Children’s Literature … – Page 5

Lightroom Bookstore: The City’s Best-Kept Secret for Kids

Posted on January 5, 2016 by bijalv

https://lbb.in/bangalore/lightroom-bookstore/
Ten-second takeaway

A veritable Narnia for children’s books.

lightroom

A one-stop-shop for children’s books

The delight you feel when stepping into Lightroom Bookstore is comparable to what we think Lucy Pevensie might have felt when she crawled through the cupboard to reach the magical world of Narnia. You can’t help but be spellbound as you walk through the inviting space, surrounded by books and more books.

Aashti Mudnani started Lightroom in 2013, after dreaming about it for seven years. “From the beginning the idea was to have a handpicked selection, keeping books that we believed were good for our children to read,” said Mudnani. “Choosing books is quite an intensive task – we go over endless lists sent to us by publishers, online recommendations, friends’ book lists, reviews etc, to choose the books we keep.”

Go ahead, explore

Lightroom has a range of international and Indian books for children and young adults. Apart from the usual suspects such as Harry Potter, Julia Donaldson, and Percy Jackson, there’s The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard by Eddie Campbell and Dan Best, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, and Paper Planes by Dawn O’Porter. There are books published by Tulika, Hachette, Tara, Katha, Pratham, Duckbill, Red Turtle, Puffin, and Young Zubaan, selected by the team at Lightroom.

One wall looks like it belongs on the page of Brain Pickings, Maria Popova’s literary and cultural website. Here you will find displayed the gorgeously-illustrated Animalium: Welcome to the Museum by Katie Scott and Jenny Broom, Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell’s The Sleeper and the Spindle, and I’ll Be You and You Be Me by Ruth Krauss and Maurice Sendak.

We spent a fair amount of time on the floor perusing Knock! Knock! by Kaori Takahashi. Some of the Lightroom team members joined us in unfolding the beautifully-crafted book. When we gushed over The Giant Game of Sculpture by Hervé Tullet, they opened the book, which transformed into a DIY installation for budding artists. You can also buy notebooks, block stamps and DIY craft kits, apart from children apparel by Hidden Harmony and hand-stitched toys by Blue Mango. Lightroom also holds two events per month.

Why we love them

What makes Lightroom special is its people. Mudnani and her helpful team are knowledgeable and unobtrusive. Need a book for a ten-year-old who loves monsters, a birthday gift, or a first book for your toddler, they know just what you want. And they even smile approvingly if you confess that the book’s actually meant for you.

Where: 1, Lewis Road, Cooke Town

When: Monday to Saturday, 10.30am-6.30pm

Contact: 080 25460466

Price: INR 100 upwards

Find them on Facebook here.

Shopping for dreams

Posted on January 5, 2016 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/the-shop-of-dreams/article8044145.ece?ref=tpnews

A few weeks ago, I went to a Shop of Dreams, a pop-up store which was actually an exhibition. It was a collaboration between Edinburgh-based artist Symon MacIntyre, faculty/artist Amruta Shah and students of the Srishti School of Art and Design in Bengaluru, as part of their interim project.

Along with a group of children, I was welcomed into a pop-up store that looked like it belonged in the pages of an Enid Blyton book or a Neil Gaiman short story. Like me, the children felt like they had climbed atop the Magic Faraway Tree and were whisked into the fantastical land that was the Shop of Dreams.

The children, a boisterous bunch, excitedly window-shopped for dream jars, where owls nestled in tree holes and upside-down houses, pixie dust in purple and turquoise blue, and the stuff of nightmares was ensconced in matchboxes. You needed drupees, dream currency, to shop and for that, you had to earn them by playing games.

What fascinated me about the exhibition was how it engaged children (also adults) with something as familiar as dreams and nightmares. Play blended with art to become a space where reality was suspended for a little while. Children could explore the exhibits that were not just sterile objects hung on walls. They could pick them up, and examine them to their heart’s content. Well, until the next tot shoved them aside at least.

Since you couldn’t shop with money, you could almost see the conundrum children faced about ‘earning’ enough dream currency to be able to ‘buy’ their favourite fancies. One parent complained that the announcement didn’t mention money, until the students pointed out the concept of a dream currency. She relaxed and set off to make some herself.

In many ways, the exhibition was a stark reminder of growing up in a capitalistic world where even dreams can be traded for the right currency. On the Srishti website, the project was explained: “Every day, in and around us, we see advertisement hoardings selling us some kind of dream. This concept is about the essence of dreams. It is about the de-commercialisation of dreams. Although it is a shop of dreams, the dreams can only be bought by someone prepared to give us something in return. It’s a barter system. There is no currency in our shop. It’s a room full of ideas, imagination and little triggers that can trigger your own imagination.”

And truly, there was a sense of wonder in getting something without actual rupees passing hands, taking them away from their consumerism-centric world. A hark back to the history of money and the barter system. Moreover, the exhibition didn’t have any videos or screens.

In fact, the games were based on traditional board games, word puzzles and a dart board. The Shop of Dreams was all about discovery. A Cheetah-branded matchbox opened to show a skull and bones or a fluffy cloud studded with stars. Inviting bottles were filled with curious potions, where we had to use our imagination to think what a nightmare concoction would taste like. Everyday, objects were transformed into the extraordinary. And I heard a boy and girl decide they were going to try to replicate one of the exhibits for a class project.

