Stories from Pratham Books Champions: April 2014

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Pratham Books Champions : Nirmala Kustagi

Nirmala Kustagi conducted her storytelling session in Hubli.

She says...

I am immensly happy to inform you that I conducted a Story Reading Session in a local School in my place at Hubli. It was a cherished moment for me as the children were small and were thrilled by the story PAPLU THE GIANT.

I thank the Pratham Books team for giving me the opportunity.

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took 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. In 2012, Pratham Books initiated the One Day-One Story initiative on the occasion of International Literacy Day and we conducted over 250 storytelling sessions. In 2013, over a 1000 sessions took place 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 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 champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Friday, 11 April 2014

Pratham Books Champions : Rasika Wadodkar

This story was sent to us by Rasika Wadodkar.

Venue – EnlitKids Bookstore, Baner, Pune

Revaa, Sara, Ketaki, Arnav, Ruchir, Dhruv and his brother, Kanak, and Kushal listened goggle-eyed as Paplu, the giant, decided to transform himself from a shy, non-violent, gentle being into a raging adversary for Angaar the dacoit. One by one, the kids stomped about—a la Paplu in the forest. They shouted “Whoosh…Whoosh” as Paplu drew closer. They emulated his deep-throated roar as he warned Angaar. They thrashed their arms about giving a sound beating to the troublesome bandits. And as the story ended, they cheered for Paplu, happy that their gentle hero had assumed a ferocious avatar to save his beloved villagers!

Yes, we sure had fun at the reading session—all of us, right from age 5 to 40! It was the weekend before the Ganesh Festival and some of those who had signed up could not attend; but neither that nor the pouring rain dampened our fun. The EnlitKids Bookstore staff was a great help and the children spent some time initially flipping through the books and getting comfortable – without any “Do not touch” directions!

We first went around the room, asking everyone to think aloud on hearing the word “Giant.” Pat came the replies…Big. Ferocious. Angry. Cruel. Gigantic. Fighting. Scary. Mean. Troublesome. Against such stereotypes, our Paplu came as a total surprise and the kids fell in love with him rightaway!

The story was a huge success. Their favorite part was Soni’s lisp and they all mimicked her and sang “Paplu Paiya Paplu Paiya…” with great gusto! They also loved shouting out “Whoosh Whoosh,” louder and louder, and for a bunch of just 9, they created quite a riot!

We winded up with a word search activity created around the story. The words chosen were those that the kids could refer to and use as a framework to recreate the story.

There were questions too…

• How did Paplu grow back to his reduced size again? He did not know the magic chant to go small…

• Why was Paplu not happy being big? (This was really insightful because the child was not questioning Paplu’s unhappiness with typical giant behavior traits, but his unhappiness about his natural physical size.)

• Did Soni’s parents allow her to play with Paplu after they got to know he was a giant? (Once again insightful into the kind of parenting we adults give our kids.)

It was wonderful to note that they did not accept everything as was, and were curious to go beyond the scripted story. And on being told about International Literacy Day and how parallel story sessions were happening all across the country, one 9-year-old said, “Wow… so just like we have pen friends, we now have story friends.” That sums it all up, I’d say!

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

Note : If 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 champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Thursday, 10 April 2014

Pratham Books Champions : Supriya Dadoo

Supriya Dadoo conducted a storytelling session in Singapore and wrote to us about it.

The children were very excited and they understood well how Pratham Books was trying to conduct story-telling sessions all across India celebrating 'International Literacy Day'. They even remembered last year's story. This year too, I got a very enthusiastic response. I feel that children love to hear stories and it is an extremely good and subtle way to impart values, while they enjoy the story and think & rethink about it. The values get imprinted in their minds. While I was narrating the story, they were quite inquisitive and had some very valid questions which were answered well in the later pages of the story itself. They loved the illustrations on the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and plan to take fortnightly story-telling sessions here.

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

Note : If 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 champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Wednesday, 9 April 2014

Pratham Books Champion : Aruna Bhide

The following pictures were sent by Aruna Bhide.

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took 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. In 2013, over a 1000 sessions were 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.

