vijay wrote:

Surprising that there are no books by Indian authors like Panchtantra Tales etc being recommended. They will give an Indian viewpoint.

To be honest, they are quite outdated and no more interesting. IF you have seen Geronimo Stilton books and other illustrated books for children, you will see for yourself.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

Shampa Sadhya wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

Shampa Sadhya wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

Shampa Sadhya wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

Shampa Sadhya wrote:

Honestly speaking I am not a great novel reader. I love to read articles, short stories and poems. My 14 year old son is a voracious reader and I have noticed that he is fond of Amish Tripathy whose genre is mythology. As we all know, presently, Chetan Bhagat is a very popular novelist who writes in a very casual English. Those who love the English language, they are not fond of Bhagat's English.  

I want to read Amish Tripathy's Shiva trilogy books, I have heard that they are quite good. I am very much surprised and pleased to know that your 14-year-old son has reached the stage where he is reading those books, as some of the adults have found it a little hard to understand them. I personally too am not really fond of Chetan Bhagat's style of writing, although his ideas behind each of his books are good.

Kalyani, His school and being parents we encouraged him to read books and now, he is a bookworm. He has finished series after series of many authors. He is extremely fond of Greek and Roman mythologies. Amish Tripathy's Scion of Ikshivaku is another favourite of his other than the Shiva Triology. Well, books of Chetan Bhagat, I personally feel is not of his age and even he shows no interest in reading his books. He loves to read detective books also such as Sherlock Homes, Agatha Christie and translated works of Satyajit Ray.

THat is really great Shampa! Nowadays most parents complain their children don't read books but they themselves don't take much efforts to inculcate reading habits in the children. LIke you, I too have encouraged and motivated my son a great deal and at 8, he is already reading more books than a 10-year-old kid. Just yesterday, we got his report card and teh teacher's remark says it all, "Adroit Arnav is a voracious reader and an ocean of knowledge at such a young age" My day was made simply reading that!

Right now, he is reading more of Asterix and Obelix and has become a great fan of Julius Caesar and reads up on everything he can find out about him. Do recommend me some good books on Roman and Greek mythology since your son is reading those books. I am sure its a good sign yor son is refusing to read Chetan Bhagat books, no offense intended to Chetan Bhagat fans of course, it is my personal opinion. You should now introduce him to classics such as Jules Vernes adventures, he will love them!

Thanks a lot for your suggestion. He reads classics too but he has not read the one you suggested. My son is popular in school because of his reading habit and his librarians too try to give him books even on the days when it's not his turn. Now, he is in school so later I will let you know the names of the books you wanted to know.

Though reading habit is good, it becomes a problem when the child fails to restrain himself for his regular studies. I have to always restrict him because he fails to control his temptation of reading storybooks. 

True Shampa, restraint from reading books when they should be playing or doing some other thing does become a problem at times, but can be dealt with by remaining firm and insisting on some proper play time and study time etc.

I am sure he will love Jules Verne adventures, you may have heard of them such as Around the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth etc. which have also been adapted rather nicely into films.

Kalyani, I conveyed your suggestion to my son and the response I received from him is that he is in search of those books but they are not available in his school library. So, I have to arrange them for him. He loves to read Shakespeare as well as Roald Dahl. Well, he has read the abridged version of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in prose form. As you wanted to know the names of some books, my son told me about the Percy Jackson books based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan.  

 

Ah yes, Percy Jackson series, my son has been asking me for those books but I was not sure until now whether he would be able to understand them at his age. A couple of his older friends have read them and so my son is asking for them. I suggest you buy Jules Verne books, they are worth collecting for ever. If he is interested in animals, you could also get him a few of Gerald Durrell books such as 'My Family and Animals', "The Corfu Trilogy" etc. They are extremely delightful and funny, a chronicle of his days of growing up with his large family and the ever-expanding collection of animals in his family he and others kept bringing home. Really humorous and funny, you would enjoy those books too.

Yes, I will definitely buy Jules Verne books during this summer vacation. I will ask my son to check the books of Gerald Durrell if he is interested or not. Thanks for all the suggestion. Though I am not at all into reading storybooks, I have started reading The Complete Adventures of Feluda by Satyajit Ray. I am enjoying it. If your son loves detective stories then he will like it too. You can check it on the web to have its feel.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

vijay wrote:

Surprising that there are no books by Indian authors like Panchtantra Tales etc being recommended. They will give an Indian viewpoint.

