Books for children, reminders for parents.
It must be the school holidays, a part of the annual calendar which publishers must keep in mind, which result in so many books for children arriving for review at around the same time. What’s striking is how different each one is from the others. A sign of the times, perhaps, when most of the choices we make have to be deliberate, well thought-out and placed in a context. And so it is with books for children. Gone are the days when children could be left to roam free and graze on words. Conflict, terrorism, theft, privacy, violence and abuse are now part of a child’s daily lexicon. So if parents have to choose what their children should read, they have to do so thoughtfully. The four books reviewed this week therefore differ not just in tone and tenor but also in intent.
Body Talk
(Anjali Wason, Harper, Rs199)
Body Talk explains itself on the cover: “Real girls ask real questions about love, life and everything in between.” You may wonder — don’t boys ask questions? And if they don’t, all the more reason for them to read this book — or chafe at a quote on the back cover that says “If you are allergic to sex, honest information about sex, or are below the age of 14, this book may not be suitable for you” (reason enough for any curious child who can read to grab the book). But editorial quibbling apart, author Anjali Wason’s comprehensive and straight-talking, almost graphic, 256-pager answers a range of questions over 10 chapters, from the basic “What do I look like” to “resources” that include agencies and helplines that deal not just with sexual harassment, rape or gay and lesbian issues, but also buying condoms online. In between are the chapters (getting to know your body, sexual orientation, the infinite hows and whys of the act of sex) that will both interest and inform adolescent and older readers of both sexes and clear some of the more basic myths and fallacies relating to life that are ever-present in the human mind, sometimes irrespective of age. Parents should read this book to connect with their children, to realise that even as we acknowledge that each generation is different, they are also alarmingly the same.
A clear blue sky
Stories of Conflict and Hope
(Various authors, Puffin, Rs 150)
The foreword by N R Narayan Murthy encourages young readers to dream and work towards a future that will not be sullied by prejudice and bigotry. The compiling of such a volume is telling enough, as a blurb on the back cover bears out — “26/11, 9/11, 7/7 — dates that have changed the way we see ourselves and those around us…” We need to tell our young that they have to be prepared for times quite different from what we may have experienced when we were growing up. Here are simple, evocative stories of everyday life in the present context by writers from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, all countries where conflict is a way of life, by writers whose sensibilities have been shaped by acknowledging different realities. The publishers hope that this collection, for young readers in the 13-plus age group, will “start a conversation on religion, race, caste and mindsets that divide us” — a worthy intent, and a sobering thought.
Classic stories for girls
Classic stories for boys
(Various authors, Puffin, Rs 150)
Also Read
In quite a different vein are these offerings from Puffin, beautifully bound in crimson (girls), green (boys), with gold detailing on the covers. “Timeless stories for girls and boys and those who remain girls and boys at heart.” All the stories and the extracts in both collections are by well-known authors — Dickens, Saki, Twain, Conan Doyle, Louisa Alcott, Roald Dahl, Austen, Satyajit Ray, Tagore and others — and have appeared over the years in several different formats from several different publishers. But the timelessness lies in the universality of the emotions these stories evoke, the reason why they are called classics and why, in spite of repeated re-runs, they continue to inspire parents and children all over the world.
Much of the pleasure about books for and about children (of the books under review here, Body Talk does not fall in this category) lies in the fact that these books can be a shared experience. Parents need to sometimes rediscover the joys of choosing books with their children, reading aloud and along with them, so as to enable a child, even a very young one, who may be below the “prescribed” age group on the cover, to experience the world through the parents’ eyes. Fears and doubts can be cleared, joys reinforced, and new perspectives discovered. One of the poems in A Clear Blue Sky is by Gulzar, titled “The Growing Pains of Nine-Year-Old Faraz”. This is the world fractured by 9/11 and 26/11, the world where our children become adults almost before we know it. “Tell me,” asks Faraz, “is it that necessary to grow up?” To which we may answer, we will not be able to protect you from dangers that are unfamiliar even to us, but we can try and help you from growing old before it is time.