Book recommendations with Rati Girish

[00:00:00] Pops in a Pod, Pops in a Pod. Hey everyone, welcome to Pops in a Pod. I am Peter Pop. And I am Nadir Pop. Nadir, we have been talking a lot about books in the last couple of months and I think it

[00:00:28] all started and I have an origin story for this. Do you remember when we did this podcast with this brand called Shumi Toys? And we spoke to this lovely lady named Rati and at that time

[00:00:42] we were literally like, hey do you know this book? Do you know that book? And then we realized wait, hang on, why does she know so much about books other than her hosting the podcast?

[00:00:52] Well, because she runs an Instagram page called Mother of Readers which promotes Indian children's literature. And I was like at that moment after we hit record with her, I was like, Rati stop, stop, stop, we're getting you on our podcast now. So I think it's finally time

[00:01:09] and welcome to the podcast, Rati. Thank you Peter. This is, it's funny to be on the other side but thank you. It's always me saying welcome to, you know, it's nice being on the other side.

[00:01:21] And I think that's the beauty about the podcasting community, right? It's so small, especially in India and it's small and it's in English. It just keeps getting smaller. Well, it's very interesting. So I'd like to put it that way. Yes, of course, I was coming to that.

[00:01:37] Yeah, no but I always look forward to the kind of episodes that we're doing because typically we're prepped another and I have notes, we're exchanging stuff. What are we going to say? Who's the guest introduction? And for the first time in months, I have no

[00:01:53] notes because I said this is all going to be you talking about recommendations and something that you're really passionate about. So why not, right? No, that'll be fantastic. You get me started on talking about books and Indian

[00:02:07] children's literature especially and I could go on. So yes, but I will stop myself and wait for you to ask me to say stuff. Otherwise I could just go on a rant. But okay, so let's preface this conversation a bit, right? And we've done

[00:02:22] book recommendations in the past. We're going to leave the link to that with a couple named Nandini and Nitin who kind of talked about books for different age groups. And again, Nathir and I and I think collectively were at least in some age

[00:02:38] bracket very similar. One of the things Nathir and I always talk about and that's why the prime impetus of this episode is this, is we didn't really grow up reading Indian literature, right? Even I think it's only once I was a

[00:02:56] young adult which again seems like a long time ago relatively. That's when I started realizing, hey there are Indian authors and especially because I grew up in an English speaking household, right? So there wasn't a lot for me to

[00:03:10] read. Was that a similar journey for you or what was that journey like for you growing up? Absolutely, I'm an 80s 90s kid. So for us when we talked about English Indian children's authors it would be your customary Amar Chitra Katha

[00:03:28] and it would be your Tinkles and that's about your Cha-Cha Chaudhary and Target and those kind of comic books that we all had access to. But largely I think like all of us just really grew up on Enid Blyton, right? So there was Famous Five

[00:03:43] and then there was Secret Seven and then there was Mal Rita's and you know those kind of Enid Blyton books is what we all grew up on. So we were talking about we were thinking about scones and tea and you know kept

[00:03:58] picnicking on So-and-So Island and Kiran Island and things like that which really it seemed like a fantasy world because who's ever heard of scones? So we grew up on that and then you automatically graduated to Nancy Drew

[00:04:13] and Hardy Boys and those sort of books when you reached a certain teenage era and after that of course Harry Potter made its entry. So we were all into Harry Potter and I remember, I actually remember

[00:04:26] going and buying the first book and figuring out what the entire craze was about and the madness was about. I was hooked. So I started from the first Harry Potter book, I was probably you know middle grader and then by the time

[00:04:38] the last Harry Potter came out I was exactly where the author wanted us to be like a teenager, young adult, you know when you're reading book number seven which is Dark and everything. So that is what we read growing up and any

[00:04:50] other Indian books that we were exposed to was Akbar Birbal, Panchatantra, Tales of Jataka Tales you know that sort of thing but there was nothing that we could say okay we love this author and we love this illustrator

