Nivedita Mukerjee
Education consultancy for parents and schools
Holiday Learning Pack by Scholastic – A review
” If you eat me today, what will you do for the rest of your life? Spare me and I will bring you three scrumptious books every day.”
“A three-course meal every day? For the rest of my life? I will never have to hunt for food?” Bookasura was incredulous.
Written by Arundhati Venkatesh and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan, Bookasura is part of the summer reading kit put together by Scholastic this year. So is Amy and Louis by Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood. Both of these award winning books come along with the all time favourites like Panchatantra Ki Kahaniya and books from the series of The Magic School Bus. Don’t miss the 7 minute stories for 7 year olds in the stack. There are clever little lessons in this fiction, not to mention clean, simple language by the authors. The magical powers that the magical characters have in these stories convey meaningful messages quite effortlessly.
What I liked about the kit is that the books have illustrations that trigger imaginations and the accompanying worksheets facilitate learning and higher order thinking for the young readers. I tried a few myself as an educator and a parent – reading aloud, writing, drawing – found them to be fun and engaging. The reading journal takes the idea further, guiding gently towards making more sense of the fiction and non-fiction readings, introducing various literary devices age appropriately, in just the right amount of depth.
I checked out the Grade 4 book of literacy and numeracy and found it integrating literacy and Environmental Sciences fairly seamlessly. Numeracy pages though were still on their own. Presented in a fun way of number games and designing board games with some suggestions of reading and integration with literacy, these could have been more higher order thinking and application based I think. So multiplication still is to be worked out with just numbers and not word problems.
The adding of a small back pack and a box of lovely bi-color pencils kept me wanting for some art and craft work books from the pack with perhaps introduction to some artists and their styles to see and try out. I would have loved that especially, if I were to create my own illustrated journal at the end of the summer to share my readings with my friends and family at school and home.
All in all, it is quite a well put together kit with enough excitement for the student and just right guidance for the parent to work with the child through the spring/summer break. Priced at about Rs. 1000/- from students of Pre-K to Grade 5, makes a neat little gift that is fun and learning at the same time.
I am an educator and advisor to parents and educational institutions. As an independent reviewer of children’s books and educational aids, I do not accept any payments. These are my personal opinion. The publisher/distributor send me the samples they would like me to review and write about. If you are a parent/educator and would like to receive an update whenever I write about a book or a product, please subscribe to my blog with your e-mail id. It is free.
Nivedita Mukerjee 
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