As I left the shop — clutching my precious stash of pixie dust, a dream jar, and a nightmare potion — I couldn’t help but think that increasingly what we see and what we touch is becoming homogenised. Our visual culture is more and more limited to screens where images are beamed to us constantly, and games packaged for us. Yet, right here was an example that our experiences don’t have to be limited to screens.

In a city like Mumbai, we are starved for open and play areas, and green spaces. Our idea of a weekend well spent is going to the mall. It would be wonderful if more artists and educators would come to create such spaces where children can play, explore, and innovate. And where going out doesn’t have to be about ‘shopping’.

(The writer is the former editor of Time Out Bengaluru and writes about education for sustainable development, conservation and food security)

My favourite children’s books of 2015

Posted on January 5, 2016 by bijalv

http://www.dailyo.in/arts/childrens-books-2015-the-diary-of-wimpy-kid-mahasweta-devi-greg-heffley-samit-basu-the-adventures-of-stoob-super-zero-payal-kapadia-sundarbans-sarojini-naidu-razia-sultan-/story/1/8112.html

School books, quirky ghosts, funny superheroes- there’s a lot to choose from.

It’s been quite a year for children and young adult books in India. Here’s a look at some of my favourites this year.

School books ruled the roost

Greg Heffley of The Diary of Wimpy Kid fame had serious competition this year. When it comes to schools, the children’s publishing industry was busy with sequels. Samit Basu’s The Adventures of Stoob: A Difficult Stage is a whirlwind read. Stoob’s childhood is firmly behind him, after all he is now in Class 6 and wears full pants. When his classmates are not discussing relationships and icky stuff, they are auditioning for the school play.

Stoob is rip-roaringly funny, and Basu steps into the canvas shoes of a school student with ease. He also takes on certain television series meant for children and manages to make a point about today’s intelligent young audience.

The book is rip-roaringly funny, and Basu steps into the canvas shoes of a school student with ease.

Jane De Suza’s little superhero has his hands full in Super Zero and the Grumpy Ghosts. In the second installment of the series, Super Zero has to rid a mall of a motley crew of ghosts. De Suza keeps the reader laughing from the beginning to the end – Super Zero is full of mad-cap jokes and punch lines, with a fun story to match.

Super Zero is full of mad-cap jokes and punch lines, with a fun story to match.

Horrid High: Back to School by Payal Kapadia returns with another adventure. Horrid High is no longer the horrid school that it once was – Granny Grit is now principal and has a new fleet of teachers.

But when Granny Grit has to rush to the Amazon, 12-year-old Ferg and his friends are left to figure out the mysterious Grand Plan, dodge Cook Fracas’s food fights and attend classes with some weird teachers. A spirited read.

Horrid High: Back to School by Payal Kapadia returns with another adventure.

Showing their stripes

Both Nayanika Mahatani’s Ambushed and Mitali Perkins’ Tiger Boyinvite young readers to the forest with their stories. In Ambushed,Gadget-addict Tara stumbles upon an international ring of poachers at a tiger reserve. Now it’s up to the ten-year-old girl and Satya, a tribal boy to save a tigress and her cubs. A wonderful read, Ambushed is a treasure trove of information about the striped cat and the need to save them.

Tiger Boy is the story of Sundarbans, its people and its wildlife. Neel and his sister get together to help a tiger cub who’s gone missing in the mangrove forest. Even though he has a scholarship to study for, Neel forgets everything in order to save the tiger.

It is a story about the complex relationship between humans and animals.

Tiger Boy is a wonderful story about the complex relationship that humans and animals share – fragmented, ethnocentric, wondrous, and symbiotic.

Beautiful picture books

Illustrator Ruchi Shah renders Mahasweta Devi’s Our Incredible Cowinto a gorgeous picture book. Nyadosh, the cow goes about chewing everything in sight, while Shah reinterprets the story imaginatively, giving the cow different avatars of what she eats. Fabric, books, banana leaves, and even onion rings become part of innovative collages to form Nyadosh.

Ruchi Shah renders Mahasweta Devi’s Our Incredible Cow into a gorgeous picture book.

Roopa Pai and Archana Sreenivasan’s My Space, My Body takes on the subject of personal space and body awareness. Parents often find it hard to talk to their children about these topics, but now help is at hand in the form of siblings Taka and Dimi. Sreenivasan’s illustrations are lively as is Pai’s storytelling.

My Space, My Body feaures worksheets and fun activities like this.

8 Ways to Draw an Elephant is an art activity book that not only introduces children to natural history, but also to different Indian art forms. Children will love learning about Asian and African elephants and then tracing, patterning, and colouring the pachyderms in different folk and tribal styles.

Lots of history, some with mystery

Subhadra Sen Gupta’s A Children History of India is an omnibus of sorts. Children can step back into time to ancient and medieval India. Sen Gupta then takes young readers to the British period and then writes about growing up in a free India.

Sen Gupta not only talks about the empires that ruled India but also how the common people lived – the houses they lived in, their clothes, and what kids studied at school. It’s a wonderful way to learn about India and its people.

With the history-mystery series, no one’s ever going to accuse the subject of being dull. Razia and the Pesky Presents by Natasha Sharma is a delightful book about Razia Sultan.

Razia and the Pesky Presents is a delightful book about Razia Sultan.

The Delhi ruler finds herself being sent some really pesky gifts with rude notes. It’s nice to get presents but not if they are challenging your right to rule as a woman. While the series is based on real historical characters, the stories have their own quirks and narratives.

