Pratham Books Champions : Deeptha Vivekanand, Sowmya, Aparna and Vikram Sridhar

Deeptha Vivekanand shares a report about the multiple storytelling sessions conducted by Sowmya, Aparna, Vikram Sridhar and her.

At Atta Galatta and Ever After, Bangalore

On 7th September, a group of three storytellers—Deeptha from Ever After, Sowmya and Aparna from Kid & Parent Foundation—came together at Atta Galatta, to perform stories from three Pratham books: Paplu, The Giant; Bhabloo the Bear’s Adventure and Grandpa Fish And The Radio. Around 15 children attended the session, along with their parents. They were an enthusiastic bunch and actively participated in all three stories with the same level of energy. At the end of the session, we engaged them in a quick game called ‘Ulta Pulta’ which saw them performing actions that were the opposite of what was being called out. The kids loved the activity, throwing themselves on the floor, laughing, tumbling and crouching according to the instructions. It was hilarious! They then drew their favourite characters from the stories they listened to and took their artwork home as a reminder of the good time they had.

On 8th September, Vikram Sridhar from Tahatto and Deeptha from Ever After conducted a joint storytelling session at the Ever After Centre. The heavy downpour just before the start of the session did not dampen the spirits of the people who had registered for the event. About 20 kids came with the parents; some brought their grandparents too! Deeptha narrated Paplu, The Giant while Vikram told Lion On The Loose. Children loved the part where Paplu’s clothes were ripped off; there was laughter all around when pieces of cloth were thrown at them as a representation of Paplu’s shirt. They vied with each other to grab a bit of Paplu’s outfit. During Vikram’s narration, kids were completely involved as he asked them to contribute their ideas to the building of the story. It was a lot of noise as they all screamed out their thoughts, eager to be heard. In all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable session.

Looking forward to next year’s session already!

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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.

Pratham Books Champions : Project Mala

This story was sent to us by Project Mala.Project Mala runs their own school and also provides free education, nutrition and healthcare to around 1200 children in 6 schools. Learn more about their work at www.projectmala.org.uk.

Number of children reached through the campaign
1. Project Mala School, Guria Village - 320
2. Bihara Village - 1000+ (Including villagers)
3. Project Mala School, Mujehra Village - 150
4. Mujehra Kala Village - 1000+ (Including Villagers)

In total around 2500 persons including children and villagers.

Four sessions at the following places in Uttar Pradesh
1. Project Mala School, Guria Village (Varanasi District)
2. Bihara Village (Varanasi District)
3. Project Mala School, Mujehra Village (Mirzapur District)
4. Mujehra Kala Village (Mirzapur District)

The sessions were conducted in Hindi.

Apart from telling stories, we did some extra activities in three centres as briefed below.
1. Project Mala School, Guria Village (Varanasi District) – Story Telling, Painting And Rangoli, Road Procession of 3 KMS with slogans
2. Bihara Village (Varanasi District) - Story Telling, Mehandi, Singing, Dancing and One act Play
3. Project Mala School, Mujehra Village (Mirzapur District) – Story Telling
4. Mujehra Kala Village (Mirzapur District) - Story Telling, Singing, Dancing and One act Play

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On International Literacy Day (2013), 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. 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.

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.

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.

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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.

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!

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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.

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.

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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.