5 Tips for Raising Book lovers [UBC Post 27]

Every book lover dreams of having a book lover in his or her child too. Though many kids take to reading themselves but there are certain things which you can do to pave the way for your child into the world of reading.

Here are a few tips to raising book lovers:

1. Start Early. Make it a way of daily life.

Image courtesy: readtome.ca

The best time to introduce reading to your child is now. Yes. The sooner the better. Even one month old baby benefits when they are read to. At that age, you can read just about anything to him. I remember I used to read aloud whatever books I would be reading at that time. Once it was 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish' ha ha! Jokes apart, make reading to or with your child part of your daily routine. The formative years are the time to instill habits in kids. Make the best of it. We usually read during afternoons since my son used to be quite hyper just before sleeping. We had to switch off the lights for him to sleep. But recently, I started reading before bedtime and he just wouldn't let us drop that even when we are tired or late. He will get the bunch of books. Sometimes it is too funny!

2. Surround him with good books. 
Today there is an extensive range of books for each age-group. With imported books available at online stores and with several Indian publishers [like Duckbill Books, Tulika Publishers, Tara Books, Karadi Tales] creating books for Indian kids, it is a wonderful time to be a young reader. Take time to research and find books that are appealing and according to the child's age. I had shared a list of Fiction books which I have been reading to my son [ he just turned 2]. I will suggest you must read the book yourself first before passing it on to your kids. Not all books available for children in the market are good in quality and content or preaching the values you would like to inculcate in your child. I had shared my bad experience with a few kiddie books here. 

Image courtesy: Pinterest

3. Provide enough opportunities for reading. 
If you have good books but your TV is blaring all the time, chances are your child wouldn't be drawn to opening the book. TV is a visual medium - bright, attractive, dynamic. Compare it with a book. But of course, TV will dumb you down, books will make you imaginative. And I am sure, that is what you want for your kids. So, fix a time for TV [not more than 40-45 minutes for young kids]. 
If possible, create a reading corner for your child. See the picture. Even I would like to spend hours here. This place looks cozy and welcoming. We have a playing area in a corner of my living room. This place is for Dining Table but I have decided to wait for a while before I invite more trouble for myself. He will stand on top of the table or jump around the chairs. This place is just across the kitchen, so if I am doing something, I can keep an eye on him. I wanted to create a reading corner in another room with an open bookcase but at the last moment we felt he would start climbing up the shelves. So, we have dropped the idea for the moment. But I am going to get it may be in another year. 

4. Set an Example. Read yourself.
 Like in everything else, the child is going to copy you. If you are a voracious reader yourself, read all the time, love your books, care for your books; then chances are it is going to rub off on your child too. So, do what you preach. 

Image courtesy: examiner.com

5. Join a library. Visit bookstores together. 
A library will provide you a wide range of books. There are different kinds of libraries these days. There are also the ones in which you can order online and get the books delivered at your doorstep. And there are good old libraries where you visit the library, spend time, select books and issue them. I would suggest prefer those libraries. A library is a place where you will find other readers. It is inspiring to find other young readers. 
Along with library, also visit bookstores together when you go to buy books. When the kids are a little older, allow them to choose some of the books [with your approval of course]. 
Moreover, there are storytelling sessions for young kids these days, like the ones Falak takes. It helps to generate interest in kids through interesting storytelling techniques and related activities.

So, have you got any tip for me? 

5 Children's Fiction Books We Love [UBC Post 22]

Ideally, I would have posted this on my Book Blog but since I need to post quite a lot of posts on this blog this month, so I will cross-post on both blogs.

Every mother who is a book lover herself will do everything in her capacity to raise a book lover. For that, it is important to surround our kids with good books and enough reading opportunities. Especially when kids are very young, reading helps in developing vocabulary and language. 

Here are our 5 favourite Children's Fiction books; and let me tell you, I love them as much as my son does. I find them extremely interesting as well as full of opportunities for learning, no matter how many times we read them: 

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: This is my most favourite book. 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle begins with a tiny and hungry caterpillar coming out of a small egg. He spends the entire week eating all sorts of fruits and other food items. Each day he keeps eating more and more, which leads to stomachache. He therefore eats through a green leaf to relieve his pain. At the end of the week, he turns into a big, fat caterpillar. He builds a cocoon around himself, and stays inside for 2 weeks. At the end he emerges out of it as a beautiful butterfly. It is amazing how such a simple book, with minimum words and simple illustrations, provides immense learning opportunities for children. The illustrations are vibrant and child-like. Right from learning the name of different fruits to numbers, from days of the week to lifecycle of a butterfly, there is so much to learn through this concise yet beautiful story. To top it all, there are tiny die-cut holes on the pictures of food items, which the caterpillar has supposedly eaten. This book is also available with plush toy, which can add extra interest to your storytelling. An older child would like the bigger book format or bigger board book, while there is a mini-board book for very young kids.

