October update - as crisp as an apple
The well of news stories this month
There is such a thing as a ‘Good book’. This is different from a ‘Great book’. Great books are the kinds that you really really want to read even when all your friends are playing outside. (Good books are the kinds that you really really want to read when exams are around the corner).
‘Tin-Tin’ and ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ were amongst the GREAAT books that I have read, while I was in primary school. The GREATESSST books were the ones I did not READ, but the kinds that I loved flipping the pages and scanning the PICTURES wide-eyed (or so my mother claims, since I don’t fully recollect life and its events when I was two years old).
Little TRIVIA on the side - the OLDEST picture book was Millions of Cats written by Wanda Gag. Supposed to be the first proper American publication of a picture book.
ANOTHER trivia - you pronounce the author’s surname Gag as Gog
YET ANOTHER trivia - you pronounce the author’s first name Wanda as Wonda
Apart from being the first proper picture book, Millions of Cats brought a new trend in storytelling using pictures. Before this book was published, most of the picture books that came out earlier had one page full of drawings and another full of separate text. The text rarely referred to the drawing (what were they thinking?). When Wanda (the one you pronounce as Wonda) came on the scene, she brought the illustrations right into the story - as in, she let the drawings tell a part of the story and the text tell the rest of it.
Why am I telling you all this - Millions of Cats went out of copyright in 2024. Copyright protection lasts for 95 years from the first publication date. Millions of Cats was first published in 1928. This means we can download images from the book without paying a dime to anyone and print them on T-shirts, mugs, stationery, posters…. You get the drift. It also means you can read the whole book for free here.
The Lighter Side is a weekly newsletter I write for kids and families. There is such a thing as writing for kids and there is such a thing as narrating news stories. In this newsletter, I combine the two to tell kids about the news stories from the real world in a way they can go ‘ohhh…gah…now that makes sense.’ This edition is a monthly roundup of what we’ve written and spoken. Hope you’ve had a rollicking October!
1. The story of two countries with pots of oil
There was once an old man whose three sons each got a silver coin from him. The three sons made different uses of the silver coins and one got super rich, one earned okayish something and the third lost most of its value. Many countries in the world behave pretty much like the three sons. In this story, we compare two countries that each had a huge pot of crude oil under their soil. Each of them used the crude oil very differently. Over the past 75 years, one has turned out to be enormously wealthy and another is today in dire poverty. Hear the stories of how life changed in these countries over 75 years and why this happened. This podcast is like a game where you (the listener) needs to guess what happens to each country as the game progresses and keep moving between the two countries. If you are in the richer country at the end of the podcast (based on your guesses), you win the game (duh!)
2. AI goes nuts
We had two AI stories - one about how it behaves crazily when asked to generate recipes and one about the wonderful ways in which it has made the life of differently abled better. Sounds about as balanced as it can get.
(a) AI creates recipes - most of them are crazy. Some can even be poisonous. Read about it here.
(b) AI helps a blind man run a half-marathon. With no guide dog or a human, this man ran his half marathon entirely with the help of AI loaded onto his phone. Read about it here.
3. Tech gets touchy
Ever known or heard of a search engine other than Google? As it turns out, there are plenty of options out there, but Google has been doing something sly behind our backs to keep other options out of our sights. As it turns out, the US Government won’t be taking any of this sly fox behavior anymore. There’s going to be some penalty-paying for Google to do. As well as some words-to-throw and arguing in courts. Read more about why YOU should look for other search engines. Even if you are just 5-years old.
4. We are one step closer to Mars
Before you pack your bags and book your tickets for next summer, hold on to that thought for a few more years. SpaceX has taken us a step closerrrr to sending a spaceships to Mars. Listen to the story here.
5. Look at the sky - the one at night
If you find two round white glowing things in the sky, neither is a spaceship with aliens coming to meet you. Earth got two moons, just this month. Whoa! Did I read that right? TWWWOOO moons? Read about it all here.
6. The teenager who scaled mountains and created a world record
A Nepalese teenager was bored out of his wits - he was in the tenth grade (obviously!). As he twiddled with his pen and scratched out the last piece of answer in his tenth grade exams, he looked out of the window. As luck would have it, there was something magical staring at him. Clue: It was not a giant smartphone. This teenager jumped up from his desk with a hurrah and decided what he was going to do, to kill his boredom. He was going to climb mountains. The kinds that are tall and have snow sprinkled all over them. He climbed 14 of the world’s tallest peaks over the next couple of years and created a world record of sorts. Read his full story here.
Would you like to join me in our book review next month?
November 2024 - I will be reading and reviewing ‘The girl who drank the moon’ by Kelly Barnhill. This book, authored by a teacher, won the 2017 Newbery Medal. The story is that of a young girl who uses her magical powers to save good from evil (the usual stuff). But, what makes this book a great read is that it allows the reader to understand a character from multiple perspectives. Excited to read this fantasy novel? You can buy the book using the link below.
To be a part of the book review and join other children who will be reading this book alongside me, click here.
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