by Andrew Joyner from the Branches series by Scholastic which is intended to help emergent readers transition from graded reading to chapter books. Scholastic has brought out  about seven books’ series under the Branches banner that not only features characters and settings that early readers can easily relate to but also seek to motivate them to go on and progress into higher levels of reading.  I found this Branches series perfect for Abhay who is not yet comfortable with chapter books….and hope that Scholastic would soon begin market them in India too. Since they are currently available mainly in the US, I had a couple of books from the “Boris series” ordered to be delivered to one of our relatives who was visiting India around December last year, so as to  serve as an ideal read for his Sports day. But his school had other plans and decided to instead hold only School day this year! L Anyway, this series meant for children aged 5-7 is centered around an endearing little warthog named Boris, who like any other kid loves adventures. In school, Boris and his friend Fredrick find themselves being the last in most sporting events and are tired of having their classmate Eddie always win! So Boris along with Frederick draws up a plan for the upcoming Sports day with the help of another classmate Alice, their self-anointed coach.  So while they train hard to beat their school’s Usain Bolt, Boris encounters various obstacles, including Frederick suddenly afflicted with hay fever on the D-day thus making Eddie invincible. Boris however, still has a chance to redeem himself during the round-the-track marathon, which is the most important race of the day. Boris has a great start and runs past many of his classmates, dodges some of Eddie’s friends who try to slow him down and reaches the second place, behind Eddie, much to the sprinter’s surprise! But as Boris races past Eddie and nears the finishing line, he remembers his friend.  Frederick who is reeling under an allergy attack, is barely walking and is most likely to be the last in the race again. But being the loyal friend he is, Boris decides to help his friend and does something that no one in his position, would ever dream of and ends up winning the “Best and Fairest” prize. But who wins the race? Well, it's not Eddie…have your early reader read on to figure out the suspense! So while Abhay devours this delightful series, I hope he too gives it his best to be the fastest yet the fairest! J

Bink and Golie

I needn’t dwell any more about my fascination with children’s books. Well, frankly nothing excites me as much as children’s books!  The excitement of finding the perfect book for Abhay carries me through the entire day! I have always been a book lover and hope to see my son and many more children turn book lovers. So when it comes to birthdays, I always gift books!! When it comes to Abhay's birthday…you can be certain that return gifts too would be books! ! Of course…..I’ve faced some dissent within the family (including Abhay) who see no point in gifting books to one of Abhay's younger cousins in my native village for whom a gift of a car or a truck would have been a sure-shot hit! ! But hey!....it doesn't matter where you are or how young is your child ...its never too early to start reading! Isn't it? 

So imagine my excitement as I found this Early Reader when I stopped by the British library on the way back from Court. Just before moving back to India, I remember having gifted  this book to one of Abhay's older friends in Portland probably on her sixth birthday. Ideal for  emergent readers I'd hoped that she'd like the book and wondered if I'd ever find something like this in India in a couple of years when Abhay would be ready for an Early Reader! So when I stumbled upon the familiar cover of  "Bink and Golie" ....it truly felt like my lucky day! "Bink and Golie" by Camillo and Alison McGhee and illustrated by Tony Fucile, held as an exceptional book for Early Readers, follows the quirky adventures of tall and tiny Golie and Bink through three hilarious stories narrated in an Early Reader format.  Bink is the chirpy one who loves to gorge on Golie's pancakes. Golie is the jaded explorer who loves to use long complicated words that Bink cant seem to understand. So amidst the familiar  words, there's "implore" or "compromise" or "top-quality" thrown in which can very well help to improve the vocabulary of  your emergent reader, however it may be to your peril!  While it was welcome that Abhay said  "Amma this is a top-quality book", I am not sure what to make sure of when Abhay ran up to his father and said "I implore you to buy me the toy I had earlier ask for"! :-)

A Twist in the Fairy Tale!