The real super heroes

Written in the form of letters from 12-year-old Sarojini to freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu, Mathangi Subramanian’s Dear Mrs. Naidu is a powerful story about empowerment. Sarojini decides that her government school’s going to have to pull up its socks and do better under the Right to Education Act.

Help is on hand in the form of unlikely friends and a human rights lawyer who is also an evil genius. There are hurdles to face – from a headmaster who can’t be bothered to care, mothers who are busy with thousands of chores, and one of the best characters ever – a nightie-clad councilor tapping away on her phone and ignoring her constituency. Subramanian’s story feels very much real, but in that gritty reality she also finds hope and humour.

It is in the form of letters from 12-year-old Sarojini to freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu.

Half the Field is Mine is a spunky tale about two friends whose dearest wish in the world is to play football. But the boys’ team does not want girls to play with them any longer, and the two girls set out on different journeys to question gender differences. Swati Sengupta comes up with interesting questions about sports and gender.

Another superhero is nine-year-old Nina in Shabnam Minwalla’s The Shy Supergirl. As the book starts, “But sometimes, just sometimes, they [superheroes] turn out to be small girls who weigh twenty-one kilos and hate Hindi homework.”

Shabnam Minwalla’s The Shy Supergirl.

Nina, we find out, has a superpower to see if people are nice or nasty, or “a messy mix of the two”. She wields it to solve a mystery in her building. Part of the hOle book series, The Shy Supergirl is about people, and what propels them to be nice or nasty, greedy or kind, sly or compassionate.

11 Books That Will Get Children To Explore The Wild

Posted on October 9, 2015 by bijalv

http://www.natgeotraveller.in/web-exclusive/web-exclusive-month/11-books-that-will-get-children-to-explore-the-wild/

World Habitat Day Special: Let a book lead you into swamps, seas and more

TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS: BIJAL VACHHARAJANI

POSTED ON: OCTOBER 5, 2015 12:00 AM

Hitch a ride on the back of a glorious book about wildlife.

click me

Children’s books can work like portkeys to nature. Turn the pages and you can be whooshed into a dense green jungle full of mysterious tigers and merry bears, transported to a bleak desert landscape, or plunged deep into the ocean, swimming with sea turtles and dodging jellyfish. On World Habitat Day, we pick 11 books that will enchant young readers and introduce them to habitats where the wild things are.

Sundarbans with Tiger Boy

In Mitali Perkins’ Tiger Boy, Neel’s parents and teachers want him to study hard for a scholarship that will take him from the Sundarbans to Kolkata. But Neel loves his home – he can splash like a river dolphin in the freshwater pond, climb tall palm trees, and forage for wild guavas. Besides, he has a bigger problem than geometry and algebra to worry about: there’s a tiger cub missing from the reserve. With the help of his sister Rupa, a spunky girl who has been forced to drop out of school, Neel decides to find the cub and save it from being trafficked by the evil Gupta. After all, who knows the island better than him?

Tiger Boy takes children into the swampy forests of the Sundarbans. Perkins paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to live in a place threatened by climate change: islands bolstered against rising sea levels by sandbags and furious cyclones tearing away mangroves. Yet, Tiger Boy is a story of hope; it’s about the splendour of the mangrove forests and islands, the magnificence of the tiger and its vulnerability, and human resilience in the face of adversity.

Also see:The Honey Hunter by Karthika Nair and Joëlle Jolivet is a sumptuously illustrated book that brings alive the richness of the Sundarbans. Nair’s story takes children through the mangrove forest, while Jolivet’s candy-coloured illustrations bring to life the honeybees, tigers, and trees of the Sundarbans.

Africa with The Akimbo Series

“Imagine living in a place where the sun rises each morning over blue mountains and great plains with grass that grows taller than a man.” This is where Akimbo lives, on the edge of a large game reserve in Africa. Readers will be enchanted by young Akimbo and his home. British author Alexander McCall Smith is best known for The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, but he has a delightful repertoire of children’s books as well, which includes the Akimbo series.

Set in the heart of Africa, Akimbo lives alongside zebras that graze in the plains and lions, leopards, and baboons in the hills and forest. Man-animal conflict, poaching, conservation, and endangered animals are all part of the narrative. In Akimbo And The Elephants, his father who works on the reserve points out an animal and cautions him, “Don’t make a noise. Just look over there.” If only everybody on a safari would listen to Akimbo’s father, we would have so many more quiet and pleasant trips into the forest.

Also see: You’ve watched the movie Duma, now read the book it is based on.How It Was With Dooms is the story of Xan Hopcraft who grew up with a cheetah at his home in Nairobi. There are some lovely photos by his mother Carol Hopcraft in the book as well.

The Western Ghats with The Adventures of Philautus Frog

If you thought frogs lived only in ponds, then Kartik Shanker’s book will make you think again. Shanker’s protagonist is Philautus or Thavalai, a tree frog who has never ever come down from his Big Tree home. One day, Thavalai decides to hop off to look for the big blue sea. He has many adventures, including getting directions from a snake who could have easily swallowed him whole.

Maya Ramaswamy’s illustrations recreate the dark, deep shola forest, the surrounding hills and grasslands, and their many denizens. A hornbill sits placidly in one corner of the page, while a balloon frog puffs up in purple glory on another. Venomous snakes slither across the book and a dragonfly flits over the words. The book is packed with nuggets of information, such as that grasslands are hot in the day and cold at night, but the shola is always cool. Readers also learn that Thavalai often gets teased because Philautus frogs bypass the tadpole stage and froglets hop straight out of eggs.

