I hope you enjoy it too.

My favorite cover-love for the week is -

I saw this cover in a list featured on this post titled “19 Beautiful book cover designs for your inspiration”. It has many more covers that I found just awesome. In some random thoughts, I have decided on taking up Project 365, where I commit to take a photo a day at least I hope to post my favorite shots! This pic of Aarya is a favorite of this past week

I hope you all have a lovely week!The beautiful Suko @ Suko’s Notebook hosts Really Random Tuesday. It is a way to post odds and ends–announcements, musings, quotes, photos–any blogging and book-related things you can think of.

A Merry Christmas to all my friends… I hope you all have a lovely day with your loved ones.
We decorated a Christmas tree for the first time, and Aarya loved decorating it Now it’s countdown to New Year fun…fun…fun!

It is pointless for me to say anything. But I had tears in my eyes as I heard in horror the news on TV. There was very little coverage, but the internet has kept me updated. I then went and looked at the photos of all the kids who had been killed – I should never have done that! OMG! I can’t get there faces out of my head. I cannot even imagine the pain their families are going through…. I would have died.

I pray, God gives these families strength. I hope they find peace. I hope the power of prayer helps them heal.

I love these words by Maria Montessori in her book – “TYhe absorbent Mind”. (I have not read the book but read this quote on this post @ Lisa Nolan’s Confessions of a Montessori Mom blog )

“People’s souls often soften and sweeten when one speaks of children; the whole of mankind shares in the deep emotions which they awaken.  The child is a well-spring of love.  Whenever we touch the child, we touch love.”   

- Maria Montessori

So an updated cover-love.

Hokey Pokey
by Jerry Spinelli
Book Description:

Welcome to Hokey Pokey. A place and a time, when childhood is at its best: games to play, bikes to ride, experiences to be had. There are no adults in Hokey Pokey, just kids, and the laws governing Hokey Pokey are simple and finite. But when one of the biggest kids, Jack, has his beloved bike stolen—and by a girl, no less—his entire world, and the world of Hokey Pokey, turns to chaos. Without his bike, Jack feels like everything has started to go wrong. He feels different, not like himself, and he knows something is about to change. And even more troubling he alone hears a faint train whistle. But that’s impossible: every kid knows there no trains in Hokey Pokey, only tracks.

Master storyteller Jerry Spinelli has written a dizzingly inventive fable of growing up and letting go, of leaving childhood and its imagination play behind for the more dazzling adventures of adolescence, and of learning to accept not only the sunny part of day, but the unwelcome arrival of night, as well.

*****

Is there any new covers you are digging lately?

The beautiful Suko @ Suko’s Notebook hosts Really Random Tuesday. It is a way to post odds and ends–announcements, musings, quotes, photos–any blogging and book-related things you can think of.

If you are on Facebook and are my friend, then you might have already seen this picture. Ignore the background please.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books.  To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link on Alyce’s site.

Description:
Ivan’s Great Fall is the story of a young boy reluctant to say goodbye to summer. Everything about summer makes him happy. “I love to rise in the summer morn / when the birds sing on every tree.” Summer is endless days of play and nights full of stars. As summer turns to fall, he discovers autumn has a charm of its own. “I do like pumpkins / all carved to scare, / and Halloween, / and leaves in big piles / everywhere.” Fall is friends and school, trees full of brilliant colors and a chill in the air.
Ivan’s Great Fall introduces children to the poetry of Keats, Dickinson, Sandburg, Bronte and others. Excerpts from their writings, as seen through Ivan’s eyes, will open up poetry as a way for children to express their own feelings about the changing of seasons. This book includes longer excerpts and brief bios of each author.

Review:

Here is an escerpt from a review I read about this book -

Ivan’s Great Fall, is a creative children’s poetry book about a young boy struggling to let go of a warm and carefree summer so he can embrace the leafy fall. Its pages serve a dual function; they introduce children to the poetry greats like Dickinson, Keats, Bronte and Sandburg, and they help children accept the changing of the seasons and the inevitable passage of time.

I agree totally and I couldn’t have said it better. This book is beautiful…illustrations are gorgeous breath-taking and just so lovable that you want to just keep going back to see them again and again. I have a number of books on my PC, for the times when Aarya wants sit with me and see what I am doing. This was the most recent download, thanks to NetGalley. Aarya just loved it. He wanted to see it again and again. Even though this book is geared for older kids, I think toddlers would love it too.

Aarya loves any books with boys in them. He likes to tell me that boy in that book is Aarya  and that dog (yes you guessed it right!) Vava. This is one book I just want to own in print. I am sure when Aarya is older and starts reading, he would love the poem as well. I just hope this book is released in print here as well.

Highly Recommended. Would make a lovely gift for the kids in your family.

For more children’s books reviews, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

Book Summary

Joyously colored animals, riding on a train to the zoo, offer youngsters a first introduction to numbers, number sets, addition and counting in this paperback reissue of Eric Carle’s first picture book. A gatefold spread at the back of the book, featuring the whole wonderful animal train, adds to the fun!

Review:

Eric Carle books must adorn every child’s library. You should do that as early as is possible. Repetitive and simple words, wonderful illustration and amazing art are just some of the great things about his books. Each book introduces an educational concept effortlessly and as you might have already guessed, 1,2,3 to the Zoo is a counting book. But is it just a counting book? No, it is much, much more. Each number corresponds to animals on the train. These animals are being taken to a zoo.

As always the last page is such a treat! A whole zoo Aarya loved it instantly.

I plan to do some activities with the help of this wonderful book and there are a train-load of concepts that can be worked on as well -

1) Numbers, one on one counting.

2) Colors

3) Animal – recognition

4) Concept of zoo.

I will share the activities with you as soon as we do them. Till then we are having fun re-reading this lovely book. It is an added bonus that it has a train for my transportation-obsessed kiddo.

I bought my copy at FlipKart.com, you can too- just click on the link below.
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Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books.  To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link on Alyce’s site.

It is been 2 years and some months since Aarya came into our lives, and now I cannot remember our lives before him. What did we do with all the time we had, really? Initially, Aarya was our bundle of joy, which turned into a fun-loving jumping jack and then into a screaming, not-so-sweet little monster. He is a strong-willed individual, who really knows what he wants, and no matter how many distractions I throw at him, he remembers and comes right back to the thing he did previously wanted. Most days I am pulling my hair out, screaming and some other wonderful days I laugh and let him do whatever he wants.

I am in a state of extended-laziness. I have at times too many things going on and some days I just am lazy… But most of all I have enough and more time to spend with Aarya.  I think all my time is defined by what we did together, how many times we fought, what we did and my everyday struggle to get him to “read”.

Aarya has speech-problems( I am not sure about the proper term). He is happy 2 and a half year old, but has just started “trying” to say words – he still can’t get a lot of “sounds correctly out”. There is a lot of frustration and a lot of “No’s”; but we are finally making progress.

So you now know, what I have been doing really. As my reading has come to a halt, I still read a lot of tot-books, which I plan to share with you. I might also share some activities that I do with Aarya. SO generally a lot of toddler stuff, some tit-bits, some recipes and loads of fun.

I hope to meet you at your blogs soon.

Book Summary of One and a Half Wife
Unlike most Indian immigrants, Amara Malhotra is not destined to achieve the American Dream. Much to the anxiety of her parents – the spirited Biji and the doting Baba – Amara leads an unremarkable life. That is, until she marries Harvard-educated millionaire, Prashant Roy.

However, this fairy-tale isn’t meant to last, and even as Amara’s marriage collapses, she finds herself returning to the land of her birth, to the small city of Shimla. Here, in a borough grappling with questions of modernity, Amara is caught in a tug-of-war between old beliefs and new ones, between parents who favour obedience and new friends who encourage independent thought.

With powerful insights, One and a Half Wife traces the coming-of-age of multiple characters, while re-defining family, relationships and love in contemporary India.

Review:

You know most days I really can’t afford to read and some days it seems that I did rather lie down and close my eyes and rest when I have a few minutes to myself. So I really did not know why I requested this book from Blogadda,com. There is no uniqueness in the blurb and it sounds really boring. The blurb really talks about immigration, trying to blend in etc etc. I would rather read Jhumpa Lahiri, because she is one who deals with these topics with such finesses that any other Indian author would have to really struggle to make a mark.

But I was blown away… really. I really LOVED this book. This is one book I want you to pick up and read… This is one book I will insist you read… and will not let you rest until you read. That blurb needs working, it doesn’t do the book any justice. At a bookstore I would not have picked this one up after reading that blurb. Now I think I am blabbering, but I cannot tell you how much I loved this book.

The mid-wife had another delivery to make across town at Chota Shimla. She didn’t have time to play coquette with chota girls.So she grabbed a hot white coal from the pot of coals lying on Biji’s stomach and brought it close to Amara’s left foot. Amara wailed, declaring herself only under provocation.

The story starts off with a parrot picking a card up which will ascertain Amara’s future as a wife. This is the parrot who tells her mother that she will be a “one and a half wife”. And hence starts Amara’s story. Amara has been taught to desire only 3 things – “It is God’s desire”, “It is Biji’s desire” and “It is His desire” – “His” being the future husband. Biji (mother) made sure that Amara understood that the ultimate thing in life for her was to find a rich boy and marry him.  Amara’s uncle who is settled in US, after her birth applies for the green card for the Malhotras.

After waiting for 14 years, Malhotra’s reach America, where her uncle helps them out albeit hesitantly. It is not a smooth ride from there for Amara and neither is it for her parents. Armed with a list of things they must not do in America, to pronouncing the words the American way to changing their looks, they struggle in every way.

I must say that there is no dull moment in this book. You just read on and on without considering putting it down. Amara’s childhood reminded me  of mine and even with an army of characters, each character has a distinctive role and a well-defined space. Amara’s struggles in the US and her life are discussed not to cater sympathy for her but to really show-case the Indian community in the US. The author also deals with the subject of divorce carefully and skillfully showcases how it is truly dealt with abroad and in India.

“This is all hogwash, she told herself. All marriages were a consequence of security, tradition, money and beauty. Love was a chance, a lucky coincidence. Its existence was an after-thought, for more serious matters cemented marriage.”

“It was consequently fitting for an immigrant to blend in with America like sugar with water or better still, to avoid a diabetic relationship, to blend in like air with water.”
“Everything fits together in America except the immigrant’s identity.”

There is not one anti-hero but everyone just behaves as per there circumstances and the thinking instilled in them through age-old traditions. This story is a beautiful coming-of-age story. It was not only for Amara, but also for her parents, her sister and so many others. It is a beautiful story and it is lovingly told.

I really insist you read it today J

Highly Recommended.

About the Author

A financial journalist by day and a writer by night, Meghna Pant is the editor of a business magazine. She has formerly worked as a TV anchor for NDTV Profit and Bloomberg-UTV. Her short stories have been published in over a dozen literary magazines, across four countries.

An avid traveller, Meghna Pant has stayed in various cities around the world, from Mumbai and Singapore to Zurich and New York City. She is currently based in Dubai.

One and a Half Wife – Meghna’s debut novel – has been long listed for the Cinnamon Press Novel Writing Award, selected as a top ten finalists in Word Hustler’s Literary Storm Novel Contest, and made it to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Thanks to Blogadda.com for my review copy.

Buy it from Flipkart and enjoy there exemplary service

See you around