Kitten's First full moon BY Kevin Henkes

From one of the most celebrated and beloved picture book creators working in the field today comes a memorable new character and a suspenseful adventure just right for the very youngest. It is Kitten's first full moon, and when she sees it she thinks it is a bowl of milk in the sky. And she wants it. Does she get it? Well, no... and yes. What a night!

A short text, large type, and luminescent pictures play second fiddle to the true star of this classic picture book: A brave young kitten who sets out into the world on a quest that leaves her bruised, bewildered, and hungry, but that ultimately leads her back home, where something special is waiting just for her.

Winner of the Caldecott Medal.

Our reading time at home.

Overview

With a simple, witty story and free-spirited illustrations, Peter H. Reynolds entices even the stubbornly uncreative among us to make a mark - and follow where it takes us.

Her teacher smiled. "Just make a mark and see where it takes you."

Art class is over, but Vashti is sitting glued to her chair in front of a blank piece of paper. The words of her teacher are a gentle invitation to express herself. But Vashti can’t draw - she’s no artist. To prove her point, Vashti jabs at a blank sheet of paper to make an unremarkable and angry mark. "There!" she says.

That one little dot marks the beginning of Vashti’s journey of surprise and self-discovery. That special moment is the core of Peter H. Reynolds’s delicate fable about the creative spirit in all of us.

Vashti believes that she cannot draw, but her art teacher's encouragement leads her to change her mind.

The Veena Player

Tulika publications "The Veena Player" written by Anjali Raghbeer, illustration by Soumya menon. Enjoyed reading the book. Good story to share it with your little one, will introduce a nice story and some of Ravi verma's paintings to young readers.

Synopsis given by tulika books about the book:

A damaged painting is like a body without a soul, Aunty Prima tells Valsa, when they set about restoring an old painting by Ravi Varma. As they remove the layers of dust, Valsa hears a delicate cough. Does it come from the painting?
      
 The Veena Player is about a charming friendship between young Valsa and the veena player, which weaves in nuances of Ravi Varma's art style, and pays tribute to his skill in painting lifelike portraits.

Nice read!.

Jonathan Livingston seagull

It has been in the list for a long time and finally I read it. In the first part Jonathan livingston seagull who tries to learn flying was laughed at and out casted by their flocks. Even Jonathan’s parents were trying to stop him from doing it, as they too was not interested in trying new things other than the usual behaviour. Seagulls care nothing more than finding food and live for the day, but Jonathan  wanted to fly high, he wanted to find a purpose to his life! At one point Jonathan who was trying to fly high decided to behave and follow the rules  set by elders and suddenly he realizes where he went wrong in his trying and decided to fold its wings and try to fly high. He will succeed in what he was trying to do. Then he manages to fly high and break the rules and he was able to catch a fish which is deep in the sea, not an easy task for a normal rules following seagull. He finds his purpose, he finds a way to come out of the boredom. There ends part 1. Break the rules and there is no limitation for what you want to do if you believe in yourself is the part 1 rule.  

At the end of part 1 Jonathan will go to another place where he will find like-minded seagulls, who were trying to fly high like him, he will try and learn more techniques, he will meet another old bird who is faster and swifter and with his thought process he can move from one place to another in no time. Jonathan will learn that with your mind and thought process you can achieve things! Though he was happy with like-minded gulls he wanted to go back to his flock and see whether he could teach any one bird who has the same kind of passion, feeling that he had. And he will find one Fletcher! 

image: ADA  when will it happen in india?

Lots of us move to US/UK for better education, better salary for better ideas. Most of us wants to move back to their native place and do something for the betterment of the country . When I was in US whatever I see best library or the train which has a ramp for disabled I wished and wondered whether there is anyway to provide these facilities to our people. I am sure many would’ve thought of this. Jonathan did the same thing in part 2.  

Part 3 is about learning to love and be kind to others. Learning to see the good in everyone. Its just so common if someone who is looking similar in appearance but different in thought process and behavior, if he is able to do wonders, we make/treat them either as god or as devil. In India we mostly make them as god! We try to listen and follow them, that’s why there are lots of swamiji’s.. Part of the story reminded me of the movie Happy feet! May be the director might’ve got “inspired” by this story! Nice story would’ve kindled the fire in me if read when I was in my teens ;p ;)

Catcher in the Rye

The story is about the teen Holden Caulfield who is lost, confused and kind of frustrated about anything around him.
It didnt interest me in the beginning, then as I was progressing I was scared because I have a boy kid and I know for sure he has to go through this phase...Last few chapters I was glued to the book, I couldnt keep it down without finishing it. His views about various issues stand out...I enjoyed it thoroughly..