Also see: Children can Walk the Grasslands With Takuri, a pygmy hog who is the protagonist of this book by Nima Manjrekar and Nandita Hazarika. Part of the same series is Aparajita Datta and Nima Manjrekar’s Walk The Rainforest With Niwupah, where a hornbill takes readers on a tour of his rainforest. Both books have been illustrated by Ramaswamy.

Hingol National Park with Survival Tips For Lunatics

Shandana Minhas’ Survival Tips For Lunatics is a rollicking tale that throws together a motley bunch of characters. There’s a squabbling pair of siblings, a Protoliterodragon who cannot stand bad poetry, and an angry black bear “with a dislike of the species that had put him on the endangered list”. The story is set in Hingol National Park in south-west Pakistan which is home to Chandrakup, the largest mud volcano in South Asia.

Changez, 12, and his brother Taimur aka Timmy, 9, go camping with their parents. Next morning, Changez wakes up to realise that the parents left them behind by mistake. Help is at hand in the form of a talking sparrow and other animals. The unlikely group end up across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where they find that the human world holds more dangers than the forest. Survival Tips For Lunatics also explores the multifarious wonderful and fraught relationships that humans and animals share, and while doing so, holds up a mirror to our flawed ideas of civilization. But Minhas’ touch is always light, keeping the reader chuckling and turning the page.

Also see: Jungu The Baiga Princess by Vithal Rajan is set in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh and spotlights conservation and tribal rights. It’s a story about the Baiga tribe and their commitment to protecting their forest.

Around the World with The Snail And The Whale

What happens when a snail has an itchy foot and wants to see the world? He hitches a ride on the tail of a humpback whale for the journey of a lifetime. Illustrated by Axel Scheffler, Julia Donaldson’s picture book is a real treat. Young readers will join the snail and the whale to see “towering icebergs and far-off lands” where penguins frolic in the water. Then they go on to “fiery mountains and golden sands” to say hello to monkeys and turtles. While Donaldson doesn’t dwell on any particular habitat, the book makes for a fun guessing game about possible locations. For instance, where in the world are caves beneath waves where sharks with hideous toothy grins lurk? Or which place is sunny and blue and has thunderstorms?

Also see: In The One And Only Ivan, Katherine Applegate talks about the tyranny of captivity and the yearning for the wild. The story is narrated by Ivan, a silverback gorilla who lives in a glass cage in a performing mall. Ivan introduces himself in the most heartbreaking manner by saying, “I used to be a wild gorilla, and I still look the part.” Ivan chooses to not remember his real home, where his father had a bouncy belly that was the perfect trampoline for his sister Tag and him. It’s the only way he can cope with living in a cage. Based on a real life story, Ivan is both beautiful and moving – a poignant reminder of the absence of home.

There’s a bit of magic in the illustrated Harry Potter series

Posted on October 9, 2015 by bijalv

http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/harry-potter-jk-rowling-bloomsbury-jim-kay-hogwarts-diagon-alley-hagrid-muggles-platform-93-4/story/1/6690.html

Jim Kay’s attention to detail is a fitting tribute to JK Rowling’s fabulous story.

Over the last few months, Potterheads have been getting email owls from Bloomsbury announcing the launch of an illustrated Harry Potter book series. It was reported that Jim Kay, who won the Kate Greenway Medal for his gothic illustrations of Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls, has been commissioned to illustrate one of the most popular books of our times. In an interview to The Guardian, Kay said that he reacted to the news with an “explosion of delight, followed instantly by an implosion of brain-freezing terror”. An understandable reaction.

After all, every Potterhead in the Muggle universe has a distinct visceral idea of how the staircases in Hogwarts move, what the chaos on Platform 9^3/4 looks like on the day the Hogwarts Express leaves for the Best School Ever, and how the castle changes as autumn slips into winter. The world of Harry Potter which was created by JK Rowling some 18 years ago continues to exist in the collective imagination of Muggles across the world.

Given that I own all the Potter books and the spin-offs, a handsome army of figurines, and bits and bobs such as the Elder Wand and the Gryffindor pen, I had told myself sternly that I did not need to buy this book. My imagination was good enough. Further, like all Potterheads, I had already had to contend with the film versions and my opinionated thoughts about the adaptation.

But merely hours after the book launched on October 6, I succumbed to temptation. A shiny copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has been added to my considerable collection. And I don’t need Veritaserum to admit that I have no regrets. The new book is a coffee table tome (costs like one too), resplendent with colours and quirky characters. A word of warning: If you are planning to tote it around to show it off to your Muggle friends, think again. The book is Hagrid-size.

Also read: Five spells every Indian could learn from Harry Potter

As I opened the book reverently, it took me back to my childhood, to the eighties, when we read beautifully illustrated books from Russia, UK, and Europe. Those books were interspersed with dreamy water colour illustrations sandwiched between the stories. Kay’s book is reminiscent of those classic stories, but with his personal, quirky twists.

The good news is that The Boy Who Lived has green eyes, while Dumbledore has piercing blue eyes. On that happy note, let us reread the beloved tale. Each chapter starts with a detailed illustration which gives the reader an inkling of what’s about to come. In a YouTube video, Kay explains how he even made 3D models to understand how the light would fall before illustrating the final version.

And Merlin’s Beard! The details are what make the book a treat. For instance, he puts the hog in Hogwarts with boar gargoyles on the intricate castle of his imagination. Backgrounds are richly textured, as is the landscape.

