Goya Tales (2025)

27/02/2025

I started this page to share our personal experiences with books with the aim to inspire and encourage more children and parents to choose books. But as you may notice, the frequency of posts has gone way down. I did fall in love with children's books, and I still am. There is a popular opinion that if you do what you love, you will never have to work a day in your life. I like to disagree with that.
Because, although I like talking about books and taking pride in my children choosing books every time, it started to feel like work once I had my son and my daughter started drifting away from books. It didn't come naturally to me anymore.
My daughter used to pick up, not one, but at least five books at a time to read, every day. Slowly, her interest started shifting to drawing and other things, so she picked up books lesser and lesser. Also, We didn't have much time to read books together.
Last year, I started facilitating book-ish activities like read aloud and book reviews for the children in my apartment in the clubhouse library. These were free of cost. My daughter loved joining those sessions. Initially, more children preferred joining these. But, as other classes like cricket and swimming came in, children didn't have much time or interest for these sessions. As a result, I had to pause this for some time.
However, all this while, I never intended to force my daughter or the other children to choose books over their other interests. I didn't feel disappointed that they didn't do so. Because, isn't it natural that we like doing different things on different days? It could be a phase, or it could be a permanent shift. But, I want children (mine and others) to pick up a book on their own. I believe that's when they will enjoy reading and fall in love with books. I only hope to expose them to different kinds of books and give them opportunities to pick one.
I want to continue doing this, slowly and steadily, at my own pace. I will surround my children with wonderful books and dedicate more time to bonding with them over books.
Have you observed this with your child or other children, you know? What do you do?

15/11/2024

I spent the first half of my day today at NCPA Mumbai attending the cheerful The Binod Kanoria Awards Binod Kanoria Awards for children's literature.
The Mumbai lit fest was happening, so the entire campus was filled with colorful banners and lots of children and adults who were there for the love of books. The vibe was so good with events happening in every nook and corner.
The BK awards felicitation was at the Tata Theatre, and as you can see in one of the pictures, the place was filled with flocks of school children. They were there to attend many events, including the awards ceremony at the lit fest. What a fun way to spend the day, right?
The awards were given in five different categories, as can be seen in the pictures. It was nice to hear the creators speak and share their journeys that have brought them to the stage today. These kinds of events make you realize that all those wonderful books are nothing but results of hard work, creativity, patience, and lots of effort from these real people.
I look forward to these days that make me feel more intrigued and connected to the world of children's literature.

10/10/2024

Happy Navaratri to all of you!

Last week, my son's playschool celebrated as knowledge week, and as a part of it, they had invited parents to volunteer to be teachers for a day and do something with the children.
Of course, I offered to read a book to the little ones. I chose the crowd favorite - the very hungry caterpillar, by .
I am happy that I was able to hold their attention throughout the story, and some even participated.
A good read aloud always captivates the young minds. Here's to more reading 📚 😊

25/02/2024

A day well spent surrounded by books, book-people, book-lovers, book-readings, and more books. Thanks to Peek A Book - Festival of Children's Literature, Mumbai's only children's literature festival, we got to dive into very many pages of some lovely children's books. Kudos to the entire time for organizing this lively and cheerful event.
There were multiple sessions happening in three different spaces for children from various age groups. Honestly, it was tough to choose one over the other at times.
My 7 year old daughter and I happened to attend multiple sessions throughout the day by the talented, friendly, and chirpy authors Nalini Sorensen , vibhybatra , Bharti singh, Shabnam Minwalla and Vaishali Shroff - Author . Each and every one was different and charismatic in its own way.
I got to meet the lovely Bharti Singh for the second time within a month, and I'm glad to have found a new friend in this city.
I also met with Rati Girish, the OG Indian kidlit podcaster, and an inspiration to me. It was wonderful, and I look forward to having many more conversations filled with children's books.
Lastly, what's the point of a book event if not for carrying a load of them back home? Kahani Tree had a bountiful spread of books at the venue, and we bought a few gems there before heading home.

