Education is incapable of turning children into thinkers; they need reading to do so.
Dalbir Kaur Madan, who runs the OneUp library in Amritsar, with ‘library members’ as young as 6-months-old, says parents should read aloud to their children between one-and-a-half to five years’ of age.
The reason – neuron activity is the highest for kids from 0-5 years of age. Studies by neurologists reveal that most brain synapsis occur at this age, and that children with a better home reading environment have greater thinking skills.
Besides the Potters, Dahls, and Blytons
Paro Anand, one of India’s best known authors for children and young adults, tells The Quint, that it is important for children to read Indian books with heroes from their own milieu, as it gives children a sense of self worth. However, it does not mean restricting your kids to the Panchtantra and folk stories. There’s a new wave of Indian writers and publishers creating memorable, contemporary stories.
Paro Anand counts Tara Books and Pratham Books as noteworthy publishers of children’s books.
To her, a good book for children will have the following characteristics.
- Easy to relate characters
- Reasonably positive connect
- An ending with a moral takeaway
Here are five books that she, and other experts we spoke to, recommend for young children:
1. Mr. Jeejeebhoy and the Birds
Two sisters, one very strange aunt, and a flock of escaped birds...That explains this book by the well known children’s author Anitha Balachandran. Publisher: Young Zubaan
2. Tiger on a Tree
Another much loved author Anushka Ravishankar narrates the story of a scared tiger who suddenly finds himself up a tree. Publisher: Tara Books
3. The Fivetongued, Firefanged, Folkabotted Dragon Snake
One day, Arun sees a strange creature. When he tries to tell his friends about it, they do not believe him. Publisher: Tara Books
4. The Sacred Banana Leaf
This is the story about Kanchil, a small mouse-deer who is a trickster in Indonesian and Malaysian folklore. Publisher: Tara Books
5. My Car
It is about a special car that takes the protagonist Khaidi to many places. Publisher: Pratham Books
Paro Anand describes how one can identify children who like to read.
- They have better concentration ability.
- They have a better grasping power.
- They have a greater level of understanding.
Read Aloud 15 MINUTES is a non-profit organisation working to make reading aloud every day for at least 15 minutes a vital part of a child’s life, to prepare them for lifelong learning success. The organisation states that just 15 minutes of reading aloud to a child everyday makes them add 1,47,000 words to their vocabulary by the time they are 10 years old.
Indian parents and grandparents have always told their children stories, but reading from books is better as it follows a strict language structure.
But the question is, in the technological cocoon we live in, do books stand a chance?
Technology vs Emotions
Though videos and movies are more sensory, and books take more patience to get through, they are worthwhile.
— Richa Chatterjee, Author
Sharing the same insight, Paro Anand calls multimedia a “nanny”. “Off you go leaving the child to the comfort of technology, which to be fair, serves some good with its visual games and podcasts. But kids tend to get stronger cognitive abilities listening to their parents reading the story aloud, with hearty intonations. This creates a more long lasting impression in the mind of a child,” she opines.
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