All posts tagged: Kids Books

Baby with a board book

Encouraging the Love of Reading: Tips for Parents to Inspire Kids to Read

Reading is an essential skill that is fundamental to a child’s development. However, in recent years, there has been a growing concern that children are reading less due to increased screen time and a lack of interest in books.
In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of reading for children and provide tips on encouraging kids to read. We will also examine how the lockdown has affected reading in kids and provide insights into the types of books that children prefer.
I hope that this inspires parents and caregivers to foster a love of reading in children and unlock the many benefits that reading has to offer. You might even be inspired to start a reading habit for yourself!

collage of 52 book covers from my 2022 reading challenge

Reading Challenge: 2022

This is my 10th year of the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I’ve been challenging myself to read more books for the last ten years. After getting interested in the Wheel of Time series, I decided to spend the year reading the entire series mixed with a bunch of random books I come across.
Usually, I would have a separate post for each category, but this year was dominated by Fantasy Fiction interspersed with some short stories and suspense thrillers. So here goes!

baby with a book

For the Love of Books: How to Raise a Reader?

I love reading. I’ve loved it ever since I can remember. I don’t remember where I picked up the habit because no one else in my family was interested in or had any time for reading as a hobby.  When I started college, I first came across people who romanticised reading. You’d never catch them without a book with them. They’d pride themselves in how many books they carried on their travels because they’re more important than clothes or shoes! Then came the Internet memes asking boys to find girls who read over every other type (whatever that means). I’ve seen parents proudly showing off how their kids are glued to books at the dinner table and prefer the company of books over people. Let’s not even get into the topic of book hoarding. I love books, and I have done all of these things mentioned above. But I am also a practical person. I’m not going to carry a book unless I know I’m in for a long wait. On my travels, I would …

Gajapati Kulapati series of 4 books

Book Review: Gajapati Kulapati

Ganesh Chaturti is the perfect time to talk about our favourite elephant. The Gajapati Kulapati series by Ashok Rajagopalan, published by Tulika Books, is a favourite in our house. We bought the first one when our son was about a year old, and now five years later, we have the complete set and still love reading them. The story is simple and hilarious. Each book is about an adventure Gajapati Kulapati has with his friends in the village where he lives. The sound effects will make kids and adults giggle with delight. There are four books in the series. We meet the same characters in each book and love to see how they’re getting on. Tulika Books publishes these books in Indian regional languages as well. They’re sure to delight young readers for a long time to come. Note: Some links are part of an affiliate program, which means that if you click on a link and buy something, I might receive a percentage of the sale, at no extra cost to you. 

Connecting with Kids: Journals for Kids

As a teenager, I got tired of hiding my diary from my family, so I chose to stop journaling. Much later, as a working adult, I had a day planner I loved to plan the day on.  Even after phones became the norm, I kept a physical planner with me. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of making a hand-written checklist and crossing them off as you complete your tasks. Why Journal? It was only in the last two years that I have gotten back to writing a daily personal journal. And it just happened to coincide with the year of a global pandemic. I found it therapeutic to write down my day and feelings. I also wrote what I was grateful for each day and it helped me stay sane during a tough time. I wanted to inculcate in my child this habit of talking about our days and documenting whatever we wanted to. I bought two journals for my 5-year-old. One was total fun and the other a little more serious.  He’s just 5 …

Book Review: Ammachi’s Glasses

The story starts with Ammachi not being able to find her glasses. However, she continues her day as usual and hilarity ensues. The story is simple yet so engrossing. The illustrations capture your interest with little things happening all around Ammachi as she tries to navigate without her glasses.

My son loved reading it again and again, focussing on the bits he found the funniest. Upon revisiting it again, he found a few more fun things hidden in the illustration and he loved discovering these pieces of the whole puzzle.

Poo and Fart Books for Kids: Talking about Bottom Businesses

Why are farts so funny to little kids? Why are they obsessed with poop? Anything to do with the bottom end of our business instantly piques their interest. Child fascination with poop usually continues to adulthood with some!  Do you get embarrassed to talk about it with your kids, or try to change the topic? Or do you join in with some potty humour of your own? Everyone poops, so why not discuss it without getting flustered? There are plenty of poop book for toddlers. Books about poop are fun and educational. Whether you’re trying to potty train your child or just learn about normal bodily functions, funny poop books are the way to go. These are 2 books on poop and fart that we enjoy reading together. It gives us plenty of laughs and information. We hope you enjoy them too! Does it Fart? By Nick Caruso, Dani Rabaiotti and illustrated by Alex G. Griffiths: This book started as a result of research for adults, then adapted for younger curious minds. There’s another book …

Kid with The Construction alphabet book and construction vehicle toys on the bed

5 Books for Kids Who Love Big Vehicles

My kid loves big vehicles. The biggest ones he’s seen are construction vehicles. He would sit and watch them work, full of amazement at how they moved.  I was surprised at how many things you can teach a young kid just by using different construction vehicles: Counting, rhyming, ABCs, and behaviour modelling.  We have been reading to our son since he was about 4 months old. We gave him picture board books to flip though and enacted some of the sentences. It’s never too early to start reading to them.  Here are some of our favourite construction-themed books. Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle and Illustrations by Jill McElmurry This was one of the first books he enjoyed reading. He would point it out to us and we would read it to him.  The book talks about how we need to be kind to people around us. The catchy rhyme and the animal sounds make it fun to listen to since babies can try and mimic some of the sounds as well. My Big Truck …