01/10/2023

Book haul day is the best kind of day for any book lover, isn't it?
After a long wait, I got to 'tick' an item off my bookish to-do list today. I have seen ads about .chor 's events and even heard about them from some of my friends in other cities. Finally, I got to personally experience this today.
What's the deal about this event? So they have a huge collection of new and preloved books - for all ages - spread across the hall in boxes and shelves (as seen in pic 3) that you can pick from. They have boxes in 3 sizes - and a price for each corresponding to its size. As long as you can fit them in the box you choose, you can take as many books as you wish from any category you like. Interesting, right? That's why I was always fascinated to visit one of these in person.
I did today and chose the medium-sized box (pic 4). I picked a variety of books for both my 7 year old and 1 year old, and I am pretty satisfied with the purchase. You can see the books I bought in pics 5 and 6. They had a huge collection for adults as well, but I didn't really spend much time there.
My complaint, though, is that the collection had too many Bible stories, Christmas based and activity books. If you really have patience in digging through every single box, you might get hold of a few amazing steals. Also, I personally felt that the collection lacked a good collection targeting ages 7-9. For young children, teens, and young adults, you are spoilt for choice. But that isn't the case for middle grade readers, I thought.
Nevertheless, you should definitely visit one of these events for a profitable book haul day. And folks in mumbai / thane, do visit them at until 8th of October.

25/08/2023

We all witnessed something spectacular this week and are insanely proud of a milestone added to the history of India's space research journey. It is a no-brainer then that the book i am going to talk about today is on space!
There are many many books about space written for children and adults but this one suits one and all. It's a unique combination of graphic novel, non-fiction, comic strip, facts - I would call this a genius concept.
'A day in the life' series of books published by Buster Books , written by Mike Barfield and illustrated by Jess Bradley are hotselling around the world for a reason. The latest in the series 'Astronaut, Mars and the distant stars' is about everything space that you might want to know.
The Book has single page comic strip style facts about a lot of things spanning across our solar system, outer space and space travel. It also has bigger picture pages and secret diary pages for more information, a glossary and an index at the end.
The content of the book is fantastic that I had a hard time deciding which of the pages I should highlight in here. With bite sized information concise and crisp that a child can absorb and retain, this book (series) is a keeper.

14/08/2023

When you have growing up children at home, you would want to make them realize that the holidays are much more than not having to go to school. That each and every holiday has a reason, and history. Tomorrow is India's Independence day and it will be great to read about people who were instrumental in making this day happen.
Her name was freedom - a very resourceful book written by Anu Kumar and published by - shares stories of 35 fearless women who fought for India's Independence.
Each of the 35 stories is about 7-10 pages long further divided with headings and subheadings. With necessary illustrations spread out across the book, there are also highlighted information given in boxes wherever applicable. The list of women presented are from a beautiful mix of backgrounds from doctors to teachers to queens to activists etc.
Perfect sized summaries to pique the interest and hold the attention of children aged 7/8 + who are starting off with exploring history. At the end, there is also a timeline of important events listing important events in the freedom struggle.
For children and adults who might be interested to learn even more about these fighters, a select bibliography has been provided at the end which lists books and articles that were used as research material for this book. Overall, a very valuable book to add to your child's non-fiction / history collection.

30/05/2023

My animal pals Alice to Zachary is written by the promising young girl Advika R and illustrated by Richa Sahu. It is a cute and thoughtful collection of 26 short stories - one for each letter of the English alphabet.
The stories are short (or long) enough to hold the attention of preschoolers and kindergartners. They are accompanied with cheerful and animated illustrations that are sure to attract the little ones. The concept / theme of the stories revolve around various values, habits, accepting oneself etc but without explicitly displaying a "moral of the story" which is good.
But I felt some concepts were a bit inappropriate for younger children however not in depth for older ones. I really commend the 13 year old though for attempting to write about topics like poaching, plagiarism, self-help, inclusion etc.
Given a time when publishing houses, creators and bookstores are trying to bring more indianness in the children's books scene, it would have been heartening to see more of common Indian animals featured in ths stories and also names that are closer to home. The fan of flourishing Indian kidlit in me would have felt more happy 😊 .
Nevertheless, nothing to take away from this young talent. I can understand the influence of the books she has read as a child and see her passion for great stories in her work. Kudos to her parents and others supporting her work for recognizing the talent and giving it a platform - lovely to see many young children authoring books. I hope to see Advika evolving as a reader and an author in the coming years. Cheers!
I was sent this book for review by Advika's mother couple of months ago. I have finally found the time to finish reading the whole book amidst being a mother for a 7 year old having school vacation and a 10 month old who is constantly on the move. 😁

15/03/2023

Shiva plays dumb charades - the second book we have read from the 'Fun in devlok' series written by Devdutt Pattanaik .
The Book starts with a few children playing dumb charades to kill their boredom and then Shiva (the Hindu god) joins them. This might sound a bit naive to some but the rest of the book could really prove to be the opposite. It tells us how gods and goddesses are always laying dumb charades with the believers through their symbols and gestures (mudras).
We have read a lot of mythological stories and even seen such stories in old religious / spiritual movies. The idea has always been to kindle faith and instill righteousness in our minds using religion as a tool. This book does it with a more practical and in-depth approach making it relevant to today's children.
Last year, we had read the book "Saraswati's secret river" from the same series and shared my review here that it helped my daughter develop a liking for black and white books. But reading this one made us realize the real idea behind the series.
We follow rituals and celebrate festivals at home, also involving the children, for many reasons. But how many of us know the significance of these rituals, let alone share the same with our kids? May be it's time to blindly follow protocols and genuinely connect with the divine to understand what we do and why. After all, that's the point of religion right?

