Book Recommendations For Children By Children

The Worms (Age group 2-6)

Our mini readers, who we lovingly call The Worms. These little ones are in the process of discovering the joys of books and what they can do to them. Not at that stage where they can read independently; they love being read to. This is the stage where parents can play a significant role in exposing these little ones to books, especially to picture books, interactive books and build their interest.

These are some of our mini-readers with their choice of books.

Sharanya

This is Sharanya, who is four years old. She loves to be read out to.

Her Mom Swati says that the latest book I have read with Sharanya is Children of the World by Tessa Strickland, Kate De Palma, and David Dean.

It’s a beautiful book that exposes kids to a wide range of shapes, sizes, races, abilities and lifestyles from countries and cultures all over the world. It tells them that we are all connected by humanity and love despite these differences in culture and lifestyles.

Sharanya loves to see the different kinds of houses, faces and places in the book. She gets very inquisitive and asks why do people have different cultures. This book helps us expand her view of the world at such a young age.

Aadya

Aadya loves to read and play with books.

Though she can’t read sentences at this age (she’s just 3), she likes to flip through pages and get’s fascinated by looking at colourful pictures. We make sure she listens to a bedtime story every night that sparks her imagination and creativity and helps her get immersed in a whole new world.

Her favourite book is “A Treasury of Nursery rhymes”, and she loves to recite the poem with all actions. Another favourite is “Usborne Lift the Flap Nature book”. It is a fascinating book as Aadya can play with it differently every time – memory game, count the objects, name the flower, animal, what’s behind the flap, etc.

Prisha

Prisha with her current favourite book, The Magic Paintbrush.

She loved The Gruffalo’s Child by the same author earlier, so I got this one for her.

It’s a story written in poetic form about a girl who gets a magic paintbrush on the condition that she’d paint only for the poor and not for the wealthy. Whatever she paints becomes real.

Prisha, who is four, finds the story extremely fascinating. She sometimes pretends to be Shen, the girl in the story, and draws on the beach sand, hoping she’d too get a magic paintbrush just like Shen did 😀

Diya

Diya, who is 3, likes books with animals. She loves books with popups and especially those that are interactive books. Musical ones are her favourites.

Avir

Avir with his favourite Bob and the Funny Log.

He liked the book because, as he says “Everyone kept wondering why the log was rolling on its own, and later they found that there were frogs inside, so it was very funny.”

Aisha

Meet Aisha, with the book that she loves; Mike Gets a bike. She loved the book because she says’” The Rhino who was sad was helped by his friends to get a bike. Friends should help each other.”

Aaradhya

Aaradhya Jaspal is six years old, and she loves this book, ’The lion who wanted to love.’

The book is about a lion0 who didn’t want to eat people. He wanted to love and save them. Aaradhya loves the book because it talks about 9friendship and world peace.

The Caterpillars (Age group 6-12)

These kids in the 6-12 age group are comfortable reading independently. They are at a stage where they have are getting to discover genres of their choice and getting into the habit of reading voraciously. This is when parents need to step back and prepare to fade into the background as the children become more independent and sure about their choices. Take a look into what they like and recommend.

Adhrit

This book by E.B.White is a gem! It is the best story of friendship that I have read (yet). Charlotte makes the ultimate sacrifice for friendship and saves Wilbur. It also shows us the capability of little children to empathise with animals and love them so much that they can even at times understand their language. The conversations between the animals at the barn are fascinating, and I didn’t feel like keeping the book down at all. I felt terrible for all the animals sacrificed and killed, and I wish everyone would turn vegetarian!!

Aarav

Aarav Khosla, eight years old, says, “My favourite books are the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling.”

I love Harry Potter books because they are super interesting. They take us to a magical world full of excitement, adventure and suspense. The vivid imagery of the books keeps me hooked. Once you start reading one of these books, you can’t put it down. It also teaches us values of friendship, being kind, ethical, selfless and courageous.

