Excellent write up on the role of picture books in child development, by Lori Calabrese at The Children’s Book Review site.
Some points I could completely identify with:

-Picture books are multi-sensory, which aids a child’s growing mind and stimulates their imagination.
-The repetition in many picture books allows a child to participate in the story.
-Children love art.
-The illustrations of a picture book help children understand what they are reading and allow young readers to analyze the story.
-Chapter books are not necessarily more complex than picture books and in fact, their vocabulary …

Inventory of books bought from the Bangalore Book Festival 2010. We have read, read and read in the last couple of days. These books have been accompanying us everywhere, to the park, to friends house and to the school even! A handful of books already missing, apparently they have been given to their friends!
National Book trust
Pratham Books
Tulika Books
eAppu and some adhoc books
Thanks to SaffronTree, I had read a lot of reviews on NBT books. Obviously picked up a whole lot, luckily the walking talking encyclopedia happened to be there …

The eighth edition of the Bangalore Book Festival starts on November 12th @ Palace Grounds. It is a 10 day feast, with publishers and distributors from all over the country participating. The festival also claims to host entertainment programmes, book reading sessions and author meets.
 Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindonfire/3956865159/in/photostream/
 
via The Hindu

Over a million titles under various categories and languages will be displayed in more than 300 stalls during the 10-day Bangalore Book Festival (BBF). The fest is expected to attract more than two lakh people. The country’s biggest publishers, distributors, exporters …

Printable flash cards of Hindi consonants.
Also available as a free iPad app on app store – http://www.mytoystory.com/2011/03/06/hindi-consonants-ipad-app-on-app-store/
If the embed does not work, click here to download and print.

If you haven’t visited

List of must-have multicultural books was originally compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

*Image Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_munroe/3970602664/

Title: Chasing The Plastic Pisach
Author/Illustrator: Sumathi Sudhakar / Arka Prabha Roy Chowdhury
Publisher: Pratham Books

Our apartment initiated a Go Green campaign few weeks back, with posters all over the apartment complex, starting from the entrance gate to the lift. The poster clearly depicting the three colored waste collection bins, samples of recyclable waste etc. Our apartment has mandated us to have separate bins at home, one for recyclable wastes and another for compost-able waste. One going into white trash bags and another into black, so they can accordingly dispose them into …

Title: Sister Sister, Why is the sky so blue?
Author/Illustrator: Roopa Pai / Greystroke, Sanjay Sarka
Age Group: 4-7 yrs
Publisher: Pratham Books

We read one of the Sister Sister series(subtitled – Fun Conversations about Everyday Science) from Pratham Books. I must say I am floored! Simply in awe. How I wish the text books for first and second grades would be anything close to this.
The little brother’s imagination goes wild and he comes up with the cutest possibilities, like the sea must be upside down with a plastic sheet wrapped under …

We got this book – Amazing Animals by Innovative Kids, from a yard sale back in California. A retired teacher had carefully and neatly boxed them. My 5 year old was just 2.5 at that time, but these books were so absolutely awesome, that we could not resist and picked up the whole box. She is now reading by herself and is starting to comprehend what she read. These are a set of 10 books, each of them about 7-10 pages, the pages starting with a 2 word sentence, builds …

The tech news room is flooding over the release of Apple’s tablet, with Steve Job claiming this is the most important thing he has done. If rumors are to be believed, this will bring a revolution in the textbooks and newspaper industry.

With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs is betting he can reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television much the way his iPod revamped the music industry

With some of us still adjusting to the e-book revolution, looks like it …

Title : Snoring Shanmugam
Author/Illustrator: Radhika Chadha / Priya Kuriyan
Publisher: Tulika Books

If we had a rough evening, dinner time battles and the likes, then one of my picks to read that night is Snoring Shanmugam. It simply takes my 5 year old into a giggling spree. The giggling is infectious enough to spread into my 2 year old, who is most of the time observing and imitating her older sister anyways. The giggling hits the roof when we all snore like Shanmugam, the Lion.
The jungle animals are tired of their …

The Read India initiative by Pratham Books is an inspiring social entrepreneurship project. They are a non-profit trust claiming to produce high-quality and affordable children’s books in many Indian languages. Very much walking their talk, most of their books are in the Rs.15 – Rs.25 price range. Do not be fooled by the price, the books are on high quality paper and print, with bright and colorful illustrations(especially the 3-6 and 7-10 years age groups).
The inside of the back cover in most of their books features a kid with a …

In case you don’t already know, Saffron tree is celebrating its third birthday by hosting a week long book festival called CROCUS 2009. It’s a fun ride folks, back to back reviews of children’s books from all around the world, puzzles and author interviews. Do check it out.

Author: Eric Carle
Read Along: 4-6 years
Read Alone: 6+ years
My almost 5 year old daughter has developed a liking to Eric Carle’s books. The minute she spots his name, she wants to read it. We were in a book shop couple of months back, when the kids got to choose one book each. I did not surprise me one bit to see The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle in her hands. I was surprised to see the Indian reprint, easing on the rupee, however
This book just like any other …

I had written a post on this here
Happened to stumble upon google book’s limited preview of this book, and I just had to jot it here. Enjoy!