Apple Valley Montessori School hosted a book reading by children’s book author Jyoti Nagia on May 6, 2013.  

Nagia believes children are a great source of inspiration.  The urge to capture all the fun elements of her four-year-old daughter’s learning journey led her to write children’s books. Her first book, Fun Learning with Fun Letters, is all about learning while having fun, as a four-year-old girl engages readers by creating letters with branches and tiny pebbles in her own backyard.  Her second book, SMILE says it all to the little ones - look around; there are tons of reasons to smile in just one day.  

 

What motivated her to write Children’s books? “I always loved writing as far as I can remember.   Once I contemplated jotting down all the darndest things kids say, I mean the real ones - darndest things said by my daughter and her friends. The explosion of thoughts and ideas about writing different things has never stopped for me. My passion toward writing paved the path and I saw myself being presented with the ingredients and inspiration for a recipe to write and publish a book.  My goal is write books that are not only  creative, educational and fun but have a profound message to share with the young ones and their parents. Fun Learning with Fun Letters' underlying message is to experience the joy while learning right from your surroundings. SMILE's underlying message is to enjoy every moment of the life to the fullest” says Jyoti.

 

Jyoti’s books are filled with wonderful rhymes. The illustrations make effective use of interesting shapes.  The cover page of SMILE has text written in the shape of a curve. The book reading by Jyoti held the children in Apple Montessori in rapt attention. Her book Fun Learning with Fun Letters  makes creative use of branches and pebbles to create letters.

 

How did she come about the idea of using branches and pebbles for the first book? “When I first started introducing ABCs to my daughter, Suhana by writing on a paper, she was clearly disengaged. It was winter-time in Boston. I remember one snowy evening when we were stuck indoors. Suhana and I made her ABCs using chopsticks and beads. That was such an enlightening moment for me. We not only were having fun, but she was learning her ABCs and I was equally enjoying teaching her ABCs. It is so true that children are a great source of inspiration. This experience evolved into practicing ABCs using branches and pebbles when the weather turned outdoor friendly, and then into my first book, Fun Learning with Fun Letters. This was just the beginning. We've had fun together making ABCs with play dough and also with a finger rolled on flour poured on a baking tray. We've had fun learning shapes and colors just by exploring things both indoors and outdoors, and even by watching the clouds in the sky.”

 

As she reads Fun Learning with Fun Letters to the students, she reminds them that when they see clouds in the sky they can see letter formation.  After reading SMILE, her questions to the children on what makes them smile brought a lot of interesting responses. In addition to the normal responses of “Candy, Rainbow, Birthday Presents” a young girl said “when my parents leave me and go out for dinner it makes me sad but when then come back it makes me smile.” 

It was clear that conversation with children after reading such a novel could elicit interesting information. The books are appropriate for children as young as 18 months owing to the rhyming content but the underlying message of learning from your surroundings, enjoying life to the fullest and resilience building applies to older children as well.  

Fun Learning with Fun Letters and SMILE are dedicated to a worthy cause! Proceeds from the purchase of these books are donated to "Team Hannah" to support Hannah Keenan and other children who are battling leukemia. Hannah is a third-grader who attends Luther Conant School in Acton, which Jyoti's daughter attends as well. Available On-line (Paperbook and eBook - Kindle and Nook):www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and www.authorhouse.com