reading

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

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This is one of my favourite books, and like all bookworms, I think most books I’ve read are awesome; there are very few books I’ve read that I do not like at all.

This treasure was found in a book fair in Dubai around 10-11 years ago. My friend recommended it to me thinking I would like the narration, and she was right! The story-telling was unique to me; I had never read a book where majority of the narrative was in the form of letters.

I enjoyed reading the writing style we rarely indulge in nowadays.

Situated in the aftermath of WW2, the protagonist, Juliet Ashton (a writer herself), slightly off track in life receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a resident of the island of Guernsey informing her as being the new owner of one of her books. What started as a hello, quickly morphs into story telling sessions between Juliet and various other residents of the same island; about life under the German occupation, what they did to survive and how they came to form the reading club.

This book is extremely small, but packed quite an effect. It reflects on quiet strength people are forced to draw upon when faced with scarcity of basic human needs; food, shelter, safety.

Though this book was written on a slightly cheery note, it struck a chord with me. It forced me to think how people are forced to survive in war times, which is more common now than it was before. The impoverishment; the fear; the uncertainty; the fight for survival by any means possible.

Has anybody else read this book? Are there any other books like these which you think should be read?

I’ll leave you all here, my tea and book wait for me…

Good night Moon

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This was the second book I purchased and read for my little one. And this one was a doozy, because my kid and I both fell asleep reading this book the first week; the wordings were like tongue twisters and I had to read real slow to make sure it made sense in my head. Did any one else do that?

But after week one, my kid was more engrossed in looking at the pictures and babbling to the book. He would only let me read a couple of pages and then he would take the book for himself to do his thing. Eventually I just started naming the objects in the book and describing the pictures to him instead of reading it. After he turned a year and half was when he allowed me to read it to him properly. Do you think its because he knew it was putting him to sleep? Did his tiny brain figure it out?

Now looking back, I think picture books would have been more better than full on reading. It’s difficult to get them to be still, even when they are tired during bedtime.

Funny thing is I’ve read this book so many times, I can now recite it with my eyes closed in the dark… Do parents ever forget the books we’ve read for our kids?

Do let me know.

Until next time….

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

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Written by Mr. Eric Carle, this is the very first book I read to my child when he was around 8 months old. And I remember in the beginning, my kid would just touch the pages, looked at the illustrations for the first 3 boards, and then tried to gnaw on it to find comfort for his aching gums. Poor kid, teething had been difficult.

The first time I actually read it to him was about a week or 10 days later, and being a novice reader to a kid, I made the mistake of using my happy voice, which resulted in me having to read it 3 times before I gave up, switched off the lights, hoping he would fall asleep. Spoiler, he didn’t. I just had wound him up, his sleep chased away and there he was, bouncing like a newly minted coin on his bed. Whoops!

The next day had been a little better, but a trial still as he was not happy with the way I was reading. Then slowly but surely, he got the hang of being read to during bedtime.

Even now, 5 years later, this is the story I narrate out loud whenever he’s had a difficult day or just wants comfort and familiarity (yes, its been imprinted in my mind).

Reading before sleep is one of his favourite rituals even now, though he has progressed to much bigger books. But I’ll talk more about that in the coming blogs.

See you soon.

Children’s tales

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Hey everyone! I hope everyone is doing well and have been reading and writing and sharing your thoughts well online, unlike someone (me!).

I have decided to start a reading blog, since that is actually something I love and do not miss regardless of the daily grind.

I’ll be starting off with books my child (5) and I have read and are reading. This is not a critical review, just a blog talking about books, bedtime or otherwise.

Hope you all will find it entertaining and informative.

Dear Mrs. Nabee

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We all have that one adult in our life, teacher or friend, who looks deeper than others do; who sees potential where others see trouble. My 4th grade English teacher Mrs. Nabee was that adult in my life. Being a little troubled and absent-minded, she realized that writing was one of my greatest interests and pushed me into the universe of books. Ma’am, if you ever come across this article, Thank you!. You opened up worlds’ that would have otherwise been ignored forever.

It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with books and decide that English was my favourite subject. The first book we read in her class was Pinocchio and reading out loud in class became a lot more fun. She never once made any of us feel stupid or silly, especially if we mispronounced or didn’t know the meaning of any word. She had a way of explaining that made us visualize the words in our minds. I have now come to know that is a power very few teachers possess or even have half a tumbler of talent for. I can’t imagine the amount of homework she must have assigned to herself to make sure our minds remained in her class, all through the year. My favourite project in her class was when she had us all make caterpilars with chart papers, to be stuck on our class notice boards. We had to cut out circles and each circle would contain the name of a book we had finished, which when put together would become a caterpilar. The student with the longest caterpillar, at the end of a term was given a reward; a sweet treat and a smile or a pat on the back… But boy, did we all wait for that smile!!! One that acknowledged pride in us.

At the end of that year, we had a ‘class party’; translation – free for all junk food she sponsored and a music system blasting out the latest tunes through cassettes. (Do I feel old now!!). The last thing thoughtful, loving act she did for us that year was to draw a tree full of leaves on the blackboard. Each leaf contained the name of a student in that class. She took the extra effort to make us feel special. Any other teacher would have popped in and then waltzed out within 5 minutes, not Mrs. Nabee.

So Mrs. Nabee, I hope you’ve fulfilled whatever you wanted out of life and it is still full of happiness. I really hope we will met once more in this life so that I can give you what I couldn’t so many years ago; a heartfelt thanks and a big hug!!

Sincerely

Miss Absent-mind from the Class of 98′-99′