By Azera Rahman, IANS
New Delhi : On World Literacy Day Saturday, Katha publishing house along with cultural trust INTACH launched a set of 11 books in Hindi to help children with minimum reading abilities to build their vocabulary by as much as 600 words.
Created for children between the age group of 7-11 years from underprivileged and illiterate families, the books deal with a wide range of topics – from the importance of self-reliance, creativity and cleanliness to scientific temperament, alternative energy resources and education for the girl child. And all this is conveyed through simple and delightful stories.
“There are three levels of easy readers (books) with gradual increase in number and complexity of words. It works towards increasing the vocabulary of the child with each level,” Amrita Talwar of Katha told IANS.
“The books slowly builds up the ability to think, talk and act in a child through simple stories,” she said.
The first level of books, brought out together with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), are the ‘Think’ books whereby simple questions are posed in front of the child through a story.
Then there are ‘Talk’ books, which puts forth thought provoking ideas that leads to active discussions. And then there are ‘Teach’ books, which tells a child that thoughts can be translated into actions to help the society.
The number of words per page increases with the different levels, so that the child spends more time on a particular page and helps in enhancing the attention span as the reader moves from one book to another.
“Besides the simple narration there are vivid illustrations by well-known illustrators like Atanu Roy, Vandana Bisht, Sujata Singh and Mala Marwah which will catch the attention of the children,” Talwar added.
The books will be distributed in all government and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools.