Day 6 to Day 10 - 30 books in 30 days Challenge

Hello!

Continuing on the Bubble Ink reading challenge – here is what we read, shared, viewed and added to our library in the next 5 days.

March 6, 2014 - Day 6 -  Reading Prompt – Books - Love

The prompt was a tribute to ‘World Book Day’ celebrated in the UK and Ireland. We were to read books on books, or books on the love for reading.

Bubble Ink Picks –

Born To Read              - Judy Sierra

It's a Book                   - Lane Smith 

The Why-Why Girl       - Maheshweta Devi

We did not have any books on the love of reading, but to show our love and respect for the world of books - we decided to go all out. We read everything from mythology to fantasy, nature to science!  We started with the first story of our beautiful world - Adam and Eve (Baby's First Bible books) and followed up with our favourite mythological hero's birth story - Janmashtami (Tales from the Bhagawata Purana). Next was the wondrous story of 'The Nutcracker'. We then read a beautiful story by Deepa Balsavar, 'The Seed/ Beej' (Tulika) and followed up with 'Brilliant Boats' ( Tony Mitton and Ant Parker).

We later purchased ‘Born to Read’, the first book suggested for the prompt. This is a gem! A must have. I will surely follow up with a detailed write-up on this book soon. If we are on the topic of the love of reading, I have to share a very insightful and inspiring video about Luis Soriano, a teacher in Columbia. The link is pasted here - Biblioburro - The Donkey Library. Do watch! 

March 7, 2014 - Day 7 -  Reading Prompt – Barnyard

Bubble Ink Picks –

Big Red Barn                                  - Margaret Wise Brown

Click-Clack Moo Cows that type - Doreen Cronin

Rooster Raga                               - Natasha Sharma, Tulika Publishers

I was so dismayed! I didn’t have a barnyard book either!  Tried to be as close as possible to the prompt, so ended up reading 'The story of Black Beauty' by Anna Sewell and 'The rabbit who liked to crunch' (The Clever Factory). When I told my little one that we should think of some farm story to read, she immediately said - Jesus's birth! So we ended up reading the nativity story - 'Christmas Star'.

Our purchases from suggestions put up for this prompt were - ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ by Julia Donaldson and ‘The Three Little Pigs’ (Read it Yourself, Ladybird Books Ltd.). Rooster Raga was a suggestion for this prompt, but I came across this story reading of the book in Tamil on You Tube - Rooster Raaga - Read Aloud in Tamil. The English version was also good, but I played this one on loop! Its so nostalgic – reminded me of how my Paati, my Mama, my mom used to tell me stories in my childhood. It’s simply wonderful and I fell in instant love with it. I guess it grew on A as well and she would tell me, ‘Amma, let's listen to your favourite 'Ru Ru-vin Raagam’. Haha! 

March 8, 2014 - Day 8 -  Reading Prompt – Mommy and me!

This prompt was a tribute to International Women’s Day.

Bubble Ink Picks –

Monkey Puzzle                             - Julia Donaldson

Are you my Mother?                     - P.D.Eastman

Whose lovely child can you be?    - Shobha Viswanath

Aha! Oho! I felt so empowered! This was because the previous day I had picked up some 20 odd books in a super sale and now, I actually had books that would have fulfilled all the prompts till date! Haha! Anyway, the first book we read was 'Monkey Puzzle'. Julia again at her best! Lovely story and the butterfly's logic is shown so beautifully! The second book we read was 'Snow Bears' by Martin Waddell. Super cute book about 3 baby bears who get covered in snow and try to trick their mommy into believing that they are not her babies. Mommy plays along and after some time, she brings them home for some warmth. When the snow melts away revealing the baby bears, the babies tell their mommy 'We were playing tricks, it was us all the time, Mummy Bear!' Endearing!

Though we haven’t yet purchased any books from today’s suggestions, (we purchased more than the quota at the sale itself!) our shopping carts are full with prospective ones. We also loved the story, ‘Are you my mother?’ from the suggested list and A loved the video on You Tube as well. Check this -Are you my mother?

March 9, 2014 - Day 9 -  Reading Prompt – Daddy dearest!

After mommy love, daddies should not lag behind, should they? So that’s how we got our next reading prompt. And yes, the dearest daddies did the reading today!

Bubble Ink Picks –

Papa , Please get the moon for me - Eric Carle

Daddy Hugs                                - Karen Katz 

The Myna from Peacock garden - Naiyer Masud, Katha Books

We read 'Stick Man' by Julia Donaldson. A Christmas Eve story where a daddy twig goes floating away far from his home making his wife n kids sad on the night before Christmas. A little help from Santa Claus gets him back home happily in time for Christmas with his family. Very imaginative idea of personifying a mere stick!  We then read the story of Krishna's birth for the second time this week, about how divine miracles help a father overcome hurdles that lay in the path of protecting his precious son! We also read ‘Tent Pegs’ from the book, 'Stories for 5 year olds’ from Igloo Books. A leopard dad help his little cubs put up a camping tent in the garden for an adventurous night. Some monsters, some noise, chilly winds and hunger pangs all come together to give a true adventure experience to the cubs  as they sleepily go down late in the night listening to daddy’s stories by torchlight. 

Again, no books purchased from the suggestions given on this day, though we intend to buy ‘Papa, please get the moon for me’. The hosts suggested a Julia Donaldson book after seeing the popularity of her books with the children. The book was ‘Cave Baby’ and yes, we purchased that! Yet, to read it, though. Julia's books are a hit at our place as well, with 'The Gruffalo' ruling the roost. 

March 10, 2014 - Day 10 -  Reading Prompt – Toy Story

With the challenge involving reading to kids, it is but logical and obvious that we have a prompt on this!

Bubble Ink Picks –

Knuffle Bunny                                    - Mo Willems – The entire series

Elmer and the lost teddy                     - David McKee

The Toy Horse                                  - Deepa Agarwal

Hey! Lotsa books today! A’s picks for today's prompt were 2 books from the Pepper series - 'Pepper is jealous' and 'Pepper wants too many toys'. Both books teach you that there is greater joy in sharing toys with your friends rather than coveting. Another book that we read today is 'I want that' which is about Jack, who wants every toy that he sees and one fine day turns into an 'I want that' monster. Though it was exciting to have all that he wanted after going on a rampage, Jack gets terribly lonely. He realises that saying 'please' to ask for something works better than being greedy! And the last book we read was the classic, 'The Nutcracker' - a Christmas story where a little girl, Clara, is gifted a nutcracker toy and how the toy comes to life as the Nutcracker Prince and takes Clara on a magical journey just before Christmas Day dawns! We read this book for the second time in this challenge.

We want to read the Knuffle Bunny series – couldn’t find any in the public library nor could I find them online. I guess we'll have to wait till it becomes easily available. 

And that was the end of Day 10. Thoroughly enjoyable experience, and now with A also realising that we are reading as per topics given by the ‘Internet’, the excitement has doubled on home turf!

Happy reading!!