I read Paati vs UNCLE by Meera Ganapathi sometime last month and I loved it! It was such a delightful combination of funny and serious, action-driven and character-driven, that I knew I wanted to read it with my book club.
Inju is all set for a quiet, boring holiday with his Paati. That’s just the way he likes it. Unfortunately, from the moment he gets to Parijat Retirement Colony where his grandmother lives, he realises that it’s going to be an exciting, adventurous holiday, not a quiet, boring one. It isn’t what he wanted, but when his Paati is upset and angry, what can he do except take charge?
When I selected Paati vs UNCLE to read at my book club, I didn’t realise that several activities we’ll be doing with Petu Pumpkin: Tiffin Thief at my book club for ages seven and eight would work well with this book too, tweaked for slightly older children. Waiting to see how it goes!
Making Posters
Inju makes a poster inviting people to join PAATI – People’s Association Against Thieves International. Someone else puts up a poster about a missing parrot, Gangaram.
Posters are always fun to make! What if you want to get people to adopt kittens in your society? And if we move to the realm of fantasy, what if there’s a monster on the loose and you need someone to fight it? Making posters is always fun!
News Reports
While the children at my programme are a little too young to write formal news reports, we will explore the writing of news briefly. I will give them a template and a headline, asking them to create a news report of their own.
Acrostic Poetry
Acronyms can be silly, clever or fun. Sometimes, acronyms become so common that we forget that they are acronyms! I remember when I discovered that SCUBA is an acronym for instance; I was amazed.
With PAATI and UNCLE as examples, we’ll work with clever and crazy acronyms before moving on to writing acrostic poetry.
There’s so much more we can do with this book – discuss interesting food, talk about what is precious to us and to no one else (like Paati’s airtight dabbas!), and work out how to solve a crime. Looking forward to reading together!
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