I have always had and made known my reservations about the relevance of certain fairy tales to the kids of today.  Fairy tale classics may have held the fascination of kids of the previous generations, but I am not sure if they still do hold the same charm with the current generation, given the wide ranging genre of children’s literature today. At the same time, I find that there is an increasing trend these days to turn around an age old fairy tale and adapt the same to suit contemporary beliefs and ideologies. While it still may revolve around the protagonist like Cinderalla or the Sleeping beauty…..your little one may be delighted to find that Cinderalla too has certain issues with “sharing” or “stage fright”….something that your little princess can relate much better to! So it may still be a princess story but not a damsel in distress waiting to rescued by a Prince Charming only to happily married soon after  …which now we (grown up princesses) know …..if only things were as simple as that…..isnt it??

 

Every once in while, you may come across a title that owes its basic idea to a fairy tale, but don’t be deceived …..it may just be unlike any fairy tale you’ve ever read. So when I found “Goldilocks and just one Bear” by Leigh Hodkinson, I had to pick it up. This book is like a sequel to the original fairy tale, and about the little bear (from Goldilocks and the three bears) who is now all-grown up and enters the concrete jungle (that resembles a big city downtown) and barges into “Snooty towers” as he is  quite lost in the big city. As he steps into the elevator the building, unknowingly the elevator takes him to the topmost floor and he enters a swanky roof-top apartment, away from the noise...and just like in the fairy tale finds the food, couch, and the bed meant  for the little member of the family just right and dozes off therein. Just then a family of father, mother and a little girl walk in to find everything messed up and a bear sleeping in the little one's bed. But it soon turns out that the mother person and the bear recognise each other as the former has had a similar experience in the bear's house as little Goldilocks! So the grown up Goldilocks offers the grown-up not-so-little bear a big bowl of porridge which is neither hot, nor cold but is just right. It made the grown-up-not-so-little bear almost forget about that once-upon-time when Goldilocks had behaved so badly in the bear household. Although the now- grown-up-not-so-little bear has a nice time with grown-up Goldilocks and her family, the bear decides to finally head home to the forest, after all it is his home sweet home!  

 

Another such book that turns around the “Sleeping beauty” into a charming tale of a poor prince is “Sleeping Nasty” by Tony Bradman and illustrated by Richard Watson that also doubles as an early chapter book by the White wolves series by A & C Black London.  Prince Oscar is a prince who wants to explore the world but is disappointed when asked to go looking for a rich princess to marry so that his royal family would be uplifted from state of royal penury. Though reluctant prince, a dutiful son that he is to his parents, Oscar sets off on a bride-finding adventure. Oscar searches everywhere but cannot find the right princess. Either they are married or didn’t want to talk to him. Then one sunny afternoon, he meets an old shepherd who tells him about the sleeping beauty, a princess who has been sleeping for over hundred years as a bad fairy had cast a spell on her that can only be broken by a prince’s kiss. Oscar thinks this to be an ideal proposition and heads off to find her. As he enters the castle, braving the hedge of thorns, he finds the castle spooky and dingy with a few people having fallen asleep in the middle of whatever they had been doing. At last he finds the princess who is snoring and even has a bit of dribble running from her mouth. As he kisses her, the princess opens her eyes, she yells "Who are you and what took you so long"? Oscar was hoping for meet a grateful princess, but instead finds her bad-tempered and mean.  As she heads out to meet her parents to tell them of the news, he finds that her parents too are snooty and bad tempered and didn't think too much of him. Just then a fairy appears who turns out to be the bad fairy who had cursed the princess earlier and consequently suffered ignominy and isolation amongst other fairy colleagues. So in an attempt at atonement, she decides to help people and not harm them and thus to help Oscar whom she sees as needing some desperate measures!  So Oscar wishes for the sleeping nasty to be put back to sleep till she is “a bit nicer” and wishes that his parents were to be rich once again so that he is free to do what he likes. So Oscar travelled the world and saw wonderful sights and met lots of interesting people, including a princess who was beautiful as well as sweet natured and they were married off in a week. This goes to show that things never turn out quite as you might think! A great message to start the new year with …don’t you think?:-)