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.

Monday, 7 April 2014

Pratham Books Champions : Amruta Dabholkar

Amruta Dabholkar sent us the following story about the session she conducted on 3rd September, 2013.

Date of the session- 3rd Sept'2013

Place- Gajanan Society Mahim

Kids Age-group- 3.5 to 5 years

Number of Kids- 8 & their mummas

Language- English

Session included story telling. After i told them the story, each kid went through the book, looked at the pictures and narrated his/her version of the story.

We had giant sized chart paper in which, children drew their versions of giant building, man, boy, train or bus.

Then there was an impromptu addition to the session, where in each of them came forward and did a little performance, some recited poems, others told us another story which they knew.

We were together for about 1.5 hours.

And one of the outcomes of this session was that we have started a group called Tuesday Talent Group ( as 3rd Sep was a Tuesday), where in we have decided to meet every Tuesday and do some or the other activity with the children.

**********

Wow!!! We love to hear when one storytelling session spurs on a movement that engages children. Great going Amruta.

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

Note : If 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 champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Saturday, 5 April 2014

Pratham Books Champions : Bhanu Iyer

Bhanu Iyer from Panchkula sent us the following report about the storytelling session conducted by her.

Firstly I wish to congratulate your team for initiating synch a wonderful event and the subsequent response and success of the same. I am proud to be a part of this event. I am a story-teller by hobby, but managed to make it like a profession. I narrate stories to school children in a school in Panchkula, Haryana on a weekly basis. But for your event I wanted to spread the joy of your books to the underprivileged children and for this, I had to hunt for a suitable place with the right age group. And my search ended with ASHIANA - Association for Social Health in India. Here I got the chance to narrate the story of PAPLU in Hindi, to the children belonging to the nearby slums and those residing in ASHIANA. 30 children around the age group of 6-12. The response tot the story was great. Their innocent giggles for PAPLU's tearing clothes and his upside down effort to recollect the magic words was worth every effort and tension that I carried in my head for the day :).

After this experience it was inevitable and I narrated the story to the children in the school where I work... Class 2-5. Around 30 of them.

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'.

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

Note : If 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 champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Friday, 4 April 2014

Pratham Books Champions : North East Educational & Development Society

The following report was sent by the North East Educational & Development Society.

Observing ‘World Literacy Day 2013’ and spreading the message of environmental conservation through upcycling and recycling, the North East Educational & Development Society along with PRATHAM BOOKS Bangalore conducted a sensitization programme at St Peter’s LP & UP School located at Smit, Shillong , Meghalaya.

[Smit is a village aptly called the the cultural center of the Khasi Hills and is situated 17 km away from the capital city of Meghalaya, Shillong. A picturesque beauty and scores of agricultural land add to the charisma of the place. However , oddities like superstitions and ignorance still prevails in some pockets of the otherwise enlightened place ]

All together 110 students along with 5 teachers of the school along with 10 social work interns of Women’s College took part in the 3 hour programme. Programme Coordinator of NEEDS, Edward Thma acted out the story in monologue of Paplu the Giant and also taught the students to make their own characters and strories following the book ‘Paper Play’. Students enjoyed contributing one liners to the story which took funny turns with every new line.

Mr Thma culminated his talk by stressing on the importance of literacy and how the students can improve their neighbourhood inhabitants’ knowledge through reading and writing. He gave an example of how reading and writing and knowing about current affairs, eco friendly bio manure and market trends a farmer can improve his/her livelihood and farming effeciency.

Besides this the students were also taught recyling as demonstrated by the Social work interns of Women’s College wherein paper recyling at home was taught. Working on the principles of UPCYCLING whereby redesigning of waste materials into other materials is done, the students also made paper baskets and resused toilet paper rolls into characters, pen stands, baskets etc.

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

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 champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Thursday, 3 April 2014

Pratham Books Champions : Mythri Prabhakar

Mythri Prabhakar a student of law from mysore and conducted two story telling sessions for kids of prisoners .

She sent us the following report :

Children of incarcerated parents are at heightened risk for psychological and behavioral difficulties. What is a thing that defines a child ‘when their seed of existence went behind the bars at such a recessive stage?

