Skip to main content

Summer Writing

By Creative Writing No Comments

Writing and Reading are like “Daal & Chawal,” you can’t have one without the other. When you read, you read to learn, feel and think, not read to know what happens at the end of the story. (That’s the small part) Reading is a journey, where you think about the characters feeling, problems, her/his journey and the alternative forms of arriving at solutions, it is learning about different societies and cultures. It is a way of deciphering purpose and meaning. Reading is learning to have PersPective, because everything has a point of view. Reading and writing are like a handshake, and the author inspires you to think, write and share your ideas and your story. So, when you read, you identify and underline the words and sentences, the author has used to express his thoughts. By doing this, you are learning the craft of writing.

Imitation of style NOT CONTENT is the greatest tribute you can give an author for his inspiration, till you discover your own. Having a “Writers Notebook” or “Writers Diary” is the first step towards learning how to write. We must encourage our students to write; we do not want our students to face the Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Tedx). Writing is cathartic. Write, Write and Write. “You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” Octavia E. Butler. Revising your writing is the critical component in learning how to write well. 

Why is writing important?

  • To communicate your thoughts, opinions, emotions, and ideas clearly to multiple people at the same time
  • To validate our existence, choices, experiences in life
  • The framework of our communication at the workplace is in forms of –  Reports– Press Release

    – Communicating ideas via email

    – Maintaining a blog

    – Summarizing your work or creating reflections and goals

    – Writing recipes

    – Writing notes, communicating effectively with family

Writing personal narratives is the first step towards learning how to write. Here is some personal description prompts to help you.

Writing prompts for children

Writing prompts for parents & teens

Other writing prompts with technology social media, the internet as the main idea.

Rewriting, revising,  rephrasing and editing are essential parts of a writing process. You are not done with writing until you have gone through the whole process from ideation to sharing.

What is the Jarul Book Award?

By Librarian's Role, Reading and Writing One Comment
Voted by children for children

Jarul Book Award: Indian Picture Book

Jarul Book Award is the only award in India that gives voice and choice to children. Students from Kindergarten to Standard Five is given a chance to read and vote for the best book. They choose, analyze and critically appreciate by selecting the best picture books based on several criteria. Here is the 2017-18 Jarul Book Award Winner.

India has some great outstanding awards like the Jnanpith Award, Sahitya Akademi Awards with different categories and Hindu Literary Awards. Each of these national awards acknowledges works of authors, illustrators, and publishers whose passion lies in bringing out the best literature for readers. Indian culture has a plethora of folklore, fables, and mythology. It is only recently in the last decade; private organizations have established literary awards to inspire,  acknowledge, appreciate different genres as well as give voice to authors with new ideas. Many awards like the Jarul Book Award,  Crossword AwardBig Little  Book Award, and the Hindu Young Book Awards are among the few that acknowledge creative thinking and celebrate Indian Literature. Thanks to publishers like Karadi Tales, Tulika,  Fingerprint, Katha, Little Latitude and others. Times of India covered this story and helped support Jarul Award. 

Today’s children whether they are in cities, towns, and villages are open-minded, they are thinkers, and they need good literature to inspire them in our modern setting.  Our story must not be like that of  Chimamanda Adichie – The Danger of a Single Story where she believed that her stories she wrote must only have “western characters” and there was no room for characters like herself in Literature. We must create an open environment for our children to explore, dream, write and share their world beyond folklore, mythology or stories that must have a moral at the end.

Encouraging our children to write and share their experiences will only help create empathy and friendships among different ideologies and different cultures. Deccan Herald writes about Obama’s Town Hall visit, where a transgender, who is marginalized, asked what she could do to stop stigmatization. He said, ” The change begins with finding your voice, and you must be able to articulate your views and your experiences, to tell your story, and that is true for any group, marginalized, stigmatized.” Obama said, ” finding the voice and being able to tell that story leads to breaking down of perceptions that “you are different”. Because then people will start to “recognize their own experiences in you.”

Reading picture books and giving children opportunities to write, expressing their experiences and sharing them, bring respect, empathy and most of all friendships. I like what Voltaire said, ” Writing is the painting of the voice.” Let’s give our students an opportunity to express their world through their eyes. Check out the Jarul Book Award Website to empower your students.