I picked up a bunch of books from Tulika lately, based on what I thought Ads would like, and what he should be liking (yes, quite the Nazi mom here!!).
The first one was a book on Indian Dinosaurs (I didn't know we used to have any!) called Stone Eggs - The story of Indian Dinosaurs by Helen Rundgren. I was sure Ads would love this one, being nuts about all things animal these days. He has quite made up his mind to be a zoologist! Yesterday he was quite worried whether he could be a zoologist as well as a paleontologist :) The story, for story it is, is about a brother-sister duo who accidentally discover a bunch of sauropod eggs while vacationing in their grandma's village. They meet a palaeontologist who is excited with their find and through him, they learn about the different species of dinosaurs who existed in the Indian landmass millions of years ago. The book is lucid with and easy-to-read text for a 6 yo, and cute and colourful illustrations. A good starting point for beginner dino-lovers and yet engaging enough for more knowledgeable kids.
The second book I picked up was Barefoot Husain by Anjali Raghbeer. Now I do want my scientist to also have an artistic sensibility :) Tulika has a series of books on art and artists - Jamini Roy, Amrita Shergill, Ravi Verma are some of the others. Having taken Ads to the NGMA and some art shows, the names are not wholly alien to him and I started with Husain because he was particularly interested in his work when we visited the India Art Fair in January. Specifically he thought the horses looked very majestic and he thought Husain must not have been great at drawing expressions on faces and that's why his faces were blank :)
This book goes into flashback mode on Husain's early years, interspersed with his famous paintings. There's a fair back of flitting back and forth in time and the whole narrative happens in the imagination of a little boy who has been taken on a field trip to the Modern Art Museum. I think some of that was fairly confusing for Ads, but on future readings, perhaps I'll focus more on the art and less on the narrative. I'm looking forward to picking up more books on the series.
The third and final book is The Snow King's Daughter by Sowmya Rajendran. We haven't yet found the time to read it but it seems like a good opening to discuss a rather sensitive and weighty topic, so I am looking forward to Ads' take on the book. He gets somewhat hamstrung by his sister, who insists on sitting with us when we read and offering her valuable comments :) Case in point: We were reading Hanuman's Ramayan (another great book and the first one I read by Devdutt Patnaik) and discussing it when Y piped in: But tomato-kku enna aachu (What happened to the tomato?)
Me and Ads: Huh? Tomato-aa? What? Which tomato?
Y: Adhu-la tomato irundhudhey!
Ads (in disgust): There's no tomato in the story, Kondila! (The last word is what he calls her when he wants to annoy her, no one knows what it means but it makes her see red!)
Y: Waaaaaa....!!! (effectively ending the reading session, which I am sure was her intention all along!!)
I'm not sure how often I will post kiddie book reviews here, but I will try and post whenever we read something that is exceptional or different. Since we read a lot, hopefully that should not be too difficult!
This book goes into flashback mode on Husain's early years, interspersed with his famous paintings. There's a fair back of flitting back and forth in time and the whole narrative happens in the imagination of a little boy who has been taken on a field trip to the Modern Art Museum. I think some of that was fairly confusing for Ads, but on future readings, perhaps I'll focus more on the art and less on the narrative. I'm looking forward to picking up more books on the series.
The third and final book is The Snow King's Daughter by Sowmya Rajendran. We haven't yet found the time to read it but it seems like a good opening to discuss a rather sensitive and weighty topic, so I am looking forward to Ads' take on the book. He gets somewhat hamstrung by his sister, who insists on sitting with us when we read and offering her valuable comments :) Case in point: We were reading Hanuman's Ramayan (another great book and the first one I read by Devdutt Patnaik) and discussing it when Y piped in: But tomato-kku enna aachu (What happened to the tomato?)
Me and Ads: Huh? Tomato-aa? What? Which tomato?
Y: Adhu-la tomato irundhudhey!
Ads (in disgust): There's no tomato in the story, Kondila! (The last word is what he calls her when he wants to annoy her, no one knows what it means but it makes her see red!)
Y: Waaaaaa....!!! (effectively ending the reading session, which I am sure was her intention all along!!)
I'm not sure how often I will post kiddie book reviews here, but I will try and post whenever we read something that is exceptional or different. Since we read a lot, hopefully that should not be too difficult!
lol @ Ads and Yukta's verbal duet.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to reading such books in the future..bookmarking these.
Btw, you might want to change the "who" to "how" in the last para.
Trust a Virgo to notice and conscientiously point it out as well :)) Thanks! Have made the correction :)
DeleteWow, this seems like pretty advanced level reading to me! Nice recommendations, am bookmarking this. I still have to try out any of the Tulika books for big G, but will do so this time.
ReplyDeleteHi chatty wren, i read these out to Ads. He can read at this level but quite slowly. I highly recommend tulips - many of their titles are very good.
DeleteDarn autocorrect - I meant tulika and not tulips!
DeleteLove the art series, it's helped daughter get deeper into art - when she can identify one or two painting/artists, then some serious enthu happens off.
ReplyDeleteTulika's books are pretty cool.
With Ads its sort of been the reverse, where he could recognize the paintings but not always able to name the artists, and the books will probably help him connect the two. I guess some serious shopping will happen when I visit Tulika's store in chennai this summer :)
DeleteLOL @ the angry exchange of words. Hope you find a solution to that soon. :)
DeleteWow @ zoologist and paleontologist. BTW I had to look up the latter in the dictionary to see what it means!
He might love Gerard Durrell's books in case you haven't started reading them already. I don't know what would be the right age to introduce his books, though. Just thought so since Durrell wrote a number of books about animals. :)
All the books you have mentioned sound wonderful. I would love to read them myself, specially The Snow King's Daughter. Have heard loads of good things about the book. :)
I didn't know about the series on artists. Sounds like such a wonderful series for kids! I am all for reading to kids, or with kids, and hope to be able to do that in future. :)
LOL @ the angry exchange of words. Hope you find a solution to that soon. :)
DeleteWow @ zoologist and paleontologist. BTW I had to look up the latter in the dictionary to see what it means!
He might love Gerard Durrell's books in case you haven't started reading them already. I don't know what would be the right age to introduce his books, though. Just thought so since Durrell wrote a number of books about animals. :)
All the books you have mentioned sound wonderful. I would love to read them myself, specially The Snow King's Daughter. Have heard loads of good things about the book. :)
I didn't know about the series on artists. Sounds like such a wonderful series for kids! I am all for reading to kids, or with kids, and hope to be able to do that in future. :)
yes, galnxtdoor - gerald Durrell seems like a good bet. I also do not have any idea on when to start on his books. Roald Dahl is another favourite, based on only one reading of "charlie and the chocolate factory!"
DeleteBtw, if you need to gift books for nephews/nieces or such - geronimo stilton is a big favourite for the 6-8 year crowd nowadays :))
wow! ad's brilliant ! (apropos his keen observation of Hussain's work.)
ReplyDelete