It is nice to know that there’s a new book published by the popular children’s author Ruskin Bond - The Puffin Book of holiday stories. The description of the book - a fun anthology of adventure, humour, ghosts, mysteries, friends, mangoes, family dramas and little boys and girls, surely will have a message for the young readers.

Like how his Jungle Book is about living in harmony with nature, how nature helps a human who respects nature and the plants and animals that share the planet. I wish there were more such books to teach tomorrow’s adults the importance of nature and how peaceful it is to live in harmony with nature. It is something today’s adults seem to have forgotten. Perhaps today’s adults, the children of yesterday, didn’t read such books that educate about the environment and nature?

All children’s books have something to teach — to be good individuals, to respect other human beings and most importantly to respect trees, plants, animals and birds. Many stories are about communication with trees and animals. The personification of animals and trees is the only way children will understand that they too have a voice though they don’t know to speak.

Like the author rightly says, children should carry a lot of books with them. This will inculcate a reading habit early on and will result in the development of adults that think reasonably and make sound decisions. Adults that take into consideration the well-being of all living things when making decisions that involve a situation beyond themselves, and most importantly a thinking that is independent of myth and superstition.

J Dias

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