BookSmith – Booknomics

Celebration of Teachers’ Day: Six Books About Teachers and Mentors

Teachers’ Day recognizes the unique role that adults play in the lives of young minds and in shaping a country’s future.

Teachers’ Day is observed annually in India on September 5 to commemorate the birth of the country’s former President, scholar, philosopher, and Bharat Ratna awardee, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, on this day in 1888.

The significance of this day is paramount. It is a day to acknowledge the significance of teachers in shaping the young minds of children. For students, the day also means gifting roses, chocolates, and handmade cards to their favorite teachers to express their gratitude. Teacher’s Day is a day of role reversal and celebration for senior students.

Books to Read on Teachers’ Day:

Literature pays a great due to teachers. Here we have put together a list of books where teachers play an important role in molding their young students.

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Matilda develops a bond with her kindergarten teacher, Miss Honey, who encourages her academically and emotionally when no one else does. It is the most adorable and heartwarming book there is, and it shows how a good teacher can shape the mind and life of an innocent child.

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Lucy Snowe begins a new life as a teacher at a boarding school in a fictitious city in Belgium. She is attracted to all the things that are adventurous and romantic. Lucy Snowe is the counterpart of Jane Eyre, a more patient reserved version. Villette is Charlotte Bronte’s last book.

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

This Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award tells the story of a young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country. His aim? To visit and teach a black youth sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. They learn about the heroism of resistance as a group. Gaines brings to this novel, a sense of place, a deep understanding of the human psyche, and compassion for people and their struggle against racism and ignorance. His story is just as relevant today.

Anne of Green Gables by M. Montgomery

Miss Stacy, Anne’s teacher, uses unconventional and liberal teaching methods that others criticize, but she becomes a much-needed role model and mentor for Anne.

The English Teacher by R. K. Narayan

The English Teacher is a part of a series of novels and collections of short stories set in R. K. Narayan’s fictitious setting of Malgudi. The story follows Krishna, an English teacher, his little triumphs and follies.

Teaching Yoga in an Upside-Down World by Susan Hopkinson

At the Pothi.com Store, we have a book about self-care for teachers, yoga teachers in particular. Susan Hopkinson discovered yoga in 1985, began teaching in 1998 and qualified as a yoga therapist in 2007. She negotiates the path a teacher needs to take in the modern world where fitness instruction and yoga asanas are often confused as one and the same.

We can never thank the good teachers in our lives enough! Share a memory of your favorite teacher or a book on teachers that you read and admired.

Wildlife Day: Eleven Books for Readers in the Anthropocene

National Wildlife Day was founded by animal behaviorist and philanthropist Colleen Paige. The idea behind this day is to bring to the fore knowledge about endangered animals and spread the word about animal conservation.

We put together a list of wildlife animal books for you on this day.

A Zoo in My Luggage by Gerald Durrell

Gerald Durell is the first writer who comes to mind when you think about books featuring animals.This is a rollicking account of his travels and how he created his own zoo.

“I hope that, in a small way, I am interesting people in animal life and in its conservation. If I accomplish this I will consider that I have achieved something worthwhile. And if I can, later on, help even slightly towards preventing an animal from becoming extinct, I will be content.”

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera and the antagonist Sher Khan are unforgettable fictional characters from the immortal fiction The Jungle Book. Kipling wrote the book for his daughter Josephine as he mentioned: “This book belongs to Josephine Kipling for whom it was written by her father, May 1894.” Unfortunately his daughter lived only for six years.

“A black shadow dropped down into the circle. It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over, but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights like the pattern of watered silk. Everybody knew Bagheera, and nobody cared to cross his path, for he was as cunning as Tabaqui, as bold as the wild buffalo, and as reckless as the wounded elephant. But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree, and a skin softer than down.”

Every Creature Has a Story: What Science Reveals about Animal Behaviour by Janaki Lenin

Janaki Lenin is a careful observer of the wildlife around her. This book is a collection of essays where she examines the wild and wonderful behaviors of unlikely animals from rodents to wasps to humpback whales. Animals are only now beginning to be understood and Lenin traces paternal love, altruism and the variegated emotions of the members of the animal kingdom.

Man-eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett

Corbett was a man-eater detective of sorts. In his book that has remained in print for seventy years he elaborates on the conflict between humans and big cats.

“Those who have never seen a leopard under favourable conditions in his natural surroundings can have no conception of the grace of movement, and beauty of colouring, of this the most gracefuL and the most beautiful of all animals in our Indian jungles.”

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen

The snow leopard is an elusive predator and Peter Matthiessen knows that there is a possibility that in his quest for the bharal, the Himalayan blue sheep, he may see one. The Snow Leopard is a physical journey toward clarity and an understanding of Zen.

“Indicating his twisted legs without a trace of self-pity or bitterness, as if they belonged to all of us, he casts his arms wide to the sky and the snow mountains, the high sun and dancing sheep, and cries, ’Of course I am happy here! It’s wonderful! Especially when I have no choice!’ In its wholehearted acceptance of what is;I feel as if he had struck me in the chest. Butter tea and wind pictures, the Crystal Mountain, and blue sheep dancing on the snow-it’s quite enough!

Have you seen the snow leopard?

No! Isn’t that wonderful?”

Indian Mammals: A Field Guide Book by Vivek Menon

A comprehensive field guide to 400 species of mammals in India accompanied by photos, illustrations and expert insight. Reading the book helps familiarize you with the enormous diversity of the animal kingdom in India .

The Vanishing: India’s Wildlife Crisis by Prerna Singh Bindra

Prerna Singh Bindra talks about the sorry state of wildlife governance in the country. Bottlenecks in bureaucracy and lackadaisical policy make the animals of the country its victims. The author was a member of the National Board for Wildlife and on Uttarakhand’s State Board for Wildlife. She has worked passionately to protect wildlife habitats and critically endangered species.

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

A remarkable book where the eminent nature writer Robert Macfarlane and the genius artist Jackie Morris have brought back the vocabulary of the British wild. The book has received much praise and can be read and appreciated by children and older readers alike. An Indian counterpart of lost nature terms in India is greatly needed.

At the Pothi.com Store, we have a couple of books around the theme of wildlife conservation by H. S. Pabla, former Chief Wildlife Warden of the state of Madhya Pradesh. He was once on the faculty of the Wildlife Institute of India and is an international consultant in forestry and wildlife management in South Asia now. Here are the links to his books: Road to Nowhere, Wardens in Shackles and Besides Loving Beasts.

Tell us which book about wildlife you would recommend.

Blog is now Book!

With the advent of new year, we are starting out in a very exciting direction! After 6 months in closed beta, we have finally opened BookSmith, our blog2book tool, for everyone. If you have not tried it yet, convert your blog right away and be amazed :).

The tool is very simple. You just give it the blog url and then click along. In minutes, you have your beautiful ready to print book available for preview. If you like what you see, you can buy just as many copies as you want. As we say here at Pothi.com, print 1 for that special someone, 10 for the family, 100 for the friends and 1000 for the world :). For the digital junkies among you, it also creates a e-book out of the same content which you can download and distribute absolutely free.

Did I mention you can select which posts go into the book – latest n or by date range, leave out certain posts (we all make mistakes 😉 ) and also reorder them? So you can create a book out of your best posts till date and give it to the new readers coming to your blog or may be just collect all the posts from one category into a book. Tools are all there, you are only limited by your imagination (with a few exceptions which we are hard at work to remove as soon as possible)!

Here is wishing a very happy new year to everyone! Do give your feedback and suggestions by leaving a comment below, tweeting to @pothidotcom or by dropping us a mail.