Lakshmi Mitter
"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet." - Jhumpa Lahiri.
Who doesn't like a story? Every child loves stories. All of them enjoy listening to stories and discussing them. Sadly, however, only a percentage of children take to reading stories on their own. As they grow older, their reading preferences become more definitive. When there is a lack of incentive to pick up a book and read, the urge to read a story simply to enjoy it disappears. As they move from grade to grade, academic pressure increases leaving little time to read. Ironically reading regularly actually helps with academic pressure. Apart from being a great way to unwind, it helps boost reading comprehension, critical thinking skills and even writing skills. Language becomes second nature thus making it a lot easier to comprehend school lessons and write better.
In response to the survey results, the NLT chief executive Jonathan Douglas said,"With children and young people's enjoyment of reading at an all-time low and high numbers leaving primary and secondary school without the reading skills they need to thrive, the futures of a generation are being put at risk."
The ability to read a text in its entirety, interpret correctly, question for relevance etc are essential reading skills that one uses throughout one's life. The best way to develop is it is by having a reading habit. For something to become a habit, it needs to be enjoyable. There lies the secret of instilling the reading habit in children.
For something to become a habit, it needs to be enjoyable. There lies the secret of instilling the reading habit in children.
Young Readers' Club comes into existence- the first Talking Circle.
Making stories an essential part of unwinding, be it fiction or non-fiction, is a key step. But what could be a good way for me to help parents make this an essential way of unwinding was the question I set out to answer. Having been in the space of children's literature for more than a decade now, having watched children enjoy stories as a group, the idea of collaboration in unwinding with a book came up. We began small in the community. We explored vocabulary building games and reading a book when we meet. The program evolved slowly taking in cues the children gave in terms of what they enjoyed and what they didn't. COVID hit. We went online. We even got featured in the newspaper for our community reading sessions for the children in the community during the lockdown! Read here
Going online also made it possible for children across India join. Casual conversations led us to discover what living in different cities felt like. We brought different cultures to the table. That's how the Young Readers' Club came into existence in March 2020.
The Young Readers' Club continues to be book club in which children meet regularly to read, discuss books together and share recommendations. As children attending sessions at the club over a long period of time grew older, they brought to light that their individual reading preferences began to become a lot more specific. The book club paved the way to discover books/genres that they might not have considered trying.
We actively look for books that may not be as well known like the Harry Potter or Diary of the Wimpy Kid, as those, everyone knows and are likely to pick up on their own. Children's literature today is richer than what we had as kids growing up in the 1980s. Roopa Pai in conversation with Kadambri Misra, the host of the Iconic Women podcast, nails it when she talks about her experience growing up with British literature, having limited availability of books and believing that that a better world existed in Britain. There were very few story books based in India apart from the Panchatantra tales, Jataka Tales and the entire Amar Chitra Katha collections which were indeed a savior. Stories were limited to adventures and mysteries. Historical fiction or fantasy for that matter the way we know it now, hardly existed. But today all of that exist and much more getting added to the racks, waiting to be discovered.
Not navigating through the world of children's books today to satiate our need to read and be entertained with becoming informed being a side effect, would be a serious crime. We take every book very seriously and do not give up easily. There have been very few times when we abandoned a book simply because the entire group felt disconnected. When we do that we always discuss what about the book made us feel that way. Every book has something to offer. Somewhere along one of the readers came up with the rule, "Read 40 pages and then think twice before you abandon a book."
Not navigating through the world of children's books today to satiate our need to read and be entertained with becoming informed being a side effect, would be a serious crime.
Recognizing that we are different and yet we can have fun together in the world of books:
Personally, I am not a huge fan of fantasy. I enjoyed Harry Potter but I have a long list of books that I loved more. But in the journey of the last 5 years, I have been introduced to fantasy in a different way and I have learnt to enjoy it too. The latest addition to my TBR is the Percy Jackson series which I must admit, I shied away several times when I spotted them in the library. I have heard many of my reading companions talk about the books in these series a number of times that now I am starting to think that I might be missing something really good!
The joy that comes on their faces when they see a peer pick up a book that they recommended is priceless. Hearing a peer recommend a book that they might have shied away from might encourage the child to pick it up and read by themselves. What's a better way to encourage your child to read?
Author meets
Gradually, we started inviting authors to our little club. We talked to them of course about the books that they have written but we dug deeper. We wanted to know what they read for pleasure, the writing process and how they handle the frustration that arises from a writer's block. We have spoken to the amazing authors listed below:
Gordon Korman (time zones are a hinderance, so we had to be content with a video message)
Bonus: Ms.Sanjana Kapur, the Associate Editor of Amar Chitra Katha, walked us through the kind of research that goes in, the illustrations, the writing and editing, etc.
Meeting them gave as an opportunity to also learn how to write thank you notes.
We have grown together over the last 5 years and aspire to support one another as we go further in our reading journeys.
Young Writers' Club the second Talking Circle came along soon after Young Readers' Club.
Word spread and the teens in the community wanted a similar program. It all happened by chance. Considering that teens have even more specific reading preferences if they are readers and tend to read longer books, it was a challenging proposition. Instead of books we chose role play based on real life situations and the news for group discussion. That was to bring some noise to a club that would otherwise be rather quiet if everyone came only to write. There is no fun if you can't interact. Just like reading, writing needn't be a solitary activity. We decided to have a little fun there too.
In order to showcase the best of writing, we created our own online magazine, Musings from The Young Writers' Club. Every once in a quarter, the best of the writing is published there. In the mean time, accounts about our group discussions are posted on the magazine for anyone looking for fresh teen perspectives on what is happening around us.
Young Writers' Club (Jr.) the third Talking Circle
Enquires from the parents of children at the Young Readers' Club for a writing program for tweens led to a junior version of the Young Writers' Club. The program is similar to the teenage program but designed to be a lot simpler and easier to adapt to for tweens. In order to encourage them to write for an audience, a magazine for them was created as well. It is called the Tween Tribune. Best of their writing is featured every six months. In the interim, accounts of the weekly group discussions appear in the same space.
It's been a wonderful journey so far and we look forward to having new members on all the Talking Circles' Clubs. Do fill in the contact form if you would like to hear from us!
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