"But my mother, all you have to do to my mother is cough somewhere in siberia and she'll hear you...":)

"The phonier it got, the more she cried. you'd have thought she did it coz she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her and she wasn't. She had this little kid with her, he was bored as hell and had to go to the bathroom, but she wouldn't take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. She was about as kind hearted as a goddamn wolf"

“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.” 

And the best of all,
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause. While the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one"

And in the end, the conversation between him and his teacher Antolini,
“Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.”

Once again his sister in the book confirmed that the people are insane only because of these kind of unconditional affection one receive from other/family people. In the end, when she says, "I am coming with you" i could picture that cute little kid with that innocent affectionate look :)..

This book was written in 1951, so I guess there is no copyright issue, its available all over the internet in pdf form so catch up with catcher in the rye. It was a good read.

Puppet Show

We did our very own puppet show at home for"Rainbow fish" by "Marcus Pfisher". The kids cooperated well ahem ahem, ok there were only 2 kids mine and his friend. So Rainbow fish is the story of this beautiful fish in the sea who has beautiful shining scales and his proud of  his possession. One little blue fish will ask for one of its scale, but rainbow fish will scold and turn away as he/she doesnt want to share its priced possession. All other fishes on seeing this will decide not to do anything with this fish. This will make the rainbow fish lonely and unhappy it will go to a starfish and the starfish will direct the rainbow fish to an octopus. Octopus will ask the rainbow fish to share its scales. When the blue fish as it is little has no inhibition or ego asks for a scale again, rainbow fish will try it for the first time, sharing its scale. And the happiness it felt and how he got lots of friends is the story.

We cut 2 sets of colorful fishes, little blue fish, octopus, starfish and the hero Rainbow fish, and I sticked it in  icecream sticks. I made Rainbow fish with beautiful scales by sticking gilttering paper which we received as gift rapper and our happy birthday paper died so I decided to reuse it, so I used it for octopus and rainbow fish and made one batch of colorful fishes without shining scales and another with one shining scales. So now the prop is ready. I tied my blue and white dupatta as water between two chairs as I dont have time to make the proper set. I wanted to make corals, sea plants, bubbles cut out from papers but in just one hour we could do only this. As we didnt have time to practice our lines, I narrated the story and kids did excellent job by sitting behind the sea waves and enacting it nicely with props, a day well spent!!

How I braved Anu Aunty - by Varun

I read how I braved anu aunty and co founded a million dollar company in one go, a real page turner. Laughed out loud many times. The book was about the journey of a young man who wants to become an entrepreneur and not wanting to do the regular 9-5job. Anu aunty he mentioned in the book I am sure every entrepreneur would have faced if not outside as their parents, aunties etc atleast would have faced from inside. Inspite of all that if you still have the fire in you, you should read this book to get inspired more. Oh damn I dont know why I am marketing this book. Hope he will pay a good percentage for this :p.

In this journey he was talking about how no one can even think about becoming an entrepreneur in India, why we all want to get the secure job for parents, family and the aunties outside? Why there is no Mark zukerburg/Steve jobs/Bill gates in India? On saying about Bill gates, Mark zukerburg I always wonder all of these people who are passionate about their business or who gained a name have one thing in common all are drop outs! haa haa i dont mean to become successful one has to be a drop out. May be they dont want to waste their time in studying when they found out what they really wanted to do with the rest of their life and they figured it out very early in their life..Even our famous Kamal hassan (Tamil famous actor) is a dropout...He wanted to learn all forms of dancing, going to school and learning he thought would take a life time, heard it in one of his interview.

Though Varun try to project himself  as some weird!!! nut case  (just kidding), he and his partner know how to execute their business plan well. As he rightly said everyone doing job are some kind of sales people, either they do it indirectly for their company or for their own, content writing, programming, ecommerce site and many more in the line, all are some sort of sales people in their own level right?. How good they are than the other one is what makes the difference, well said Varun. That made me think what are the jobs that doesnot come under that sales people category these few immediately came in to my mind,
-Good Teacher
- Good Fireman
- Philanthropy - true pure philanthropy mmm What else is there?

Even NGO's are doing big marketing and it has become a business. Anyway one thing he talked about in this book, most of his friends doing their dads business got me wondering, so after some years when he became old, what will happen to his business, he will (would like to) pass it on to his son/daughter or would he be selling it to an unknown stranger? Yes and this is also true, if one starts wondering what will happen to my business after me, no one can do any business. I loved lots of quotes in this book, one about the bike if you like to ride a bike, just do it, on the way you can pick up the map etc.. so true and right. But the anu aunties inside and outside makes our plan worst. Most of us just give up and go in the beaten path.

People dream big and just do it, dont think too much is what you will learn and for girls learn about boys, they just share everything with their friends, if you didnt learn that from this book!!! what to say. And for boys its the same old song from Mudhalvan put in a nice way, shakalaka baby looku vida thonalaiya no no no no...Overall a very nice read.