To be honest, they are quite outdated and no more interesting. IF you have seen Geronimo Stilton books and other illustrated books for children, you will see for yourself.

But the culture and values they represent is not outdated. Otherwise children will grow without knowledge of Indian culture in their impressionable years. However the choice is yours. Mine was a suggestion in good faith.

I can suggest  Ruskin Bond's Children's Omnibus and R. K. Narayan's , Adventures of Swami and his friends and Classic Tales for Children. I vouch for R. K. Narayan's books. I'm sure all the above Books take the children in to a new world.

children always wanted to listen and see fantasy type of an story which speaks about good and bad characters, so the writer who indulge in this type of an story becomes children favourite writer. 

Babu saroj wrote:

children always wanted to listen and see fantasy type of an story which speaks about good and bad characters, so the writer who indulge in this type of an story becomes children favourite writer. 

You appear during weekends and just add some crap to get points...

usha manohar wrote:

Babu saroj wrote:

children always wanted to listen and see fantasy type of an story which speaks about good and bad characters, so the writer who indulge in this type of an story becomes children favourite writer. 

You appear during weekends and just add some crap to get points...

i respect because you are elder than me, yeah it is also true that from 2 weeks i am appearing on the forum only in the weekends because i was not getting enough time to open this site. well if you think its a crap then its your thinking i don't think it is crap because whatever i have written its my thinking you cannot match your thinking with mine, i have my own thinking and i will write what i think, and whereas about my point which i have written don't you think children are fond of fantasy stories.

vijay wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

vijay wrote:

Surprising that there are no books by Indian authors like Panchtantra Tales etc being recommended. They will give an Indian viewpoint.

To be honest, they are quite outdated and no more interesting. IF you have seen Geronimo Stilton books and other illustrated books for children, you will see for yourself.

But the culture and values they represent is not outdated. Otherwise children will grow without knowledge of Indian culture in their impressionable years. However the choice is yours. Mine was a suggestion in good faith.

@Vijay, no I do not question your intention on this one, I too believe the same about Indian values and what the Panchatantra represents. But what I meant was that the tales should be presented in a more better way with better illustrations and usage of words that the children today will understand. The problem is that with changing times and with availability of books by foreign writers and illustrators, Panchatantra tales are not really appealing, and the publishers need to take efforts to make books more appealing to young kids. Because to get kids interested in books, visual language plays a more important role than the story itself, once kids get hooked on books, they will read the tales with interest.

Babu saroj wrote:

usha manohar wrote:

Babu saroj wrote:

children always wanted to listen and see fantasy type of an story which speaks about good and bad characters, so the writer who indulge in this type of an story becomes children favourite writer. 

You appear during weekends and just add some crap to get points...

i respect because you are elder than me, yeah it is also true that from 2 weeks i am appearing on the forum only in the weekends because i was not getting enough time to open this site. well if you think its a crap then its your thinking i don't think it is crap because whatever i have written its my thinking you cannot match your thinking with mine, i have my own thinking and i will write what i think, and whereas about my point which i have written don't you think children are fond of fantasy stories.

 

You really need to work on both your attitude and the way you are conducting yourself in this forum. Don't go looking for trouble.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

vijay wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

vijay wrote:

Surprising that there are no books by Indian authors like Panchtantra Tales etc being recommended. They will give an Indian viewpoint.

To be honest, they are quite outdated and no more interesting. IF you have seen Geronimo Stilton books and other illustrated books for children, you will see for yourself.

But the culture and values they represent is not outdated. Otherwise children will grow without knowledge of Indian culture in their impressionable years. However the choice is yours. Mine was a suggestion in good faith.

@Vijay, no I do not question your intention on this one, I too believe the same about Indian values and what the Panchatantra represents. But what I meant was that the tales should be presented in a more better way with better illustrations and usage of words that the children today will understand. The problem is that with changing times and with availability of books by foreign writers and illustrators, Panchatantra tales are not really appealing, and the publishers need to take efforts to make books more appealing to young kids. Because to get kids interested in books, visual language plays a more important role than the story itself, once kids get hooked on books, they will read the tales with interest.

 

When my children were at an impressionable age I was very particular that they should know all about our culture and traditions since we were living abroad.So every year when we came for our vacation, I used to buy Panchatantra , Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle books, which they used to love because I used to read out the stories to them. I have kept al the books and even now they leaf through them when they come home.

I agree Kalyani that they could do a little better with language and structure , however in my case the stress was on the content so that was not an issue !