A truth that looks difficult to decipher upon. But what do these children do for their ruptured chances to grow in the society? It’s a latent fact, a fact that must be mined upon to rule out the various social stigmas

attached to it. Resultantly, a low self-esteem, emotional numbing, feeling of abandonment, loneliness, guilt and resentment are just few of the after-effects of the untreated population of such kids. Studies have relatively shown a shocking result of these kids being seven times more likely to become involved in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems; and Six times more likely than other children to be incarcerated

at some point in their lives.

I conducted two sessions for these kids and the response was amazing. After the story telling session, I made them enact the story of paplu and they made the stage come alive with original dialogues.

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

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 champions(at)prathambooks(dot)org.

Pratham Books Champions : Lohit Libraries

Sathyanarayanan from Lohit libraries, Arunachal Pradesh sent us the following report:

Well, at Tezu, we had a series of Book reading and training workshop all through the week from Sep 1 to Sep 8 and we concluded the programme with a Creative Writing Workshop for cl IX -XII. The entire events were exciting and received enthusiastic response from readers, guests as well the Itanagar press.

As some of the books reached Wakro a little later, some storytelling sessions were conducted on a different date.

**********

On International Literacy Day (2013), Pratham Books took a 1000 steps towards a 'Reading India'

View more pictures from the International Literacy Day Celebrations.

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.

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Pratham Books Champions : Storipur and Priya Muthukumar

Priya Muthukumar sent us this lovely story of using the book 'Paplu, the Giant' during a storytelling session held at Storipur. As a student counselor and educator, she enjoys all her interactions with kids. Writing, telling stories and simply being with Mother Nature are few of the many things she loves to do! Storipur intends to fill up the gaps, through the ancient art form, storytelling. Sharing stories about environment, countries, societies, cultures and about all ourselves: it's Storipur's humble attempt to build responsible communities.

After the wonderful response for my storytelling session based on a Caribbean story on our monthly theme, ‘magic’, my search began for a story based on a similar theme, however, I was looking for a story which was fun , with a subtle message incorporated in it. Picking up the book, ‘Paplu, The Giant’ in our local library was my ‘aha’ moment! Flipping through the pages of this thin book, I fell in love with Paplu! From that moment, I knew my young audience would adore Paplu. And that’s how the Paplu journey began for us!

Our kids (3-10 year olds), I must say, listened to Paplu’s story without batting their eyelids. The youngest of the lot, with all innocence, asked me, with wonder brimming in his eyes, ‘but, Priya Aunty, giant means what?’ So, to explain, Paplu’s height, I grabbed a stool, and balanced myself on it and said, ‘Paplu was soooo very tall!”, stretching my hand. The kids added to the story, saying Paplu was as tall as the tree, as tall as a building, he could touch the sky …… and so on and so forth! Our giggles and chatter continuing, non-stop!

Each one in our audience pretending to be a villager in the story, enthusiastically draped the dupattas piled at the corner of the room, on me… standing on the stool, pretending to be Paplu! As the dupattas kept falling down, I announced to the group, Paplu will need a proper dress and that we all needed to make it!

As a storyteller, it was definitely a cherishable moment for me, to see all the kids sit around Paplu’s gigantic dress, cutting and sticking, sharing scissors and glue with the only objective of making Paplu, the friendly giant’s dress! We made Paplu’s dress with old newspapers, calendar sheets and other re-useable scrap pieces of paper. This dress- making activity gave us another opportunity to highlight recycling and our responsibility towards our environment.

We were pleased with Paplu’s dress and the story continued. Paplu’s kindness and strength, both appealed to our kiddos. The words,‘ Priya Aunty, will you tell us another Paplu story, next time! ?”, reconfirmed their love for Paplu. Finally, the kids were asked to draw their own versions of Paplu. And what appeared on paper, was a variety of Paplus, big and small, thin and fat! Many thanks to Team Pratham Books, for introducing us to Paplu! Strength is also about kindness, helping one another, and being there for others was our ‘ take- away’ from Paplu’s story.

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.