Blog-Rolling in April

Rohini Ramakrishnan of The Hindu reviews our four latest picture books in Young World. She says these are ‘four delightful stories that will make you laugh, think and dream…’  Take a look at these picture books here! Itchingtowrite reviews The Lizard’s Tail on her blog, Mamma of Twins. She says, ‘The book is alost like a…

Retelling Traditional Stories

Author Uma Krishnaswami, who has recently written 4 stories for the Karadi Tales Mythology series and will hopefully write several more, blogs about her experiences at Writing with a broken tusk.  She discusses the process of retelling mythology and the differences between writing for an Indian and an international readership. She writes: ‘To begin with,…

Reading develops intelligence

The simple activity of reading is a virtual brain gym. It enables the growth of multiple intelligences. Reading stimulates both the right and left sides of the brain.  In fact, it is one of those few simple activities that triggers the growth of both intuitive and logical intelligence. Studies have shown that early readers not only…

How do you choose a picture book?

When choosing books for your child, take their age and reading capacity into consideration. For pre-readers, choose books that have bold, vivid, and colorful illustrations of everyday objects. For beginners, choose books with simple storylines and illustrations that closely match what is going on in the story.  For independent readers, choose books where the illustrations tell…

Why Picture Books?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of a child, that’s certainly true. A young child’s imagination is sparked off first by the image of the things she reads about, then by the words that describe them. She is far more likely to associate, for example, the picture of a…

Blogging Karadi Rhymes

Karadi Rhymes has really been hitting the news in recent times! Check out some recent links! On 10 February, Anukrishna wrote about using ‘My Name is Madhavi’ to teach children. Read about her experiences! On 1 March, Monika Manchanda wrote: ‘And I can vouch for the fact that they are for adults as well… whenever…

Little Vinayak: A Review

At Saffron Tree, Praba reviews Little Vinayak, written by Shobha Viswanath, illustrated by Shilpa Ranade, narrated by Vidya Balan, set to music by 3 Brothers & A Violin and with a title track by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Praba writes: ‘With refreshingly simple text paired with bright, bold illustrations, Little Vinayak is an inspiring story, which celebrates differences…

Reading IS Important!

The average seven-year-old is a computer whiz. Parents are astounded at the ease with which he uses gadgets. But is he a fluent reader? Not always. Parents may ignore this. After all, he’s so smart with the computer. But they often do not realise that computers are designed to be mastered by anyone. With their…