Kids hooked to books for a day at Friends Club

Friends Club, Friends Colony (West), New Delhi, in association with All About Book Publishing, recently organised a Children’s Books Day, a library event for children (4-14 years). This fun-filled event for children and their parents aimed at engaging the curious minds! Children could choose and buy books they liked; interact with peers, authors, publishers; and enjoy interesting sessions.

The first session was a book reading session by Simi Srivastava: master storyteller and founder – Kathashala, a story telling institute for adults. She is the architect of numerous engaging and insightful workshops across the country on storytelling for teachers as well as parents. Children were enthralled and loved this interactive session, where Simi read aloud and performed on her book Give Back my Ball, published by Vishv Books.

This was followed by an eye-opening session for young parents by Dr Bindu Sehlot, professional parent counselor and author of Goodbye Mom & Dad See You in the Afternoon published by Sterling Publishers. Dr Sehlot has a vast experience of 20 years in the education industry.

Another story telling & story acting session under the guidance of Manas Ranjan Mahapatra from the National Book Trust, hooked the children as well as parents equally. Everybody got to write a story and few enthusiastic children even performed them. Manas heads the National Centre for Children’s Literature division of National Book Trust, India. He is also an educational activist, editor, poet and writer for both children and adults.

Kids love to eat…so a session on Young Chefs: Hassle-free Cooking for Kids by Kavita Gupta from Nita Mehta Publications, was thoroughly enjoyed by children, who gathered around Kavita and learnt to cook lip-smacking delicacies, while their parents looked at them in awe.

Another interesting Storytelling session, which kept the kids glued to their seats was by Jason Quinn, who recited from his book Magical Animals published by Campfire. Progressing from comic writer to editor, to TV and back to comics, Jason is a man who carved himself a steady creative career. Presently, he is the creative content head at Campfire Graphic Novels.

And with ebooks progressing fast in the digital world, a session on Fun with eBooks: Learn Beyond Books With Multimedia by A2Z Teaching & Learning Solutions Pvt Ltd was truly apt. A2Z teaching and learning solutions endeavours to provide the best answers and solutions to all types of requirements of educational institutions under one roof, be it school library books, teacher resource books, children and activity books or school books.

And that was not all! Children even got into the splash pool with bath books from Dreamland Publications. Besides, Friends Club offered their old library books at throwaway prices.

The participating publishers at the event included Dreamland; Vishv Books; Macaw Books; A2Z Teaching and Learning Solutions, Apple Publishing, Quixot Publications, Sterling Publishers, Nita Mehta Publications, Aadya Books, Campfire and Little Pearl Books.