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| Image taken from https://kitaabinternational.com/books/. |
On February 11, I had the privilege of being at a private book launch, Dreamagination by Rishav Gupta.
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| First edition signed by the author to me personally. |
There are several factors that made this event personal and remarkable to me. Rishav is a student of mine and Sri, his mother, is my colleague. The one page stories are written by Rishav andmany are also illustrated by him. Each story has a simple and effective teaching tip suggested by Sri, an experienced and highly qualified PYP teacher. As one reads through the book, you can see the progress of his writing and drawings.
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| Sri and Rishav Gupta at his Book Launch on Februrary 11 2017, Tanglin Club. |
This book can be used by parents and teachers at all year levels as a springboard, or as teachers refer to it, a provocation, from Kindergarten to year 13 to further discussions based on a child's writing or drawings. Rishav's entertaining, short stories, whimsical doodles and colourful illustrations can be a catalyst to any child or teen's writing.
Sri's concise teaching tips guide you through how to develop each story further from a learning perspective in an easy and conversational way. She does this for every one of Rishav's stories in a no-tech, verbal, conversational method. However, at the end Sri does suggest technology as an option for recording and writing. The book ends with blank pages for readers to explore their own creativity, to create their own stories and to add to them to Rishav's. Sri's tips encourage parents and their children to collaborate, discuss, learn and tinker with the child's creativity process. It plants the seeds for lifelong learning in a non-academic way and habitual connections between parent and child in their own learning journey - together.
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| Each of Rishav's stories are accompanied with a teaching tip from Sri. |
Dreamagination is a collaborative effort between child and parent, and it can be - for any child and parent. If your child draws, doodles, reads or writes at any level, the discussions and activities that can be derived from this book are infinite. Every page is a springboard for children and their parents to have a conversation about those expressions of creativity and learning.
This book is also remarkable as it is the personal learning journey taken by both Rishav and Sri together as they learned how a book gets published, distributed and promoted. It is the testimony of their perseverance, and their quest as inquirers and risk-takers, and so many more of the IB Learner Profiles and Attitudes that we espouse to our students. They don't just talk about it. They've done it. This book is the evidence.
It's not the end of this journey. Rishav intends to write a series of books in the future. We look forward to reading more from this published author.
Buy Dreamagination and share it with your children. It can be purchased on Flipkart and Kitaab online stores and from the reception at Chatsworth International School - Orchard Campus. Part of the proceeds will go to charity.
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| Image taken from https://kitaabinternational.com/books/. |