[00:05:04] but now it has taken I think a 180 degree turn because there is so much happening in the world of Indian children's literature that you just cannot you could just look at it and speak about it for hours and it wouldn't be enough

[00:05:19] because the number of authors and illustrators that are there in the Indian children's literature market right now is they're amazing and they can parallel any international Oliver Jeffers or Julia Donaldson or you know who

[00:05:32] have you. So that's the kind of standard that we have currently and I mean there are there is a section of population that knows exactly what's out there and you know what exactly the children should be reading but there is

[00:05:46] of course a huge section that is still thinking that maybe Indian children's literature is not good enough and maybe we need to look at the international authors my child must read Harry Potter, my child must read Oliver Jeffers, my child

[00:05:57] must read you know all these guys Julia Donaldson all these guys but sure your child must read that but there is so much more happening in the country and usually your child should be reading Indian children's literature

[00:06:09] for a particular reason and those reasons are I think great I mean they're strong enough. You know great great start Rathi because your conversation really triggered a memory for me as well when you spoke

[00:06:21] about Tinkill and Panchatantra and so for me I grew up on a diet of comic books right so even till today my fascination for comic books and graphic novels will always be much higher compared to novels literature it took me a while

[00:06:41] to really start reading my first twist with books was I think when it was about 18 or 19 so I started very late I just bypassed this entire stage of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and nothing nothing I didn't read any of this

[00:06:56] there was just no interest but I grew up on a very healthy diet of Archies Tinkill, Mad Books, Tintin as tricks because my dad used to read a lot of and phantom I hated phantom I don't know why it's that masked crusader

[00:07:11] whatever just hated him but everything else was very interesting that was a learning for me when I became a parent that you know what now that we are very voracious readers and so is the wife we will introduce

[00:07:24] good books to you know our child and from a young age and we'll read and we'll say all of that right we did all of that it's interesting that you brought up Indian authors because we've been doing

[00:07:38] a series of interesting episodes where Parag books and the lists that they come out with they always shared with us and they get these lovely, lovely authors and illustrators and we really talk to them do you think that revolution I think it's your right unfortunately it's just

[00:07:57] not getting marketed as well do you think that is a problem that we have a massive supply but there's you know nobody knows whether the supply is there or not I think it's a marketing issue I absolutely agree because the start of mother of readers happened

[00:08:14] because I felt like they were these great books and nobody knew about them and this is when just to give you a little bit of an origin story for myself I've always recommended books for friends, children and things like that

[00:08:26] people always come to me and say what should my child be reading now my child is four and like scars what should he be reading you know that sort of thing so during the pandemic I said why not just put it out there make it official

[00:08:37] so that's why I started the page and I realized that people have this hesitation right but like I mentioned earlier they know these Indian children's books are out there but they don't want to buy it because A they think oh maybe the English is not good enough

[00:08:51] maybe my child will be reading it and they think they might be picking up something vernacular or regional or you know they don't want that they want their child to be reading British English books or American English books so they think that's not good enough

[00:09:03] secondly I feel any store that you go to any big box store any big box bookstore that you go to like a crossword they have like a tiny section in the back in the children's section one tiny shelf will be for you know Indian authors

[00:09:19] and even there you will find Sudha Murthy you will find Ruskin Bond you are the most well known names right but there are hardly they might be like one or two or three Pratham books or Tulika books or you know Karadi books forget

[00:09:33] like let's not talk about Penguin and Harper Collins because they are the big names but these Indian publishing houses you will literally find one or two books and that's about it and so if you're not going to get the message out there

[00:09:44] like how many of us go to an indie bookstore you know how many of us go to a Kahanitri or a Kitab Khan and that I'm talking about in Bombay

[00:09:53] but everybody goes to mall everybody goes to a crossword when they're at the mall you know so it's like that so if you're not going to stock these books how are you how are the people going to know about it right

[00:10:03] so that is and the thing is what happens is I've spoken to I think 30 40 50 authors in the last two three years and they're all like okay we write the book we are in charge of coming up with the story coming up with illustrations

