Take one bite, then take some more… Gift a kid a book!

When I was a little girl we were often visited by friends and relatives who would bring me sweets and chocolates.  I loved these visits and I even had names for our regular visitors depending on what they brought me. I had a Cadbury’s Aunty, a Five Star Uncle and even a Bubble gum Bhaiya, which was great because my granny wouldn’t let me buy bubble gum from the school tuck shop. But if Bubble gum Bhaiya gave me bubble gum, well, I couldn’t hurt his feelings by not eating one could I? Unfortunately, Granny was strict. ‘Just one now, you’ve got to have dinner,’  she’d say. Or with chocolate, ‘Take one bite and then put it in the fridge.’

And then I grew up and became an Aunty and started giving out sweets and chocolates. And I heard my friends say to their children, ‘Take one bite and then put the rest away.’  Take one bite? Really? Just one bite? What a pity, what a bore, what torture – to know there’s that delicious chocolate in the fridge and you’ve just taken a bite and the taste is still in your mouth and your tongue says, ‘pleeease, just a teensy weensy bit more’.  But I know better than to argue with strict parents who need their children to ‘chew their food properly!’ and ‘eat their vegetables!’ and ‘swallow their  vitamins!’ before eating sweets that could make their tummies ache and their teeth rot, and their hair fall out and whatever other terrible stories parents tell kids about eating too many sweets.

So I thought, is there something I can gift kids which won’t make parents say, ‘Just one bite before dinner’? I looked around, but I didn’t need to look very far before I realised, ‘Books! I can give them books!’ I don’t have to stop giving kids chocolates, but I can also give them something that will make them forget for a few moments about that delicious chocolate or ice cream or sweet that’s just sitting there waiting to be eaten.

You see, when you get lost in a book, it’s a bit like going to another world and everything in this world, the one you are sitting in, reading, becomes a bit blurry. People talk, but you don’t quite hear them.  Sweets sit on a shelf but you forget that they’re there.  The sun begins to set and you don’t realise till someone comes into the room and switches on a light and says, ‘Why’re you trying to read in the dark?’

So if you’re an aunty or an uncle, or any sort of adult, gift a kid a book – not just for birthdays, Christmas or Diwali or special occasions but for no reason at all. Of course, all kids like sweets or chocolates so don’t stop giving them those but wouldn’t it be great if they had something that will stay with them much longer than chocolate? Something that won’t melt or be put away in the fridge or on a high shelf, or make their parents scold them if they have too much? Something that they can have again and again and share with their friends and pass on to their classmates because passing it around just multiplies the fun?

And if you aren’t sure which book to give them – why, that’s simple! Just ask a kid or come to Latha’s Library.  Click on our wish list to get loads of ideas!