The illustrations get richer as Harry steps into the wizarding world. Diagon Alley will make you gasp with delight. This is Harry’s (almost) first glimpse of the wizarding world, and true to Rowling’s prose, the illustration shows a cobbled street that twists and turns with shops piled high with strange wares. Draco Malfoy makes an appearance – pale, pointed face (check) with cold eyes. On his website Kay says that he achieved the slightly unsettling effect using a simple trick – “If you illustrate a person’s eyes perfectly symmetrical, there’s something creepy about their appearance”.

Also read: Why I feel Harry Potter made the world a better place

The Sorting Hat is a wonderful surprise. Rowling described it as patched and frayed, and Kay’s Hat is all of that. But it’s also bright and happy with textured, colourful patches – poles apart from the comparatively surly movie version. On his website, Kay describes the making of the Sorting Hat, “One of the fabrics is from a beautiful book of fabric samples I saw years ago in the Royal Museum, Edinburgh. Never know when you’ll find a use for the little notes you make.”

It’s evident the Kay has drawn Hagrid with much affection. The bearded half-giant sports a skull and bones scarf and has little badges on his coat, an idea that Kay borrowed from his school caretaker. A lot of Kay’s inspiration comes from the world around him – whether it’s strangers he bumps into or people he knows well. Like Rowling, Kay seems to love metaphors and symbols. Dumbledore sits at his desk, choosing a Sherbet Lemon while a praying mantis sits close by. In an interview to Pottermore, Kay said that the mantis, which means prophet, depicts the headmaster’s honesty.

Most of the characters only appear once or twice in the book, which is a bit of a disappointment. Like Oliver Twist, you can’t help but want more. But don’t get your wands into a knot – when you have majestic Norwegian Ridgeback dragons flying across the page and Mountain Trolls thumbing their snouts at you, there’s really not much room for complaint. Wait until you get to Quirrell/Voldemort, the tantalising peek will ensure impatience for the second book to come out soon.

At the back of the book, Rowling says that she was moved profoundly by Kay’s illustrations. The attention to detail, the masterful paintings, and the thoughtful deliberation on the characters, all of it is a fitting tribute to her fabulous story. The illustrated version is something that Madam Pince will guard fervently in her library, and as will us Potterheads.

We need to pass our love for nature to children

Posted on October 1, 2015 by bijalv

http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/wildlife-environment-world-wildlife-week-enid-blyton-winnie-the-pooh-rachel-carson/story/1/6549.html

World Wildlife Week starts on October 2, celebrate it by taking a walk in the park or having a picnic.

The tabby kitten was a quivering mass of fur and bones when my mother scooped her up from the roadside and brought her home. My sister, with her zoophobia, promptly locked herself inside the kitchen, making cooing noises from a safe distance. I was all of seven, and fascinated by the kitten’s round eyes and persistent mews. From the time I can remember, wayward kittens, injured rose-ringed parakeets, and heat-stressed munias found a foster home with my mother. Spiders weren’t whacked to death, instead they were gently carried out to the plants on our balcony. Lizards were pronounced cute, much to our collective horror. All cats as a rule were called Jinglu and Minglu, other animals got various names until they were well enough to go back into the big bad world of Delhi.

Years later, I picked up a copy of The Sense of Wonder by conservationist and author Rachel Carson and read this wonderful line – “If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”

Those words made perfect sense to me. Growing up, one of my most treasured memories is of my mother reminiscing about her childhood. My mother’s family lived on the outskirts of Bhuj in Gujarat, close to a forested area. She told us about a brown owl who would knock on their front door thrice – tap, tap, tap. He (perhaps she?) would uncannily mimic the knock that was the agreed signal for my grandfather to announce that he was home. My mother would open the door ready to greet her father, only to have the tiny owl quickly dash into the house or retreat to his favourite perch on the tree outside, staring at them solemnly with his big eyes.

There were stories of a cobra cooling off in their bathroom, and another of a fighting pair of snakes who borrowed the living room as an arena. On such occasions, a local snake catcher caught the snakes and released them back in the wild.

My mother inherited this compassionate streak from her father. Their brown-and-white cow would only go to bed after my grandfather had petted and talked to her. When my grandfather was transferred to Mumbai, the most heartbreaking part of the move was leaving their cow behind. My mother still remembers the cow mooing sadly, while the siblings sulked, unable to understand why the cow couldn’t accompany them to the city. Surely people in Mumbai drank milk.

Fascinated, I took to reading about these animals in books. I was enchanted by Enid Blyton, with her stories about children taking long walks in the moors, climbing sturdy oak trees in the woods, and meeting animals in the wild. Richard Louv, in his book, Last Child in the Woods, writes that “environmental educators and activists repeatedly mention nature books as important childhood influences”. Indeed, stories such as AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh or Gerald Durrell’sMy Family and Other Animals, have inspired generations of wildlife lovers. I yearned to have owls knocking on the door at our Defence Colony house, and comforted myself with fiction badgers, elephants, and Pooh bears instead.

My father, while evading my constant demands for a dog, took us to city gardens on weekends, while holidays were spent in forests and hill stations. We climbed trees, picnicked at Lodhi Gardens, and were constantly gifted books about animals. All these fuelled my sense of wonder for nature. It didn’t matter that we didn’t always know the name of the brightly-coloured birds, majestic raptors, or creepy crawlies we saw. It was enough to be able to observe them.

World Wildlife Week starts on October 2, and there’s no better way to celebrate it than by passing on your love for nature to children. Take them for a nature ramble or a hike, let them observe and learn about animals and their habitat, and share a story or two about wildlife. As Carson reminds us, “A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement.” It’s up to us, the grown-ups, to keep it that way.