09/03/2023

International women's day!
My daughter came back from school yesterday with a hand written note that she had made for me for women's day. She came to know about it because principal wished them all over the school PA system. I never told her about the day and we didn't have any discussion about it before this. But now that she knew about it, we are planning to read these books from our recent collection to dig deeper.
How to solve a problem like himani published by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver is an interesting book in many aspects. It is inspired from true life incidents, is in the format of personal diary entries and has illustrations made by different children. A good start to tell our children that all problems can be solved - no matter the size.
Kasturba published by Tulika Publishers puts the spotlight on a name that is famous yet little known about. Our history books didn't really cover the "behind the scenes" very well, did they?! Even as a society we tend to focus only on the famous, the winners and the leaders. It's time to look beyond them and to understand that they wouldn't be there without these people around them. Kasturba, wife of the father of our nation, is one such person to be known about.
Michelle Obama published by Wren and Rook is totally about, well Michelle Obama 🙂. Again, another story to understand that we know the name and her work after a point in her life but she has been doing that since a very long time. A good example to emphasize to children that greatness (in any form) can be seen and nurtured from very young.
A significant reason for reading non-academic books for / with children is to know more and be inspired from real life people similar to the ones featured in all the books listed above 👆.

28/02/2023

The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak . It is one of the highly rated (children's) books in recent years and has been on my wishlist for a while too as a result of reading raging reviews about it.
It is undoubtedly an imaginative and innovative idea - to (may I say) prove a point that words are so much fun?! But don't we know that already? I think that's the reason why wordless books came into existence to kindle young minds to get creative and "read" from pictures directly.
As my daughter is growing older, I have started getting her books with black and white text and pictures and some without pictures too. But she thinks they are not fun. So actually this valentine's day, I gifted her this book to make her "fall in love" with picture less books. We read it together and she did have a good laugh a handful of times.
But is the book worth all the hype ? Personally I don't think so. A decently big book with glossy high quality pages, costs somewhere around rs.250-rs.350 on most online stores but hardcover might cost you a fortune, very less text and lot of empty space, and honestly just one page that will make your child burst into laughter. The book itself is a quick read - won't last more than 5 minutes.
A lovely idea but not very well executed book with a celebrity author and a good PR team is what I personally feel about this book. You might have a totally different opinion and it's okay 😃.

17/02/2023

Two books that we recently read, quite contrasting to each other on the outside - one is international and the other is Indian, one is with color illustrations on glossy pages and the other is black and white matte papers - but with similar insides that elicit the power of stories and books.
The first is "The Missing Bookshop" published by Little Tiger Books , written by Katie Clapham and illustrated by Kirsti Beautyman. A delightful book about a little girl Milly who loves books and a local Bookshop in her neighborhood where she loves to visit for storytelling sessions by the owner Mrs. Minty. The Bookshop gets closed for some reason and the neighbourhood people especially Milly want it back so badly.
It is not an edge of the seat thriller but a very heartwarming book that any book lover would relate to. My daughter and I read this at bedtime and had decided to read only half of it. But she couldn't leave it in the middle so we ended up reading the whole book. She fell in love with the book that she read it again by herself the very next day.
The second is "Bookasura" published by Scholastic India , written by Arundhati Venkatesh and illustrations by Priya Kuriyan . A closer to home tale about a little boy who loves his books and his adventures at his grandparent's place during his school vacation.
You can relate to this book in so many ways - vacation at grandparents', sharing stories from mythology about asuras and demons , the rustic background set in a huge farm, nightmares and so on. It beautifully exemplifies how stories and books ignite imagination and creativity.
These books would be loved by any book loving person and deserve to be part of when growing library! Both are chapter books that can be read to / with children aged 6+.

