Inverting Stereotypes with Venita Coelho
By Ashika Thusu, Educator Participants of this masterclass walked into a room set up with a long sheet of white plotter paper, chalk pastels, and pencils. Venita Coelho read excerpts from her book, Dungeon Tales, throughout the session, choosing funny and intriguing sections that held the children spellbound. In the book, a girl who doesn’t […]
Building Thrilling Eco-Fiction with Nayanika Mahtani
By Ashika Thusu, Educator This masterclass sensitized the audience—mostly 11 years of age—to the astonishing facts of poaching in India and across the world. In her conversation with students, Nayanika Mahtani passionately and firmly put across the disturbing facts of poaching, with a focus on tigers. The author shared her journey of how she came […]
Be a Mind-Ninja with Roopa Pai
By Jyothsana Narasimhan, Educator In a world filled with distractions and fast-paced living, the ancient practice of yoga offers a pathway to mindfulness and inner peace. Roopa Pai‘s The Yoga Sutras for Children is a remarkable book that introduces young readers to the profound wisdom of Maharishi Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in a way that is […]
Renée Watson Unveils the Magic of Poetry
By Vaishali Basu, Educator As the sun dipped low on the second day of the Neev Literature Festival, Stage #2 resonated with the vibrant energy of words as Renée Watson took the stage for “Poetry that Speaks to Multiple Identities.” A champion of celebrating the ordinary, Renée shared insights into her poetic philosophy, urging the […]
Vaccines for Smartypants—Anushka Ravishankar
By Diya Shetty, Grade 11 As noon struck on the first day of NLF 2023, an ebullient group of Smartypants fans awaited their Masterclass with Anushka Ravishankar, award-winning author of numerous books, Vaccines for Smartypants being the latest. Anushka began by discussing her creation of a character like Smartypants the cat. There were parallels with […]
Breaking Biases: Dismantle Stereotypes—Masterclass with Divya Anand
By Diya Shetty, Grade 11 For her masterclass, titled “Breaking Biases”, author Divya Anand was greeted by a room packed with enthusiastic children. A quick poll revealed that every one of them had read Misfit Madhu, Divya’s book about a girl in 7th grade who builds an app that goes viral. Divya began taking us […]
Worlds Within and Apart—Devashish Makhija and Chatura Rao
By Kabir Basu, Grade 11 More than providing the right answers, the session “Worlds Within and Apart”—featuring author, journalist and educator Chatura Rao (How Mohan Found Himself) alongside filmmaker and writer Devashish Makhija (translator of We are the Dancing Forest)—was really about asking the right questions. Before reading excerpts from their books, both authors shared […]
Takeaways from NLF 2023
By Anaaya Kanchan, Grade 8 The Neev Literature Festival was a 2-day event packed with performances, sessions, talks, masterclasses and readings. Authors and performers from around the world and the country came together to speak and perform to a large and diverse audience, leaving all of us with a vast wealth of knowledge and experiences. […]
Unveiling Layers: A Masterclass in Close Reading with Colin and Anuradha
By Vaishali Ghosh Basu, Educator On Saturday, the first day of the Neev Literature Festival, a masterclass on close reading led by the dynamic duo, Colin Kelman and Anuradha Ruhil Barua, left participants spellbound during a 45-minute session that transcended the ordinary. Both distinguished DP teachers in the IB curricula and members of the Neev […]
What’s in a Wordless Book? | A Reading of My Street
By Supriya Prakash, Educator A wordless book? The name seems to say it all—it is a book without text where the story is told solely through the art. Images tell the stories and they must be read as carefully as any text. Artists are literally writing with pictures. While similar pictorial choices are made when […]