The Book Leaf

One of our Madhatters was so engrossed in reading his Amar Chitra Katha inside The Book Leaf that we had to entice him outside where the place was all set for the Madhatters' meet, with the promise of a game of chess! But I am glad to report that he was as enthusiastic as the others once the discussion started and we had him and the others visualizing Dickensian England and relating incidents, situations and characters described in the story to ones that they are familiar with in today's world. Our young friends also appreciated greatly the use of the quaint Victorian English and the almost poetic usage of language that Dickens does to describe even the smallest of incidents.

Of course, they were quite glad that they need not read the unabridged and original version right now and can make do with the simplified version:) All of them also read a bit from the abridged version a little bit to appreciate this! It was heartening to see how quickly they caught on to why Dickens originally wrote Oliver Twist under a pseudonym! Today was also a day when they came across a few homonyms and had fun with them!

A big thank you to Meena, Preeti, Prachi, Aniruddh, Rajeshwari and Radhika for their invaluable inputs! Next time on popular demand - Chronicles of Narnia!