Across the Literary



Title: The Sound of Water


Grade - 4th
Genre - Picture Book
Theme - Animal Love
Author - Shalini Srinivasan 
Illustrator - Debasmita Dasgupta
Publisher, Year: Pratham Books, 2020


Biography of the author 
Shalini Srinivasan is a comic book, book, and occasional research writer. She specializes in writing friction for her children. Her most recent work is the Manasa series of picture books with Pratham Books. 
Shalini Srinivasan enjoys nonsense, hikes, and animals. Her debut book, Vanamala, and the Cephalopod was selected for the prestigious White Ravens worldwide catalog and is a finalist for the Crossword Book Award.

Synopsis
The sound of water is a beautifully written story that begins with Varsha asking her father for a pond and her father telling her about the importance of valuing the resources she has. She spends the next few hours hearing some strange noises she cannot comprehend, which her father does not hear. Later she deciphers a cub struck in the well. She helps him in coming out and her father calls the forest department to get the little leopard down from the tree. She begs her father to keep the cub with them to which her father responds that it is illegal to do so. She later insists her father dig a pond for animals to drink water. Varsha and her father together dig the pond for animals. 


Reading - Writing Strategies

  • Pre- reading
  1. Give children a word or list of a few words from the book and ask them to find it. 
  2. Ask the children to predict the story of the book by looking at the book cover. 

  • During reading 
  1. Ask the children questions from the book such as 
  2. Who is fond of swimming?  How do you save water? (Page no 2 )
  3. Recreate sounds of rain. (Page no 3)
  4. How does a frog walk? (Page no 5)
  5. What is a monster? (Page no 7)
  6. Predict what Varsha’s brilliant idea is. (Page no 8)
  7. What will you do in the same situation? (Page no 9)
  • Post reading 
  1. Ask the children to recreate the cover of the book
  2. Ask the children to create a storyboard of the book

Reflection
A beautiful children's book that explores the calming and meditative power of water through the eyes of a young girl. Apart from the importance of mindfulness and taking the time to appreciate the small things in life, the illustrations in the book are simply stunning, with vivid colors and intricate details that bring the story to life. Although there are things that could have been refrained from using things like the word “nonsense” or him not explaining to her why they cannot have a pet cub. He rudely rules out her innocent demands of keeping the cub with them. Instead, he could have told those things very politely. Overall, "The Sound of Water" is a beautiful and thought-provoking book that encourages children  to be mindful of their surroundings

Comments

  1. RAKHIMay 21, 2023 at 12:00 PM

    Aditi , the way you put post story activity is very nice .I really want to use that idea whenever I will get a chance to create a cover page and story board ,I find it so interesting.

    ReplyDelete

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