03/02/2023

Catch them young, they say. How young is too young? There is no meter to guage that.
As my son turns 6 months old, I take this moment to feel content that I have introduced books to him as early as possible, as much as possible. I have always thought I could have started a bit earlier with my daughter though she is growing up as a book lover now.
Read alouds? Yes, but not that much. I rarely read with him and my daughter reads for him too - but that's not a part of our daily routine as yet.
But he knows that there is this thing which he can hold in his hand, turn from page to page and look at those lovely and colorful pictures as Amma speaks randomly pointing her finger at it 😁.

26/12/2022

Of magic, friendship, gifts, toys, dreams and destiny - I had a wonderful read aloud session this Christmas with a curious and energetic bunch of children.
Only months after my second delivery, I gathered some enthusiasm to host an offline session and read some lovely books with the kids. The feeling was just awesome! 🥰
We read an adapted version of the classic "The Nutcracker" and also Enid Blyton 's "Bunny's first Christmas". Since it was with younger children I added some fun activities in between to hold their attention and engage them throughout. They colored a nutcracker and then played some Christmas bingo which sure was a hit!
We also discussed some trivia about Christmas eve, godfather, ballet, boxing day etc and the curious lot ensured I never had a dull moment during the session 😀.
Hoping to have many many more such sessions and spread the joy of books and reading to as much children as possible! ❤
So what did you read for Christmas this year?

16/12/2022

All seasons come with their own characteristics and so does winter. What do we associate with winter?
Cold and chilly days, darkness, warm clothes, snow, life in the cold, hot and spicy food etc. everything reminds us ok winter.
So here it is - a compilation of some books that are apt for reading this season with our children.
What are some cozy books you are reading these days? 🙂

01/12/2022

How do you feel when your loved ones are out of reach? Separation anxiety is not only common in young children but adults could feel this as well. Reasons could be anything - small or big, simple or intense.
In my case, my daughter never really went through this phase when she was young. But recently, she had to be without me for a few days when I delivered my second child. After that, she started protesting to go to school everyday for being with her little brother at home. And post that phase, she was upset that her grandparents were going back after being with us for months.
Reasons could be varied but the feeling is same. As always, I found the solution with a book. The Invisible String - written by Patrice Karst and illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff Illustrator is a phenomenon as they call it.
This book beautifully addresses this feeling of being separated, gradually from the simplest reasons to the difficult ones like loss of a loved one. It is not a heavy book but it touches upon a heavy topic with such lightheartedness. The illustrations are vibrant yet soothing at the same time. This can be read to children of any age and also for adults in distress.
My daughter loved this book as soon as we read this that she took it to school the next day to read and share it with her teacher and friends! 🥰

21/11/2022

National library week in India was celebrated from 14th to 20th November and I unknowingly completed a long pending related task during the same days.
A well-kept, filled and an organized bookshelf is such a beauty to look at, no? We now have almost 400 books at home and it was becoming a mess with every passing day. With an infant in hand and a school going child, this was definitely not on my priority list.
However, I finally gathered some determination to sit down not only to clean them but also catalogue them for easy maintenance. I used Bookshelf - Your Virtual Library app and absolutely loved the interface. I tried a lot of different cataloging apps and finally found this and using it was such a breeze with our eclectic mix of Indian and International books.
I have also categorized our books into various shelves in the app and so looking forward to use them purposefully. And someday, not sure when, but someday I hope to run a home based library in the neighborhood 😊 🤞.

28/09/2022

My 200th post here and is also very personal to me because it marks my journey into motherhood 2.0! Yes, we welcomed our baby boy 2 months ago and it has been like reliving those golden days. Does it explain my absence in this space for quite a while?!
Although it was an exciting news for us to become parents the second time, it was a landmark event for our daughter to become a sibling, a big sister for the first time. Given our love for books, I wanted her to etch this memory with a beautiful book.
Well, there are many many books out there written for siblings-to-be, and parents-to-be to prepare their children for the upcoming change. But most of them are to teach the children how babies are born, how they grow inside mother's tummy or more so to calm their anxiety and prepare them for the big event.
My daughter was neither anxious nor wary of the arrival of the new family member. She was rather feeling ecstatic and eagerly awaiting the day - so I wanted to get her a book that celebrates this emotion. And I did find the right book for this.
Little Miss, Big Sis by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Peter H Reynolds , published by HarperKids Books does exactly what I was looking for. It is a very simple yet one-of-a-kind ode to the bestest sisters everywhere. It realistically captures the journey of a little girl into sisterhood. My daughter loves reading the book and cherishes it. A brilliant find indeed ❤.
Sourced from Bookswagon thanks to for introducing me to them.

Goya Tales