Read Aloud session 3 : Dragon Loves Penguin by Debi Gliori

Read Aloud session 3 : 'Dragon loves Penguin'

Children don't want to wait ; they want the story right away!

Why we chose this book?

Valentine's Day just went by! And you just cannot restrict the information and visuals 5-8 years receive and process from their environment. Roses and hugs and kiss and all that jazz around the 'Valentines Day' establishes a very skewed up image of the word Love. We wanted to read to them what other aspects of love could be. The 'unconditional' aspect of it. And celebrating our differences.....and to be kind even to the unkind! and that the greatest gifts of all is 'Time and Love'.

About the Author - Debi Gliori

Debi Gliori is a Scottish children's books writer and a mother of 5. She has a great fan following including that of J K Rowing. With more that 75 books to her credit, she has also received rave reviews about her book 'What’s the Time, Mr Wolf?'. Her personal favorite and what she is proud of is "No Matter What" - a Book about unconditional love between a 'parent and a child'.

About the Book

A book that was bought last year but is picked up again and again from the book shelf by my daughter is ‪#‎dragonlovespenguin‬ by ‪#‎debigliori‬. This books talks about how people who are radically different from us can also be loved unconditionally. It conveys how its not always blood relation that matters.A brilliant story about unconditional love. Absolutely lovable illustrations and a lovely flow with very little text. Children just love to flip through its pages again and again.

About the Read Aloud Session
Dragon loves Penguin was a very exciting session. Children had so much to add to the story & of course they had cute questions! About Antarctica and Volcanoes and about bed-time stories!

A new feature that we have started is 'book rating' by the children on the scale of 1-4, 4 being the highest rating. They must back up with reasons as to why they gave that rating.This book got - 4,4,3,4 ( rated by 4 children). We had to use the talking pillow to avoid overlapping thoughts and give enough scope to the less vocal ones to speak.

Some of the reasons to like and dislike the book are summarized below:

1. I like the entire book , the story and the pictures, so I don't know which part to say was nice. (Rated 4)
2. It's OK for them to quarrel like sometimes we do with our friends. I like the 'little one' the most. Because she was brave and kind.(Rated 4)
3. I am giving 3 because I don't like the little one getting teased. (Rated 3)
4. (Summarized the entire story) and says ' I like When the little one found an egg. I was happy when little one found an egg. It was so cute ( the story). Awesome! (Rated 4)

And 'After-craft' is now a mandatory ritual. A little physical takeaway of the story! All the mini dragons breathing fire was indeed a exciting part for all of us. You will feel all the fun in the pictures. 
Click here for more pictures
Book review here

Our Incredible Cow by Mahasweta Devi, Illustrations Ruchi Shah

Our Incredible cow – by Mahasweta Devi

Mumma : “How was the book?”

Piku : “I am not going in front of any cow wearing blue!”

With that amusing answer as a review of a book, I didn’t know what to expect from the book.

We picked up this book at the recent children’s literature festival held in kolkata in Jan 2017. The author’s name rang a bell in our minds. We had read the ‘the why why girl’ from the same author and had liked it. An attractive blue cow cover-page illustration made us seal the deal immediately.

Why we like the book: This book surpassed our expectations that we had built from this book. This illustrated classic children’s book is amusing and comical. The story kept us in good humor from the first to the last line. The incredible cow not only is non-vegetarian, she has appetite for most unusual things.  She is radical and anti-police. She has preference for colors and chews up everything blue. The writer goes on to add a detail of mentioning that her father’s vests are till date not whitened in indigo blue against the usual practice. The little reader in my house giggled long reading that the cow’s vet had to be taken to the doctor. Ha ha! An idiom in Bengali says “Golper Goru Gaache uthe” which translates to the in a cock and bull story a cow may climb a tree. Forget trees, here she climbed up to 1^st floor.

Moreover, the equally creative illustrations by Ruchi Shah are upright to the story. They are unique, noteworthy and add up to the amusement of the story. Colorful materials like printed fabrics, sarees and embroideries from Bengal, measuring tapes, yarns ;  leaves and hay, bottles and fish and ‘what not’ has been used to form a silhouette of this incredible cow. Incredibly amusing indeed!

About the author and original story: The original story was written in Bengali. In the year 1964.

Satyajit Ray, in the year 1961, was trying to revive a children’s magazine ‘Sandesh’ which was started by his grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury (1913). ‘Sandesh’ the word means  ‘message’ and is also a much relished sweet in Bengal. Satyajit Ray, man who needs no introduction, was a visionary. He spotted the talent to write for children in ‘Khuku’. Khuku , the storyteller would write crazy tales of her family members and their pets. . ‘Amader Nyadosh’ the Bengali original title (translates to ‘Our Nyadosh ( name of the cow in the story;also means lazy plump and adorable) was one of her several contributions to Sandesh. She went on to become our famous writer Mahasweta Devi. Her distinguished legendary works ‘Hazar Chowrasi ki Ma’, ‘Rudaali’ is well known and were adapted to cinema. She eventually also became a social activist for the empowerment of the tribals.

Author: Mahasweta Devi

Illustrator: Ruchi Shah

No. Of Pages: 21

Reading level: 5 - 100 years

Paperback: 24 pages

Publisher: Tulika Publishers; 1 edition (2013)

Language: English and is available in 8 more languages ( Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Malyalam, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujrati)

ISBN-10: 9350466759

ISBN-13: 978-9350466759

Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 21.6 x 0.5 cm

Goodreads rating : 4.5/5

Amazon rating: 4.5/5

Charlotte's Web by E.B.White

Dad: "Its10:30pm, you could now keep the book down and go to sleep!"

6 year old : (showing the back cover) "See, what is written here - 'No Child should be without a Copy' .! 

The book is Charlotte's Web, a children's classic published in 1952. 

Author : Elwyn Brooks White ( The author of Stuart Little) 

Illustrator: Garth Willams

Publisher : Puffin, Penguin Group 

Age recommendation: 6 to 12 years (publishers recco - 9-12 years)

Goodreads rating: 4.19 /5 

The book came to us as a gift from the highly controversial book chain gifting system. Anyway! The cover photo of a little girl with lots of animals made my little girl pick the book up immediately. A chapter book with 22 chapters made the little reader carry it everywhere with her - to the car- to relatives place- to grandmothers house - to ..... And book got MISPLACED in between chapters. 

When the book could not be placed, we picked up a copy from the library. 

A beautiful tale of friendship between humans and animals ; animals and insects; about 'where there is a will, there is a way' and also about ' जाको राखे साईं, मार सकें ना कोई' ! A tale that talks about weaklings and having faith in them, about having faith in ur children and their special powers. 

Wilbur the Pig, Fern the Little girl, and the most heroic - Charlotte the spider and their magical story is a must read for Kids AND THE PARENTS. I insist - must read for the parents. I would also like to mention that it's not a book that you catch upto very fast. It's slow but with a lot of depth. 

This book has been adapted into picture books for younger children, movie, plays etc. And all kind of versions are available online. 

The American author E.B White won 1953 Newbery Medal honor for this first children's book of his. His second book 'Stuart Little' also recieved a lukewarm welcome but both these books are highly acclaimed in the literary world.