PS: No owls have come calling to my house, although I have helped rescue a few. Even now when I meet a tiny brown owl, such as the spotted owlet, in the wild, I wonder if it’s the same species as the one that used to knock on my mother’s door.

Five books that make history fun for children

Posted on August 28, 2015 by bijalv

http://www.dailyo.in/arts/indian-history-mughals-mauryan-age-ashoka-chola-razia-sultan-ajanta-caves-books/story/1/5596.html

Textbooks apart, there are different ways of bringing the country’s past alive for young readers.

Decades ago, my school days were tortured by numbers. Whether it was complex equations in Maths or the dates in History and Civics, the figures just refused to stay put in my head. Apart from key dates in India’s history, it was almost impossible for me to remember in what year did a particularly bloody battle happen or when did some dynasty ruled what part of India.

Further, history is a reflection of cultural and political values of a particular time. Over the last few years, there has been a lot of opposition and public debate about the rewriting of text books with nationalist themes in them.

Textbooks apart, there are different ways of bringing history alive for young readers, and one is the substantial number of children’s books – both fiction and non-fiction – that are available today.

A Children’s History of India, by Subhadra Sen Gupta

Written at the back of this 445-page book is a relevant message – “History is not just about kings, battles and dates, it is also about how ordinary people lived… it is the story of our past”. Now, if only someone had told me this when I was a child. A Children’s History of India starts from the time there was a land called Jambudvipa, the land of the rose apple. The author describes the landscape beautifully. She writes: “With soaring snow-capped mountain ranges of the Himalayas in the north and the tumultuous waters of the Indian Ocean in the south…” Sen Gupta’s lucid prose brings the past to the present, as she takes the readers on a journey from Harappa to the rise of Vijayanagar to the Mughal period and the fight for Independence to growing up in a free India. The book is full of snippets, such as the first railway line was laid between Bombay and Thane in 1853 CE (see, how much easier it is to remember dates like this one?) and how trains initially created panic among people who had “never seen anything like it before”. What really is interesting is the way Sen Gupta connects the reader to present day India, by recommending walkabouts to old buildings and museums in the country, offering trivia from the internet and suggesting classroom activities such as creating a Mughal manuscript.

Queen of Ice, by Devika Rangachari

Once in a while comes a book with a kickass female protagonist, and that’s Devika Rangachari’s Queen of Ice. This is the story of Didda, the princess of Lohara who is beautiful, intelligent and lame, but destined for greatness. Loathed by her father, Didda is married off to King Kshemagupta, the ruler of Kashmira, who prefers jackal hunts to attending to the grievances of his subjects. That’s when Didda realises it’s time to take matters, well the reigns, in her hands.

Didda was part of Rangachari’s doctoral research on women in early medieval north India. In her historical note, the author writes, “Although she was a masterful ruler who ensured an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity in Kashmir, her rule and contributions have been invisibilised or trivialised in accounts of this period.” Kashmir in the 10th century comes alive in this story that’s a clever mix of fact and fiction and Didda gets her fitting place in history.

The Puffin History of India Vol 2, by Roshen Dalal

While most children’s books focus on pre-Independence India, Roshen Dalal’s The Puffin History of India Vol 2 looks at the events that shaped the country post August 15, 1947. The book starts from Republic Day and goes on to offer a timeline of important events that took place until the turn of the millennium. The Partition, the first year post Independence, writing the Constitution, are all in the book. Dalal writes about 26 January, 1950 – “Celebrations in Delhi began the previous night with a two-km-long torchlight procession.” The author also talks about some of the policies that shaped India. There are whole chapters on foreign policy. Kids can learn about different prime ministers and governments, and also the Emergency, making it a comprehensive roundup of India’s contemporary history.

A Chola Adventure, by Anu Kumar and other series

There are some really interesting series of history books out there by different publishers. There’s Puffin’s Girls of India series, with titles such as A Harappan Adventure, by Sunila Gupte and A Mauryan Adventure, by Subhadra Sen Gupta. Anu Kumar’s A Chola Adventureis based in 990 CE in Tanjore and tells the story of 12-year-old Raji who one day decides to help a Chinese sailor. The Mysteries Series, by Red Turtle includes Kumar’s How Did the Harappans Say Hello? And 16 Other Mysteries of History. Kumar sets out to answer questions such as “Who drew on the walls of the Ajanta caves?” and “Will the real Vikramaditya please stand up?” A seriously fun series is History-Mystery, by Duckbill.

These, the publishers assure us, are mysteries that one will never find in history books. In Ashoka and the Muddled Messages, the Mauryan emperor is hopping mad because someone’s messing around with the messages he wants inscribed on pillars; and in Razia and the Pesky Presents, Razia Sultan, the ruler of Dilli has her own set of problems as someone is insisting on giving her girly gifts and challenging her right to rule as a woman. Based on real historical characters, author Natasha Sharma gives the books a fun twist, while ensuring the kids learn a few valuable lessons along the way.

Amazing India: A State by State Guide, by Anita and Amit Vachharajani

This one’s not strictly a history book, but for the amount of information it packs along with the quality of illustrations, it belongs in this list. Anita Vachharajani takes readers on a state-by-state trip of the country, acquainting them with the rich cultural and geographical diversity of India, while Amit Vachharajani’s quirky illustrations enliven up the book. Each state comes with its own map, fact file and an introduction which includes a short history. For instance, in Orissa, young readers can find out about the battle of Kalinga, who rebuilt the Jagannatha temple, and the dynasties that have ruled the state. What sets this book apart is that the Vachharajanis have written about defining social and environment moments such as the Chipko movement and also the Roerich Pact to protect world monuments during wars. Although the book’s brimming with information and illustrations, it is easy on the eye and a fun, quick read.

Five Indian children’s books on tiger everyone must read

Posted on August 4, 2015 by bijalv

http://www.dailyo.in/arts/world-tiger-day-books-children-national-animal-india-poachers-wildlife-environment/story/1/5300.html

On World Tiger Day, it’s time to show your stripes for India’s national animal.

ART & CULTURE

| GROWING PANGS | 4-minute read | 29-07-2015

It’s time to show your stripes for India’s national animal on World Tiger Day. We give you a round-up of five books about this magnificent animal that should be part of your children’s bookshelves.

1. Ambushed by Nayanika Mahtani:

The ten-year-old Tara is a gadget geek, she even thinks her Papa’s birthday cake should be shaped like his BlackBerry phone. Which is why when her banker-turned-photographer father decides to take her to Ranibagh, a tiger reserve in the Himalayan foothills for the summer, she’s horrified. After all, nothing ever happens there, does it? But then Tara lands splat in the middle of an adventure – who would have thought that the forest was not only home to the beautiful tiger, but also to an international gang of ruthless poachers? Satya, a tribal boy, enlists Tara’s help to literally save the skin of a tigress and her cubs.Ambushed is a fast-paced read that puts the spotlight firmly on conservation. Nayanika Mahtani’s debut novel is peppered with trivia, such as tigers are hard to spot and that some hundred years ago, there were over one lakh tigers in the world. While doing so, she also touches upon themes of social inequalities and the politics of conservation and poaching.

2. Ranthambore Adventures by Deepak Dalal:

For any child who has visited Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Deepak Dalal’s Ranthambore Adventures is sure to transport them straight back into the Rajasthan forest. Aditya is planning to join his friend Vikram in Ranthambore, when he stumbles upon the diary of a tiger poacher. Aditya is grabbed by the poachers and his friend Aarti follows their trail, all the way to Ranthambore. At the same time, readers are invited into the world of Genghis, a magnificent tiger and his family. An action-packed adventure, Deepak Dalal’s story is an informative read about tigers and their home, the forest. It’s also a story of friendship and courage, harking back to timeless books such as Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series. Although Ranthambore Adventures was first published in 1998, its message about tiger and forest conservation remains as evocative as ever.

3. The Tigers of Taboo Valley by Ranjit Lal:

One of the best explanation of a poacher comes from Raat-ki-Rani, a tigress who lives in Sher-Kila National Park. She explains to her cubs that “A poacher is one of those two-legged hairless cowards who will kill you if he can. He might use any revolting method he can think of – poison, traps or guns”. Tragically, the brave tigress dies at the hands of poacher Khoon-Pyaasa, leaving an unwilling boss tiger Rana Shaan-Bahadur to take care of his four cubs, Hasti, Masti, Phasti and Zafraan. But like many forest, this one too is brimming with gossiping animals, a vulture squad called Diclo-Fenac, a photographer from the National Geographic, and an underground group of porcupine terrorists who have it in for tigers. Ranjit Lal offers a hilarious wild rumpus, where readers learn about the fascinating animals, while sparking concern for the forests and its denizens.

4. Tiger by the Tail by Venita Coelho:

Venita Coelho’s book comes with a tagline, “Save the Animals, Save the World” – which happens to be the motto of the Animal Intelligence Agency (AIA). The back of the book explains that the AIA is “a multi-species non-governmental agency. Specially trained animal and human agents work undercover to save animals and save the world. Some of them have the licence to kill”. One of the agents with a licence to kill is Agent No 002 aka Bagha, a member of the Panthera tigris species. The tiger is 250kgs of sheer intelligence and muscle. He’s really what one could call a cool cat. Bagha and Rana, a boy who can communicate with animals because he can JungleSpeak, embark on a mission to investigate the disappearance of tigers from wildlife reserves across South Asia. Tiger by the Tail is a wonderful read, interspersed with pages of trivia and facts about tigers.

5. Tiger on a Tree by Anushka Ravishankar:

Published in 1997, Tiger on a Tree is one of the most iconic books about the big cat. Resplendent in orange and black, the picture book has been illustrated by Pulak Biswas. Anushka Ravishankar tells the story of a scaredy-cat tiger who gets stuck on a tree. As the villagers “Get him! Net Him! Tie Him Tight!” they need to decide what to do with this tiger. Written in verse form, Ravishankar talks about the man-animal conflict, courage, and kindness, in a simple yet beautiful way. Biswas’ illustrations carry forward the tale, bringing the forests, the river and the village alive with his brush.

Dead as a Dodo

Posted on August 4, 2015 by bijalv

http://www.mid-day.com/articles/book-review-dead-as-a-dodo/16424177
Book review: Dead as a Dodo

By Bijal Vachharajani |Posted 04-Aug-2015

When it comes to being extinct, the first name that leaps to one’s mind is the Mauritian flightless dodo. After all, the dodo bird went extinct in the late 1600s and even has a famous morbid phrase dubbed after it. But in Venita Coelho’s Dead as a Dodo, the extinct bird gets a new lease of life. After Coelho’s first book, Tiger by the Tail, Agent No 11.5 Rana makes a comeback, along with Agent No 002, Bagha the brave tiger; and Agent No 13, Kela, the mischievous and always-in-trouble grey langur. Rana has a special gift — he can use ‘JungleSpeak’ to communicate to animals, and for this skill, he’s part of the Animal Intelligence Agency.