Amaira

Amaira is six years old and loves Dr Seuss’s books.

She says, ‘ I love Dr Seuss’s books as they are funny, rhyming and informative.”

Atharva

Atharva, 8, loves to read. His current favourite is the Harry Potter series.

He says,’ I love to read. I don’t go anywhere without a book. My current favourite is the Harry Potter series. It takes me into a world of wizards and witches. simply magical!!’

Abir

Abir is 11 years old and loves to read fiction, his favourite being The Famous Five by Enid Blyton.
One of the books that he likes is Five on a Treasure Island.

His summary of the book :

It’s a race against time as the famous five hurry to find Kirrin Island’s hidden treasure before the trespassers can. Then the hunt for a thief turns dangerous after Uncle Quentin’s papers vanish. And why has a mysterious trunk been smuggled onto Kirrin Island?

After visiting the wreck, the five arrive on the Island and explore the ruined castle when a massive storm blows up, making it too dangerous to return to the mainland. While they take shelter on the island, the sea throws up the old shipwreck, grounding it on the rocks surrounding the island. Excited by these developments, they decide to come back at dawn the next day to investigate the wreck before it is discovered.

Abir likes reading about Famous Five’s adventures and often dreams about having an adventurous experience with his friends.

Riddhima

Ridhima, aged nine years, loves to read the books authored by Sudha Murty. Here she is reading ‘Grandma’s Bag of Stories’. And she loves it.

Her Reflections on the book :

When Sudha Murty opens her bag of stories, everyone gathers around.

Who can resist a good story, especially when Sudha Murty tells it? Her bag reveals tales of kings and cheats, monkeys and mice, bears and gods. Here comes a bear who ate some terrible desert and got very angry; a lazy man would not put out a fire till he reached his beard; a princess who was turned into an onion; a queen who discovered silk, and many more weird and wonderful people and animals.

Sudha Murty tells the stories day and night, as seven children enjoy and cherish the stories in her little town. The stories entertain, educate and provide hours of imagination.

Arya Veer

Dragon masters is my favourite series. Every book introduces a new dragon, and my favourite is the thunder dragon. I love to hear all about the adventures and travels of the dragon masters.

Tara

This is Tara Gupta, eight years old. She says,

‘I love being read to. I ask my mom to read to me while I play with my toys. My favourite characters are unicorns, horses, princesses and mermaids. I like to listen to these stories revolving around these characters because it gives me ideas to pretend and play. I have all of them as my toys.

My mom is reading out to me is Mermaids to the Rescue by Lana Swims North.

Ansh

Meet Ansh Wadhwa, an eleven-year-old who loves Rick Riordan’s books.

He says,” His books are stories based on Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology.
They have good stories and puns/jokes, which makes them funny.”

Vyaas

I am Vyas; I am 9 years old and love my books. They have been my best friends for the last many years now. I hate homework, so on every homework, I finish, my dad gets me a book🙂

I enjoyed reading the graphic novels the most; they are fun, exciting and full of amazing doodles. I like to doodle. These days l aim to finish all the Harry Potter series. I am on book 5, and to take a break, I love to revisit my old books like Tom Gate, Big Nate, Wimpy kid, Dog Man etc.

Ira

Lavani

Lavani is eight years old and her favourite book, believe it or not, is a series by Enid Blyton. It’s so heartwarming to know that children still like to read her.

She says,” I got my first of the six Amelia Jane books by Enid Blyton during my last summer vacation and did not stop till I finished four of them. The books are about the adventures of a very naughty doll and other toys living in a toy cupboard.  The naughty tricks Amelia Jane plays on other toys are very funny, and I can almost imagine myself in the story itself. The book is special to me as it was my first time reading so many interesting stories of a single character.”

Devansh

Devansh Ghosh is eleven years old.

One of his current reads, which he is enjoying, is The Biography of Sardar Vallabhai Patel.

He says I love this book as it is enlightening me with the struggle each of these great leaders had to witness to get freedom for India. Their tales of bravery and kindness motivate me to be helpful and kind to all my fellow beings in my life’s journey.

Sharika

Sharika says –

“I like the Book called Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls because it includes examples of some of the bravest women / girls the world has seen. It teaches me to be strong, independent and courageous. I love reading and have read all editions of this book!”

The Butterflies (Age Group 12-16)

These young adults are now confident and sure about their choices and are ready to fly with them. They know what they like and have reached a stage where reading has become a permanent part of their lives.

Here are some of their book recommendations.

Sambhav

Sambhav Jain is 15 and loved Six of crows, an enthralling fantasy story set in the Grisha verse by author Leigh Bardugo. I really loved that it did not follow the traditionally chosen storyline, and instead, its protagonist was more of an anti-hero. I also liked the witty dialogue between the six beautifully developed characters.

Arya

Arya is twelve years old. Let’s see what he has to say about his favourite book. He says” World’s Worst Children by David Walliams is one of my favourites books of all time. It has the most unusual characters, and their description is hilarious. From the first page, the book grabs your attention.

The author, very wittingly, mentions on the first page’” DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!” Right then, I knew that I wanted to finish this book.

Aarya Sharma

Aarya Sharma is 15, and one of his favourite reads is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. He loves the book as he feels that it revolves around a particular mystery which brings out an aura of suspense and deciphering clues.

Myra

I’m Myra Gupta, 13 years old. I never took reading as a fun hobby, but I fell in love with books after reading Harry Potter and The Philosophers Stone. It almost felt like the story came alive. I dreamt of being a part of the wizarding world, being a student at Hogwarts and experiencing all the magical adventures. I love the presence of mind of the author of this book JK Rowling as she was able to catch the attention of so many people around the world while going through such trying times herself. She has inspired me to focus on what is essential to making that possible.

Rohan

Rohan Chopra is 14, and he enjoyed reading Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo.

He is currently reading the prequel to the series mentioned above – Shadow and Bone trilogy.

He says he has/is really enjoying these series as they have a great plot and action scenes. And the fantasy world is very well developed. He loved Dark fantasy.

Riya

Riya is 14 years old, and her favourite book is Becoming by Michelle Obama.

She says, “It’s a remarkable autobiography that shows her journey from being a gawky black kid to being the first African American First Lady. I admire her courage and conviction, and the book has inspired me a lot, so I like it very much.“

Anoushka

Anoushka Chagas Pereira, Age 14 says.‘I recently read the book ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. It’s told from the perspective of a young girl – Scout – about her increasing knowledge of the adult world’s hypocrisy and bigotry towards the black community. Tom Robinson, a black man, was wrongfully convicted of raping a white lady and was represented by Atticus Finch, a white lawyer. The book explored the irony of a white man defending a black man in court and showed how the different races perceived each other.

I absolutely loved this book as it was an eye-opener into the world of racial discrimination during the 1930s in Alabama. The author brought the characters to life and delivered several messages to the reader through a rollercoaster plot. The book’s message of social inequality, discrimination, prejudice, bravery, and courage is still relevant today and hence a must-read!

Arjun Gupta

Arjun, an avid reader says,’ I loved the Alex Rider series. It’s about a boy who’s uncle was an undercover secret agent. After his uncle’s demise, he is recruited by MI6 because of his many talents. The series is all about his various missions.
I enjoyed this series as it’s plot twists never fail to surprise and it’s well paced.

These are some other books and series I have enjoyed.

Mission Telemark, and some sports biographies and autobiographies like – Virat Kohli: Driven, Brock Lesnar: Death Clutch, Suresh Raina’s, Rohit Sharma: Hitman, Antoine Griezmann by Luca Caioli, Andy Murray: Champion.
There are also others like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Power of Five, C.H.E.R.U.B – Series