Pratham Books Champion : Lavanya Donthamshetty

Lavanya Donthamshetty wrote to us about the session she conducted in Chennai. Lavanya, a freelance writer form Chennai. I have two children and my schedule revolves around theirs. I have always loved to write and recently discovered a penchant for writing short stories. I am also a huge English history buff and love reading about Plantagenet and Tudor histories. You can follow Lavanya on Twitter at @lavanyad

Here's a photo collage of the session I did at The Yellow Bus play school in Besant Nagar last Friday. I had about 12-15 children, most of them in the 5 - 8 age range with a few 4 year olds. 

We started off with The Paper Play. The children enjoyed messing with the sheet of paper and especially when I folded it into a paper boat, they all weighed in with how they know to do it themselves and who taught them to do so. Next we went to discover Paplu, The Giant. It was received well enough. I had wanted to do a craft session with them, so the children could take home some physical sample of what they did that afternoon. 

So, armed with a drawing of Paplu, some scraps of cloth and a stick of glue, I asked them to "Dress Paplu" and gave them their own bits of cloth, an outline of Paplu and some glue. They really went to town! 

It was great fun and I am sure the children enjoyed it as much as as I did.

Thank you Lavanya for spreading the joy of reading!

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This International Literacy Day, Pratham Books has taken a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

What started as a small step by Pratham Books to spread the joy of reading has become a movement. Last year Pratham Books initiated the One Day-One Story initiative on the occasion of International Literacy Day and we conducted over 250 storytelling sessions. This year we are delighted that over a 1000 sessions are happening across the length and breadth of the country.We will be sharing the stories of all our champions through our blog.

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

This blog contains stories sent in by all our champions. Browse through the blog for more stories. You can also go through the tags on the right side of the blog to find stories happening in your own city.

Note : If any of you want to be a Pratham Books Champion and join us on our journey of getting 'a book in every child's hand', write to us at web(at)prathambooks(dot)org.