Harry Potter

How can I write about books during Read Across America week and not mention Harry Potter. This is an amazing set of books that every kid should read. Since I do not need to review the books here, I will write about my experiences with these books. I read them about 4 years ago and I just loved them. I could not put those books down. I cried and laughed with the characters. I have read them about 4 times after that and I am still not bored.

Sarath has now finished the series and is reading it again and again. Every time he reads it, he finds something new that he missed the last time. Me and Sarath have discussions about the books, characters and the plot lines. It feels so good to discuss it with him. I get to see the books from an entirely different perspective.

One more reason I love those books is the fact that I can use the characters to teach Sarath about many things. He is now going through a phase where he does not want to talk to any new kid, or make new friends and has been snapping at anyone and everyone. So, I talked to him and after a long discussion of what he should be doing, I told him “please don’t be a Malfoy”. It lightened the mood and the he got the point instantly. I love it when I can use the book to teach him something.

One of my favorite lines in the series is “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” I talked to Sarath about this before he read the second book and he remembered it when was reading the books. We always go back to this one and keep talking about it. This seems to get the message across in a very easy way and the fact that Dumbledore says it in the book, makes it more interesting to him 🙂 Initially when he started reading the books, I wasn’t sure if he would understand it at all. Now I know I was wrong. He loves those books.

With all the Harry Potter mania going around in our house, Sanjay is also very excited to read the series. He keeps telling Sarath not to spoil his surprises 🙂 He just cannot wait to read it.

Scribbleville

This week is Read Across America week! It is Dr. Suess birthday on March 2nd and this week is celebrated in his honor. I have read a lot of Dr. Suess books to my kids. I so wish I had these books to read when I was little. It inspires kids to read more. If there is one thing I am really proud as a parent so far, it is the love of reading I gave the kids. I read to them diligently when they were babies. It felt silly at first reading to a 6 month old baby. What does he understand? But, I just went along with it. Slowly, it became a routine for us. I loved that time of snuggles and reading. By the time Sarath was 1, he already loved books. I started with Sanjay even before he was 6 months old. He used be on my lap every night when I read to Sarath. He picked up on it too. The kids love to read. There were many comments made about this routine of us reading books to our babies. For once, I did not care and I am so glad for it now 🙂

So, as part of the Read Across America week, I decided to share some amazing books I have read to them. Here is the first one. Sanjay got this book from his school library and was very excited to read this to me. He wanted to read with me on a weekday morning before going to school. That day luckily we had some extra time, and I sat there with my cup of tea to read this book to him.

Photo courtesy: Amazon.com

The book is about a town where are the people are squiggly with not straight lines at all. Even the houses and animals are squiggly. Then one fine day a person who is all straight comes to the town and builds a house with all straight lines. He is at first seen as the outsider and the people in town do not like him at all. Then a girl from town makes friends with him and gets married and they have kids who are both squiggly and straight.

An amazing book to show kids how to embrace differences between each other. It is rather a very nice way to show that different is not bad after all. We are all people not matter our appearances. I think this book is even more important now in the current political turmoil.