The sessions, by Pratham Books, will be spread across the State

Pratham Books is planning to celebrate International Literacy Day (September 8) this year by holding storytelling sessions in multiple locations across the country.

“The idea is to encourage children to fall in love with reading. This initiative is part of the Pratham Books’s Champions Programme where we encourage our community of volunteers to conduct reading sessions,” says Purvi Shah of Pratham.

So far, Pratham has 250 identified ‘champions’ who will hold reading sessions in as many locations. Karnataka will have the largest such sessions, at 80, spread across the State from Bangalore to Raichur.

The publishers also hope to create a Limca Record with this initiative.

The book chosen for reading is Susheela’s Kolams , which is about a little girl who loves rangoli ( kolamin Tamil) and dreams big. Written by Sridala Swamy, it has illustrations by Priya Kuriyan.

Mala Kumar, an editor at Pratham who is also a ‘champion’ for the reading at Anatha Shishu Nivasa, an orphanage on Bull Temple Road, is planning to use the reading session to also teach children some English.

“The children there study in a Kannada medium school. I am planning to read the book in English, one page at a time, and ask the children to translate. We will then read the same from the Kannada book and see which translation comes closest to the original,” said Ms. Kumar.

She also plans to get children to draw rangolis with powder and chalk.

The reading sessions will not be entirely structured and much will depend on the mood of the children, so that it can be both a fun and learning experience.

For details, check www.prathambooks.org/ 1-day-1-book-100-sessions.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bangalore, September 08th, 2012