[00:10:17] writing it down and we are struggling to get a publisher to want us to write the book right we cannot be in charge of marketing it as well like marketing cannot come on us yeah like the publishing house has to do some marketing for us right

[00:10:29] so but the publishing house does it they do like maybe if it's a big name they do a book launch so that is say you know and I've seen book launches where three people come literally you know the family of the author and that's it

[00:10:42] and you know so they'll do a book launch they'll do maybe two posts on Instagram and maybe two on Facebook and if they do see some interest in the thing

[00:10:51] they will say okay let's do a Facebook live or let's do a book reading at so and so indeed book club or you know that's about and that's it so after one month that's it you don't hear about the book you don't hear about the author

[00:11:01] you don't hear about anything unless the book until the you know the author comes up with the next book and then they will reference the old book and say ah okay you know so this is what it was

[00:11:09] but that's it you cannot do that right so in addition to our authors coming up with the books and the illustration of the ideas they also need to be good at marketing

[00:11:20] and I don't know when that's going to happen but that's really when the word is going to get out there you know what I think you've identified like a very important point and I think like maybe let's tag all of these book companies and stuff like that

[00:11:35] and be like hey here's a platform here are two platforms right and they're talking about books and the fact that like we've been talking about books for a while and no one's kind of actively reached out to us tells you like one of the things right

[00:11:49] but okay let's put all of that on Instagram right like so it's if it's Instagram or it's Facebook so what these companies do is they send out these book reviews right I mean book review copies

[00:11:58] or advanced review copies ARC so they send them out to all these Instagramers and if you look at a lot of people who are reviewing the book nobody's reading the book they are just taking a book they're turning the thing writing this back part in their review

[00:12:13] and that's about it and they're just tagging it and then if you look at their followers they're like 75.5k and you know 95.6k and I'm like are you serious right now why how and that's about it so what sort of interest are you generating

[00:12:27] like why would somebody come and say okay I need to buy this book and I need to figure it out so I don't know it's like a unless something somebody comes up with this really great idea

[00:12:37] to you know jumpstart this dying children's book industry I don't know how the word is going to get out there Okay Rathi we've let's get to the meat and potatoes of this episode you've come with some recommendations for all our listeners and their kids

[00:12:56] so let's get into it Okay so I have sort of put them into three different categories so you have your early readers you have your middle grade readers and you have your young adult or older readers

[00:13:11] so now this is not like a category which is hard and fast that if you're an early reader you have to read picture books and you cannot read other books it's not like that it really depends on the child and the level that they're at

[00:13:21] and what they like to be that to whatever so for the early readers I have some fantastic books okay so there this the first one that I want to talk about so there are of course a lot of publishing houses which do unbelievable picture books

[00:13:36] and we're talking about this is I'm talking about for kids who are just about starting to read so maybe they're starting from picture books and with some words you know so that those kind of things

[00:13:45] so there is one it's a new publishing house and it's called Little Dipper Publishing and they have these two amazing books called Mari and Where Is Mr. Thukam now they are championing Tamil basically South Indian literature

[00:14:00] and the pictures in this are to die for I mean it's a podcast I know you can't see the pictures but the illustrations in these are just unbelievable they're full they're glossy they're just they will capture a child's attention so check out Little Dipper Publishing

[00:14:14] I'm going to put this on now another book that came out last year and has won all of these so there are a lot of book awards that happen in India and it literally is cooked up I think it was nominated for every award

[00:14:28] so this is the book Chitti it's about a dog and her life in the farm in like you know rural Karnataka it is the most gorgeous book it is full pictures you'll literally get a picture of the whole you know the region the area it is

[00:14:48] so I mean of course it has a sad ending as all dog books have unfortunately but it's just it's unbelievable your child will love it yeah that is and I want to quickly add right it's also interesting that the book talks about like rural areas

[00:15:04] and I think for a lot of us growing up like I grew up primarily in Bombay and my parents grew up in Bombay so I never saw like typically like how we say in India their hometowns right or that kind of slower living

