How to look after old books
Keep them upright, away from the sun and the bathroom wall, and let them breathe in the monsoon.
Building a reading shelf for a ten-year-old
Twenty books, a mix of stories and facts, and a little room for comics: how to set up a shelf that actually gets read.
Parents often ask us for a list of books their child should read by the age of ten. We prefer a different question: what would make this particular child pick up a book on a free afternoon? A good shelf is less a syllabus than a selection that keeps them coming back.
Start with about twenty books, a number that fits on one shelf without looking overwhelming. Half can be stories: a couple of adventure series, a detective series, a funny book or two, some folk tales and at least one story set in Bengal or another part of India, so the child sees places they know. A series is valuable at this age, because a child who enjoys book one has an easy reason to read book two.
The other half can be non-fiction and illustrated books. Children who say they do not like reading are often happy with books about animals, space, cricket, how machines work or how things are made. Birds of Our Balcony, at ₹549, is a good example: short chapters, real birds they can spot from home and lots of drawings. Add one good atlas and one book of puzzles or poems.
Leave room for comics and graphic novels. They are real reading, and for many children they are the bridge to longer books. Keep the shelf low enough for the child to reach, and let them rearrange it. Swap three or four books every couple of months. Our children’s shelf is near the window, and children are welcome to sit and read there for as long as they like.
