My grandson, a two-and-a-half year old fan of books, said, ‘You are funny, Dada,’ when I made gruff sounds while reading the story of Gruffalo’s Child. Indra, my grandson, has introduced me to a list of books that I was unaware of until now.
The earliest book that I remember having read was a pop-up book about that charming sleeping beauty. There are unclear memories of other stories that were in my Hindi Readers… but then none of these are from my toddler phase. My Nana and Nani told me that I could never sleep without hearing at least one story at bedtime. Not surprisingly, I went on to become an insatiable reader during my school years… and it was the hundreds of rapidly concocted stories of my Nana and Nani that helped me reach there.
The funny fact is that I do not recollect the names of any of the books that we bought for my son Pushkin. All I remember is that we did have an enviable collection that included books with strange Russian names and locales. Well, what matters is that he went on to evolve into a book lover.
Indra, however, is way ahead of us. He cannot yet read but his parents have read aloud many stories, and he is at a stage where he is now the sort ‘who cannot sleep without having read a story.’ Monika, his mother, tells us that he is now smart enough to exercise his choice about which books are to be on the ‘buy next’ list. He first hears a story and then props himself on his lounge chair to turn the pages of that book and if his love for it gets triggered, he turns to the back cover to point out the titles from the same author he wants next. This toddler’s favourite is Julia Donaldson, and his current favourites include ‘Room on the Broom, ‘Tiddler’, ‘The Snail and the Whale’, ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’, ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’, and ‘Monkey Puzzle’… the list is impressively long. These are the books he has carried with him to his ultra-short trip to India this year. His bookshelf in London has another of his favourites – the Maisy collection, ‘The Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr and ‘Mog, the Forgetful Cat’ by the same author besides others. This does not even include all the flip books from his ‘baby’ months!
‘Which is the best of these?’ I asked him.
‘Gruffalo’s Child,’ he said, and then added, ‘I’m Gruffalo’s Child.’ The mesmerized expression in his eyes when we played the Gruffalo movie on BBC Channel is unforgettable. ‘His screen time,’ Monika told me, ‘Is limited to one or two of his favourite stories on BBC or Spotify.’
What floored me completely is that this toddler has already clocked more than 20 hours on Audible, listening to his favourite books on audio. Pushkin added, ‘These books are generally read by kids a year older than him and his teachers at his nursery are suitably impressed.’ Though unable to read, Indra opens the pages and flips through them telling the entire story as written by the author. When my niece was there a month back, she added a new dimension to this fiction fascination and taught him how to expect questions and field them well. She also taught him to think of interesting and incisive questions to ask when others are reading out those stories to him. The entire exercise keeps us all on full alert as we dive into story-telling sessions with him. Generation Alpha is sprinting way too fast for us boomers, I must say.
The most heartening part during this visit by my grandson is that my resolve to read more books is determined to set a new benchmark. And then there is our race on Audible as well that cannot be overlooked.
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Arvind Passey
Written on 09 February 2025