[00:15:21] there's a lot of representation right now yeah yeah so I think that's a great way to kind of introduce kids to that show them at least pictorially right because it's very hard and especially like when you take kids outside the city they're just like bored

[00:15:36] what do we do for fun here I agree I agree so then again there's another book called my upside down world now this is by Pickle York books it's another Indian publishing house again very very beautiful it's about this mom who's had enough

[00:15:54] and this girl whose world was upside down there are maps the whole premise is totally silly it's the pictures are like a collage you know so it's something basically in every page has something new

[00:16:06] so once you're done reading the text you can actually turn each page and just focus on the illustrations and spend hours on that so that's my upside down world this is another book again about a dog as you can see we are very partial to dogs

[00:16:20] Duga is a wordless picture book again the story of a dog and this one ends very happily but again it's written like a comic strip no words it's gorgeous like drop everything and go get yourself a copy of Duga that's Duga

[00:16:35] another wordless picture book is theater of ghosts this is written by somebody who's from Assam the illustrator authors from Assam brilliant like you can you are transported to Assam where he's talking about this folk art that's happening and these kids are going to go visit this folk art

[00:16:52] and you can see that you can you're literally there like look at this illustration it's just it's gorgeous so you're there you're there at in Assam

[00:17:03] so that's that okay this is my latest obsession this book I reviewed on my page this week last week something it's called what might what the dark sounds like it's again a Pratham book it's an early reader book it's for level level one

[00:17:21] I think and it's just got like a few words but again the illustration like there's this one page where they're in the kitchen and the light and shadow streaming in and it's just it's gorgeous

[00:17:33] like look at the smile on the old lady's face and the boy looking at the cakes it's unbelievable and it's it's difficult to not be sucked into something that is this beautiful right so there's that this is another book that one

[00:17:45] was like my childhood exactly right exactly so this beauty is missing it's about it's by Priya Kuryal who's one of India's well known illustrators most well known illustrators the beauty in this picture is the buffalo

[00:18:02] and it's about a buffalo who loves enjoying she loves listening to music and she gets kidnapped or bullnapped or buffalo napped I don't know but so there's this cop in Kerala so this whole thing is set in Kerala

[00:18:14] and there's this cop who goes looking for the buffalo because she tries to solve the case and yeah so the buffalo likes listening to music and that's the clue so yeah so these are great young reader recommendations

[00:18:29] and also I have to tell you that there is a series for young readers called the dreamer series which I'm also obsessed about it's got 10 books right now and each one of these books is about one famous person right so this one is about Salim Ali

[00:18:46] and so it's written illustrated by somebody called Lavanya Kartik who's fabulous so each book is illustrated so each book basically shows the famous person the dreamer as a child so it goes back to it highlights that one incident in their childhood that led them to do what they did and to become great right so it is that it's a very inspiring book

[00:19:09] and each book is illustrated in an art form that is close to that person like for example this is Salim Ali and so there are illustrations in this book which are a little bit of Mughal architecture stuff that he liked to do you know and it's a two color palette thing so every book is just you know two colors green and black in this book green black and white

[00:19:30] and it's like black and white with one more color so it's gorgeous and also the dreamers are not people we you know the regulars not the usual people you know so there's like a Bachchendri pal there's a P. T. Usha there's Salim Ali there is Tijan Bai people who are like awesome but not everybody in India knows about them so it's a great way to introduce your kids to you know awesome people of India very inspiring

[00:19:56] yeah so those are early readers and if you want to of course do you want me to move to the next section of the digital readers or let me take a breath hold on

[00:20:05] yeah I was going to suggest that and say that like for everyone who's like can't keep track we'll put a link to all of these and put a list of it so you can kind of follow through also in case you can't keep up

[00:20:19] you know I don't think you can go wrong with like you look at the publishing houses for picture books currently there's Tulika books there's Karatee books that Kalpavriksha's Ekthara there's Pickle Yoke there's little Dipper Pratham of course unbelievable like the range of books that are coming out from all of these guys they're just fabulous you know so if you can't go wrong like you want a picture