Dead as a Dodo

This time around, the three protagonists are on Mission: Dead as a Dodo. While on the heels of a missing hangul deer, the trio stumble upon an extinction operation, where a shadowy villain is hell bent on stealing the last specimens of highly endangered species. Now, this villain has managed to lay his hands on an actual live dodo aka the Raphus cucullatus. Their adventure takes Rana, Bagha and Kela from Delhi to Mauritius to North America, in a quest to save the most endangered of species.

Coelho spins a real tale about conservation and international wildlife trafficking, while managing to keep the reader chuckling and guessing right until the very end. Her characters are spunky and the narrative is a lovely way of introducing children to different aspects of natural history.

William Hartston wrote in his book, The Things that Nobody Knows: 501 Mysteries of Life, the Universe and Everything, about the coelacanth, a fish that was believed to be extinct for 65 million years ago, but was caught in 1938, by fishermen off the coast of South Africa. Unfortunately, Hartston adds that the chances of the dodo being alive are only three in a million. As the earth enters into its sixth extension phase — a recent report revealed that “vertebrates were vanishing at a rate 114 times faster than normal” — Dead as a Dodo takes on a special significance. As Coelho points out in her book, it’s in our hands to ensure that today’s endangered species, like the hangul deer, don’t go the way of the dodo.

Dead as a Dodo, Venita Coelho, Hachette India, Rs 350. Available at leading bookstores and e-stores

– See more at: http://www.mid-day.com/articles/book-review-dead-as-a-dodo/16424177#sthash.5xz1cHN9.dpuf

Why I feel Harry Potter made the world a better place

Posted on July 9, 2015 by bijalv

http://www.dailyo.in/arts/harry-potter-jk-rowling-18-years-snape-ron-hermione-warner-bros-bloomsbury-dumbledore-hagrid/story/1/4557.html

It’s been 18 years since the first book took the world by the storm, and the magic hasn’t tarnished still.

At the turn of the millennium, it was definitely uncool to be caught reading a children’s books and that too one with bespectacled wizards riding strange beasts on the cover. I ignored the relentless jibes from my friends (yes, you all know who you are) and lost myself in the wizarding world of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I reread the books, watched first days, first shows of the movies, did marathon viewings with friends and spent pots of money on merchandise. Potter and his motley crew saw me through good times and bad.

In happier times, I curled up with a mug of masala chai, wishing it was butterbeer, and laughed and cried with the stories. Even now a figurine of Professor Snape stares at me from the top of my desk, threatening me with detention if I don’t finish this article.

It’s been 18 years since the first book took the world by the storm, and the magic hasn’t tarnished still. I rummaged through my pensieve of memories to revisit why the boy who lived continues to beguile us Potterheads.

Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways, but: Although Harry Potter is a wizard and the Chosen One, young readers were quick to realise that he’s not that different from them – for starters, he’s got unruly hair that makes him look scruffy and the adults keep wanting him to tidy up, he’s an average student who keeps procrastinating over homework and he feels the same fear of a first Quidditch match or exams as any one of us would when faced with a daunting task. In fact, his best friend Ron Weasley was the sarcastic, funny one and we all know that Hermione Granger was truly the brightest witch of her time.

The biggest battle Potter fights is against prejudice: In July 2014, theJournal of Applied Social Psychology published a study titled, “The Greatest Magic of Harry Potter: Reducing Prejudice”, which revealed that children who read the books were less prejudiced and more open minded towards immigrants and homosexuals. Earlier this month, another message behind the stories spilled into real life when the Harry Potter Alliance, a non-profit initiative led by fans of the books, won a four-year campaign with Warner Bros studio agreeing to make all Harry Potter-branded chocolate Fair Trade or UTZ certified by the end of this year. Clearly, the HPA took JK Rowling’s words to heart – “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: We have the power to imagine better.”

The books inspired a generation to read: In the year 2000, three years after the first Potter book hit bookshelves, The New York Times Book Reviewannounced that it would print a “separate best-seller list for children’s books… The change is largely in response to the expected demand for the fourth in the Harry Potter series of children’s books, editors at the Book Review said”. JK Rowling’s best-selling series made room for a new brood of children’s books as more and more kids took to reading them. Alas, it also meant we had to suffer certain vampire-related books, but well, we can’t have it all.

It’s all about team spirit: Let’s face it, without Hermione, Harry just wouldn’t have got the philosopher’s stone, entered the chamber of secrets, rescued the prisoner of Azkaban… You get the drift. And then there was Neville Longbottom who had to finish off the last horcrux, Dobby who rescued them all, at (sniff, spoiler alert) great personal peril and Ron, erm… who managed to make us all chuckle.

It’s all about the choices we make: When Dumbledore says, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”, it’s reminiscent of how the world – wizarding and muggle – is not just black-and-white. We were all convinced that Snape had it in for Harry, only to be surprised by his goosebump-inducing story, which showed that he was protecting the boy. Tom Riddle was the perfect student but took on the mantle of the Dark Lord with his prejudices and his own fear of death. And Hagrid faced a lot of stigma for being half-giant but is one of the most gentle of the characters in the book series. Except, of course, for his love for Blast-Ended Skrewts, giant, carnivorous spiders and biting books.