Dongdong and His Kitten

I was rummaging around in my nephews's old book shelf and surprise, surprise-- found a Chinese picture book (written  in English)!

Now that was a first! Not only it has a great story line but has some nice art work - so refreshing and different from the Western/ Indian world of picture books I am used to. I took a picture of one of its pages below for you to take a look.





It is published by Dolphin Books; the story is by Xu Xinghua; and illustrations by Yuan Xiaomin.

This is how the story goes: 

Dongdong breaks a vase by mistake and blames it on  Kitty, his kitten. When his mother decides to send Kitty away and starts putting her in the basket, Dongdong admits to having broken the vase. His mom ( predictably ) tells him not to tell lies and lets Kitty out.

Now here is the nice bit as the story continues:

Kitty on another day breaks a bowl while stealing a fish from the kitchen and Dongdong doesn't know what to do. He worries that mom will this time really send Kitty off so he takes on the blame. Mom looks at him as if to ask him what  to do. He begs her not to send Kitty away and his mom says," That depends on whether you 're going to behave yourself now". Dongdong admonishes Kitty and says, "Don't steal any more fish". The story ends with Mama gently stroking Dongdong and reiterating: "Never tell a lie, there's a good boy."

It is a  great preschooler's book about behaviour without being preachy. To me this story speaks about an important theme-- children lie because they are afraid of how we will react as parents/adults. I wish I can get hold of the other books listed in the Dongdong series! Any idea , how?

my first picture dictionary

I must  have walked into that small Hiranandani shop in Mumbai at a time when they were still deciding what to do with their stock of used books, whether to start a library or sell them off. That can be the only reason why I could buy a fantastic book for a bargain and never found such bargains again.

The book I mention is  'my first picture dictionary', written by Colin Clark , illustrated by Vivienne Bray, and published by Brown Watson Ltd. What intrigued me in the first glance was :1. that it was printed in Czech Republic and 2. that the title had no capital letters!

(The recent editions however have a whole new cover with capital text like the one in this picture above)

It's a great book to browse through and read. Each entry under an alphabet is so well thought out. The author really must have thought like a child in compiling this book!

I have often browsed through picture dictionaries for children that take such a know it all approach-- this is this and that is that. But this one in particular focuses on keeping it simple and fun. At times, it takes a descriptive approach, for example: "machine: A machine is something that helps us to do work more easily. We clean clothes in a washing machine" to sometimes the usage of terms such as "magic: the man is doing magic tricks. It is difficult to understand how a magic trick works." to sometimes triggering a kid's imagination such as " blue: Blue is a colour. The sky is blue and so are these balloons"

I really like this book. its very colorful, well illustrated, and really meant for early readers and thinkers!

Joy Berry Books

Joy Berry has been such a discovery. I first saw her ' Help Me Be Good'
set of books at my kid's school. I was instantly hooked and kept borrowing until I had read each of them. And then I chanced upon one being sold for Rs.50/- in the used book section of a book fair. (The original books available at Flipkart cost a little less than Rs. 200/- )

These books are essentially about values that we teach our children--talks about good and responsible behavior that crop up ever so often. Joy Berry does it in the most entertaining and effective of ways without lecturing; without sounding moralistic; and without making a big deal of it all. It's very practical advice on living skills in actual scenarios in a child life.

Here's a nice interview of Joy Berry where she says, "Most books that teach children about values, they use the story telling approach. And while its really very entertaining, its not necessarily effective. Because in order to really modify behaviour, you need to use a very step by step instructional approach. For e.g: If u want a child to clean his or her bedroom , you don't tell a child the story about a fairy who cleaned her bed. Its too abstract. What you do, is you say, Step 1. Make your bed. Step 2: Put everything that is out of place in your room back to where it belongs..."

I own the 'Being Greedy' title and believe me, it has come in VERY handy.And not only for my kid!  I must admit there are times when I can do with a perspective on my habits as well. ;))

For more information about Joy Berry and her books, you can look up her website here.