2. I Udderly Love You: It is an adorable book about unconditional love. The story is told from the point-of-view of a Mamma cow to the baby-cow. The lines are rhythmic and yet not too wordy. The story has been narrated with a whimsical twist by altering the spelling of few words to words related to cow. For example, 'utterly' becomes 'udderly', 'music' becomes 'moo-sic', 'movement' becomes 'moo-vement' and so on. The Mamma-cow tells her baby that she loves everything about her, every part of her, every mood, everything she does and how everyday is special with her. It also offers opportunity to learn body parts. 

3. The Going To Bed Book by Sandra Boynton: This is an extremely popular book for reading to young children at bed time. It starts from the setting of sun to the entire process of getting ready for bed, i.e., taking bath, brushing teeth, wearing pajamas, exercising (I still don't get the point of exercising before bed though) and turning off the light and going to bed. It comes in lap size also which is handy for the kids to hold and turn the pages. The text is minimum and rhythmic. 

4. The Little Gardener by Jan Gerardi: This book has flaps on every page. Though it is a board book but it is tear-able, especially the flaps. So, with really young kids, you need to be careful. I have had to put the flaps back with celotapes because my son suddenly discovered it was fun to tear the flaps apart. This book explains the process of gardening to young environment lovers. This is a colourful book with bare minimum text on each page (on most pages there are only 1 or two words) with very beautiful, child-friendly illustrations. Even this book is quite environment friendly - printed on 80% recycled paper with soy ink and water-based varnish. This book is useful in inspiring love for gardening and environment in young kids.   

5. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler: I bought this book recently and frankly, I was quite doubtful about its potential for a 2 year old kid. I was skeptical if this relatively long story with quite a lot of text will interest such a young child. But the fact is 'Gruffalo' is a lovable character rather than intimidating. It is an interesting story about a mouse who uses his intelligent to trick a lot of other animals who were preying on him, and saves himself. The text is rhythmic and quite enjoyable. It can be sung with voice modulation to create drama and generate interest (I read it that way). My son calls this book 'Goilla' (he means Gorilla since he finds Gruffalo similar to Gorilla).

The story is about a mouse, who is passing through the woods. He meets a fox, an owl and a snake one after another. Each wanting to trick him into going to their house, with the motive of feasting on him. But mouse tricks each of them into believing that he is going to meet 'Gruffalo' and creates an intimidating picture of Gruffalo which scares the, and they run away. Mouse laughs at them, safe in the knowledge that there is no such thing as a Gruffalo. But he is accosted by Gruffalo himself who also wants to eat him. The shrewed mouse convinces the Gruffalo to follow him and see for himself how all the animals are afraid of him (the mouse). Gruffalo watches snake, owl and fox run away on looking at the mouse (though actually they are scared of Gruffalo himself but Gruffalo does not realizes that). Eventually, when mouse tells Gruffalo that his favourite food is Gruffalo, the latter runs away too. And mouse is left alone. So, the intelligent mouse takes everyone for a ride and saves himself. 

NOTE:I realize that all the books I have mentioned are from foreign authors. I admit, most of the books which we have got so far are from non-Indians but I have got a list ready of some interesting Indian books for kids. I have a few books from Karadi Tales but I will recommend them for a little older kids (they are not in board book format and I have already suffered). There is an Indian rhyme book (with CD) from Karadi Tales which my son finds extremely captivating. Here is the link for that book.

So, do you have any good Children's books to share?

Images courtesy: flipkart.com

Reading Update for 2013 [UBC Post 19]

I took up a Challenge of reading 48 books this year in GoodReads Reading Challenge. I love this little widget which tracks my progress and tells me if I am on track or I need to hurry up. 

I have always been into reading but in the humdrum of life, we lose focus, get disoriented. Yes, reading is serious business for me. I don't just like reading books, I also love reading about books or buying them. Book collecting is a different hobby altogether.

I have been taking this Challenge since 2011 but I never did justice to it. Last 2 years were also quite challenging as my son was born and I got sucked into taking care of a newborn. It is overwhelming. But beginning of this year, I decided that this year I am going to be focused on my reading. I will not compromise on the quality of books though. Since I am not back into working professionally, I manage some time for reading. I know this year could be the year when I have maximum time for reading, which by any means does not mean I have a lot of time. But I use most of the free time I get in reading, no matter how little.

I have done well so far. I have read some interesting books and have quite a lot waiting to be read and reviewed. I also feel privileged that quite a lot of publishers send me books to review on my Book Blog. What more can I ask for really! In fact, I have to excuse myself from several requests depending on the genre / subject of the books or time I have. 

I have already crossed last year's 21 books. While I write this, I have read 24 books this year, while I am on 25th. 

Here are the books which I have read so far this year:

You can check out more about these books Here.