[00:20:40] book you know you're automatically looking at an Oliver Jeffers or you're looking at you know Peter Israel so you're looking at something like that but there is so much happening in India and the most amazing part is like if you're going to be opening one of these books like for example if you open Duga your

[00:20:55] child will immediately realize that hey this is the street outside my house hey this is a stray dog that's outside my house right so immediately there is a connect and that will want to make that will want it to make the child want to read more

[00:21:10] hey that girl looks like me you know for example the next set of books that I have like this is sweet shop was I mean this looks like any of our little girls you know so it's just and the sweets that are mentioned in this book are stuff that we eat so it's not like scones and tea

[00:21:26] you said it you know there are Jalebi's and Gulab Jamun and you know Rabdi and things like that which hey we know what that is it's made in our house you know it's samosas made in our house so this is immediate connect which is why I think it's so important our children read books that are written in our country by our authors and you know illustrated by our illustrators because there's representation

[00:21:51] I think what you said it was very important context people don't know what these scones and these little teas with your pinky out and it's something for first I mean can go both ways right it's like fascinating is what you know people in the UK do or it can be like okay what is this

[00:22:11] it can go either way right either it's extreme alien or it's extremely fascinating and I like the whole angle of context like you brought up Korea Korean there's this one book that the really still I think is just beautiful is Amachi's glasses

[00:22:31] it's one of those reversible books because there's no text there's no dialogue there's nothing right so you can start from wherever and and you can be your own story and initially when I was so fascinated I said wow that's so innovative right for a child because you don't necessarily need to read anything

[00:22:50] it's like okay go to the pictures and tell me what you think is happening right so immediately there's this whole engagement that's that's taking place between the parent and the child or the reader and the child even if it's being dead in

[00:23:02] it out in schools and I connected with it because I'm that guy who forgets you know very kept keeps his glasses because I just take my I'm just fling it somewhere and I'm like oh shit where is it where is it and then I have to go find I have to go to the other pair of glasses just to find the original

[00:23:15] which I threw right so very well connected and also my grandmother was like that so the way she drew the character it took me back to my days with my grandmother and I was like yeah I mean my grandmother

[00:23:27] my grandmother is used to get the proper glasses. I mean exactly what Peter said as well right like that one picture from what the dark sounds like I mean Krishna Balasana has done such a lovely job with it immediately it was like this is my childhood you know you're sitting at the table with your grandmother there's light coming in

[00:23:40] and those small tiny details what I really like about picture books in India these tiny details you know you know there's a cloth hanging in the kitchen that's something that we're using all the time you don't see this.

[00:23:51] Only you and I will get that somebody from Spain or UK. Exactly.

[00:23:56] It's interesting I don't know I can't connect. Exactly. I remember there was this one book illustrated by Pankaj Saikya there's you know there's this table or whatever and there's like a camlin or a you know eraser and a pencil kept over there and you can't that

[00:24:09] that nattrage pencil and that you cannot mistake that for anything else you know you've grown up using the red and black pencil and the eraser and you know it's just so evocative of your childhood that it's difficult to you're right there you're transported into that book literally

[00:24:26] right so that's the beauty of it and I think that's a huge factor as to why I keep saying picture books are not for children they're also for adults please read your picture books when you need to take a moment you know you need to like switch off your daily life.

[00:24:40] So yeah that's picture books but again so if your child is you know reading at a little higher level than that you can start with penguins got these things called hook books and whole books there for children like six and seven plus.

[00:24:54] So this is again they have a whole series this is one of the books in the series. They have I think about 20 of these books now hook books. This is the whole book known because of the there's a hole in the book all books have this whole so they have a whole series of

[00:25:10] whole series of this again about 20 25 books from I think or more each one is a tiny story written by various different authors illustrated by different people and it's just so this one's got a slight chapter so you know when your child is ready to read chapter books is a great place to start.

[00:25:29] Another one that I really liked was pink who sure did which also came out last year and this year she has followed it up with go be goes viral which is a very, you know, children's take on gully boy the movie.

[00:25:41] I reminded me of gully boy this little kid raps and you know he wins a competition.

[00:25:46] So this pink who sure did where this is that you want to be a pastry chef and his son, his father's like no play cricket play cricket play cricket but he's like no I want to make a cake so it's adorable your child will read it like you can see the text is huge.

[00:25:59] But your child will love the story it's you the characters are adorable so pink who is pastry chef.

[00:26:07] More books so this is again by Bijal Vajrajani. She is she writes on the environment she writes she's one of India's foremost clarify authors for children you know climate fiction authors.

[00:26:20] She's also she also is the the commissioning editor Pratham. So she's somebody who's very well known for this is help my I wants to eat me the premises this is little boy who's so into Nat Geo and you know these nature magazines and he's reading about all these animal moms.

[00:26:36] Who eat the young you know sometimes they know the child is not going to make it so they eat the young. So then his mom starts saying oh you know you're so you're so thin let me fatten you up a little bit and she starts giving him you know lados and ghee and all that and he's like oh God my eyes out to eat me so it's it's hilarious.

[00:26:54] It's your modern day Hansel Gretel right.

[00:26:56] Really funny. So these are some great books and like I said the football book that I was mentioning because it's for slightly older readers this is the district cup amazing book little older kids I think 12 and up but my eight year old reddit he loved it seven year old reddit he loved it.

[00:27:15] He worked through it slower than my 11 year old did but loved it like he knows the team names he knows who played what and what they put position they played all of that.

[00:27:24] So yeah so those are the middle grade readers slightly older readers. This was an amazingly funny book. This is a drama. This is about the mathematician. When he was a child hilarious book.

[00:27:39] He's got these adorable friends who you know just indulge him and you your child will be laughing the whole time because they're all these cranks and pranks and crazy things and look at him.

[00:27:50] He's so cute like this is one of our that the Venkatesh is I think best book she writes the most hilarious books. When I interviewed her I asked her why all her books are only funny and she says she cannot think serious like she thinks of an idea it has to be funny the day she

[00:28:04] writes serious books there will be a problem. So yes this is funny. Great book when blackbirds fly it's on again it's set in Mizoram it's about you know the 1966 bombing of eyes all which nobody knows about but brilliantly written brilliantly told through the eyes of a child so again when blackbirds fly it's by Hannah Laland Pui.

[00:28:29] Again climate fiction children must pick up climate fiction in India because loads and loads and loads of books. This is by Bijal and this is Savi and the memory keeper fabulous book. The story will move you it is about this little girl who's lost her father they moved to this whole new town where you know the climate is just right and she goes to the school and suddenly she realises she can talk to this tree like she can talk to plants you can hear what they're saying and Bijal has you know the

[00:28:59] story is about her and she's been in a world of science and she's taken scientific research and she's made it into a fictionalized tale it's just amazing. So there's that another amazing thing that I want to draw your attention to is this series since it's August 15 is coming up it's called the song the songs of freedom series now this is 6 books wrong for came out last year two more have come out this year.

[00:29:25] So there's stories of during the freedom struggle but all told in different parts of the country like there was one book in Tamil Nadu there was one book in I think this one there's one book set in Bombay it's called the Chao Party cooking club.

[00:29:39] I said there's one book in Kolkata so all the heroes and heroines of these books are children. So you're looking at the freedom struggle through the eyes of a child and the role that they played and what it was to then go to school and what it was for them so you're not the way we learn history in school where we learn about the freedom struggle in school.

[00:29:58] Gandhi did this so and so did that this was the date learn it mug it. No, this is what happened like how was it to be a child during the freedom struggle right. It puts a whole different spin on history.

[00:30:11] Like you will have your child going and reading about this place wanting to read about history of that time. Fabulous songs of freedom series.

[00:30:22] And it's just amazing these these stories and like when you were when you were taking us through these titles it immediately took me back right. It's not just context but it's also imagination that how well can you weave a narrative for a seven year old to be completely raptured by by by either the images or other words and yeah I think that's the power of

[00:30:46] Absolutely and they will immediately connect your like your child will want to read the books because there is this connect you know they will say this boy is like me this girl is like me the school is like mine you know so I want to know what's happening in that school so forget trying to you know the visual images of course they're going to be captured by all the

[00:31:06] OTT and all the games and all the YouTube and all the whatever but it's these stories that will that will make them stop and say let me read these books first you know it's it's really that and I think it's very important that everybody knows this.

[00:31:19] No totally and I definitely want to say thanks so much for sharing so much. So if you in case you missed any are struggling to take notes we'll put a list of all the books and probably do the links and stuff like that in there.

[00:31:40] But yeah thanks so much. It's been great I think like the entire conversation has been great just kind of understanding just the entire journey right mean you do the mother of readers and I think that's a great initiative.

[00:31:57] More people need to do and I think yeah maybe that's the kind of community we need to be developing right off readers and stuff like that. So we'll definitely connect for another episode because I don't think there's a shortage of books when it comes to you.

[00:32:15] There's more I have more.

[00:32:21] Always I think I think this is this is something that pops in a pod and mother of readers can sort of do a collaboration on a regular basis and just just keep building this community because I think there's just so many lovely stories out there right and people just don't know about it and that's so sad.

[00:32:37] I'm sure every kid will have one book that he or she can attach themselves to and as parents as voracious readers as as huge fans of reading.

[00:32:49] I guess it's our job and our duty to ensure that it's so simple you know like every time you we are all invited for these birthday parties are kids are invited for dozens of birthday parties in a year.

[00:33:00] I mean the child whose birthday you're going for has the toys they have the games they have why not give them a book. So I've become one of those mothers.

[00:33:09] I only give I only give I'm one of them. I'm that I mean the parents are always like OK you got a book OK you got a book but yeah I'm like this is the best book now your child must read it you know so I'm that parent who will only buy books as gifts.

[00:33:24] It's sad but my children have made peace with it. It's needed. Who knows bring back reading make reading cool again put that on a gap.

[00:33:37] I will be I will be the next generation of the guy where I'm going around telling everyone professionally and personally no one's reading why are people all.

[00:33:47] I love sharing the books that I like with you guys it's and it's nice it's nice to know that you know I mean of course your kids are really little now so it's it's lovely to know that you know they're already reading

[00:34:05] and you guys read to them and it's it's so important it's just it's just important that's it. I have so much to say about my daughter and reading but. The next episode.

[00:34:19] But I think thank you so much for sharing and having this lovely lovely conversation I don't remember the last time I think all of us had this this really nice discussion and that's that's exactly how these these topics need to sort of go in that direction.

[00:34:35] So thank you for engaging us and thank you for sharing all of those lovely titles. While you were speaking I was like. Okay, I took out to cut to cut to cut to cut kindle okay still add to e cut.

[00:34:48] So thank you thank you so much you've already got one converted.

[00:34:51] Thank you for having me guys it was lovely to be on this side of the mic and yeah I was you know hit me up if you want any recommendations and we'll yeah we'll chat more about books.

[00:35:02] Yeah and and as it's customary for the end of the episode for those who are still listening and tuned in and haven't tuned on this yet. How do they reach out to you follow you go for it.

[00:35:18] Simple find mother of readers that's spelt MOTHER OFREADRS mother readers on Instagram and follow it's a there are weekly reviews there there are tips and tricks to raise readers there are videos there's their stories you get a peek into what my kids are reading

[00:35:38] where they're reading what they're reading a little bit of my dog a little bit of my family we're traveling with books all of that so it's it's a fun page you should just come and follow.

[00:35:49] Yeah and after you do that if you still don't follow pops in a pod on Instagram well stop this episode right now and go do that and you can also search another in me on Instagram if you want to connect with us and yeah we also do this pretty often so hit subscribe

[00:36:07] on whatever platform you're listening to if it's Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcast but yeah I think that's enough of plugs and we can sign off now. Thank you. Thank you guys and see you in the next episode.