Stories

I was at the New Delhi World Book Fair yesterday and i must admit that the fair has come a long way since i was a kid. The quality of books for children have improved tremendously and i was amazed at the choice of books that i came upon. Not to mention the prices ! I grew up on Nancy Drew's and Secret Seven , simply because children's literature in India was almost non existent. There were hardly any authors writing books for kids, leaving children to stock up books by Rohald Dahl, Enid Blyton, R.L. Stine and so on. As a little kid, i don't remember owning any picture books of Indian publications. Till the time i came back to India, i was relying heavily on books by western authors and i feel no guilt in admitting that some of my favorite authors are from the west. Dr Seuss, Eric Carle, Mercer Mayer, Donald Crew, David Shannon have all written fantastic books with amazing illustrations which catch children's attention in no time. This quality and variety definitely lacks in the Indian Literature but my visit to bookstores and yesterday to the book fair has made me rethink. I am glad that many people are working towards developing stories for little children and understand the need and importance of stories especially for the younger group of children.

Katha- a non profit organisation is working seamlessly in this regard.

They have been publishing fabulous books for children and their collection is worth an investment. They have a vast collection of books, both in English and Hindi. 

I got my hands on some very good titles.

I even got some amazing books that have been published by the National Book Trust of India at dirt cheap prices. I had to double check the prices to be sure. I was behaving like a loony after experiencing excitement of such great intensity and had it not been closing time i could have spent the whole night there marveling at the prices of some very good books.

I also picked David Mckee's Elmer and Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell by Sue Hendra. 

I was so ecstatic that today all i wanted to do was read to my children. :) 

After my experience at the book fair yesterday, i think i will consciously be on a look out for books by Indian authors and would be incorporating many such stories in my classroom.

My kids are turning into budding readers themselves and they are so eager to explore text of all kinds. I made some sentence strips for them to read at the literacy center. If you are interested in downloading them you could visit my TPT Store  or click on the link below:

Sentence-Strips

Happy Reading !