Here are the statistics:
FICTION: 16
NON FICTION: 8

If I had to pick my favorites out of these; here they are:

• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes [Genre: Fiction]
• The Greatest Show on Earth, Edited by Jerry Pinto [Genre: Films]
• Why Loiter? by Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan, Shilpa Ranade [Genre:Urban Studies / Women Issues]
• Room by Emma Donoghue [Genre: Fiction]
• Who Do You Think You're Kidding? by Lina Ashar [Genre: Parenting]
• I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella [Genre: Fiction/ Romance]

Though I have read more of Fiction, I am perhaps more fascinated by Non Fiction and the variety it offers - from memoir to anthology, from gender studies to films, from parenting to true crime. Another thing is a Non Fiction takes far more time to read than a Fiction. I can read a 400 pages thriller in 2 days but a book on Films with 400 pages will be completed in probably a week or even more. However, I want to explore more variety in reading this year. 
Amen!

I don't know how she does it by Allison Pearson

I just finished reading I don’t know how she does it by Allison Pearson. When I bought it on a heavy discount (although I still cannot believe that it was originally for 1000 bucks), I did not expect it to be a great read. I got it from Landmark. I wasn’t even looking for it. But when I started reading this amazing book, there was no looking back. I would wait for opportunities to read it. It’s a fat book, so I took 4 days to finish it, but it was truly a remarkable journey!

Reading “I don’t know how she does it” was like going through a myriad of emotions. It would make you burst into laughter at some point, it tugs at your heart and leaves you feeling warm, on several other occasions. It is a story so common to all women, no matter if she is in India or Germany or Britain or South Africa. She has to be a working woman, not even a mother, to empathise.

Well, the book is about a working mother. She is not just another working woman, rather she has a very important position in her company and she is also a high flier. She has international clients to cater to and takes care of other people’s finances. She works for the love of it. We all know how a job gives you a high anytime. A homemaker might suffer from self doubt at some point of time, about her abilities but a working woman always knows that she isn’t getting paid for nothing!

It’s the usual story of this working mother running against time to match steps with the role of a mother and expectations from all the responsibilities she handles at her workplace. To add to her woes, she is a constant target of all those stay-at-home mums for not being a good mother! Well, obviously, if you look at it, it is but natural to be jealous of a working mother because she is seemingly enjoying best of the both worlds. But, even without being a mum, I can feel her pain. There are so many like her around us.

When I finished this book, and even when I was reading it, I wondered what I would do when I became a mother. I really cannot say anything for sure. You never know! But ideally, I would like to stay at home for my baby. I would like to see the joy of listening to her first words, seeing her walk for the first time, be there when she is hurt or when she needs me. Why do we want to be mothers? Just to have children? Because that’s what everyone does? Or because motherhood really is a joyous experience. Being scarily responsible for somebody so tiny and trusting! If life is not about being there for her on those occasions, then I don’t know what really life is!

I know it is difficult when you are used to the idea of Double Income, when you are used to splurging at the whims and fancies, when you are accustomed to your monthly salary; it is really difficult to let it all go. We all think we would manage. We would maintain a fine balance between home and family. We all know that is a myth. Don’t we all associate home with mother? Aren’t we too used to it!

While I was reading the Shopaholic series, I thought this is how I wanted to write. But after reading I don’t know how she does it, I feel, well, I guess this one is so much more better. So much more humorous, so much more lively, so much more real!

Books I want to Read

I am grateful that finally I am catching up on my reading. I recently finished “For Matrimonial Purposes” by Kavita Daswani. It was the story of a girl who wants to get married. She is a typical girl, in many a sense, but she is not your common type, in many ways as well. She wants to get married to a decent Indian guy chosen by her parents, alright; but she wants to really like him (although may not really love him). It is important for her to get married to the right guy—right for her. In this pursuit, she looks at every Indian, marriageable guy, as her prospective groom and when it does not turn out to be the way she thought, she is left heart broken. Yes, with every guy! Well, if you look around isn’t this the case with modern, educated Indian guy or girl. It is not always that you fell in love with somebody and proceed towards marriage. Many times we do not come across any such person in our entire 25 to 30 years of lives! Quite possible!

The story is not hilarious; it is real. It is a story which you see everywhere. So, I kind of liked it. Thank God, the girl found a guy in the end and they lived happily ever after, whatever!

Right now, I am reading “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid. This book is very different in its narration. The narrator is talking to an American tourist and doing that, he is taking the reader through his experiences. The story is set against the 9/11 attacks and how it changed the lives of Muslims around the world, more so of those in America. I have read more than half of the novel, and I really want to read the author’s first book also called “Moth Smoke”. It is supposedly an acclaimed book and has won several Awards. I get a little scared to read an Award winning book. Most of the times, I do not understand it. Take the example of “Life of Pi”. I tried really hard but I could not finish it.

Well, anyways, I have tried to put together a list of books which I would like to read in near future:

Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid
Shopaholic & Baby by Sophie Kinsella
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (His “Kite Runner” was fabulous)
Protect and Defend by Vince Flynn (Haven’t read a good Thriller since ages)
Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch
Mahatma vs. Gandhi by Dinkar Joshi (which is supposed to be the basis for the movie “Gandhi, My father)
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris
A Crowded Marriage by Catherine Alliott
Bride at Ten, Mother at Fifteen by Sethu Ramaswamy
Can you Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella