Feature stories for kids that focus on unusual and interesting write-ups on the world we live in. About its customs, ways of life, about cinema, sport, champions, rare feats and artists. Cool reading for kids.
156 items in this section. Displaying page 9 of 16
A Sojourn in Venice
Venice is one of Italy’s major seaports, and capital of the province of Venezia in northern Italy. It was the greatest seaport in late medieval Europe and Europe’s commercial and cultural link with Asia. It is also one of the world’s oldest tourist and cultural centres. Aditi De writes of her visit to this most romantic of cities. Venice is such a strange city. It is built on an Italian lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. It has canals instead of roads, which means there are no cars or buses, no trams or trains or bicycles whizzing past us....
Francoise's Dolls
“I did not see the face of my child: I passed into unconsciousness after her birth. My neighbours told me she was beautiful. My mother and the nurse buried her alive. I did not even hear her cry." A doll depicts a girl child and the words alongside it, movingly tells the tale of a new mother’s anguish at the brutal killing of her baby girl. The doll has been made by Belgian-born Francoise Bosteels, who made India her home over 25 years ago....
The Earth Drum
Imagine a pit covered with the skin of an ox. The hairy surface is on top and the hairy tail of the ox is still connected to the animal hide or skin. The cover is nailed to the ground at several places. And the ox tail becomes the drum stick. This is not a fantasy drum. It seems this was one of the earliest ways our ancestors in India made drums. It was called the bhoomi dundubhi or the earth drum....
The Story-tellers
What could be a better way to get to know a country than through its folk-tales and stories? And if you love collecting stories anyway, as Madhu Gurung does, nothing could be more wonderful. Here, Madhu, presently based in Myanmar’s capital, Yangon, talks about the Myanmarese duo of mother and daughter who have enlivened her days by weaving tales even as they help her with her domestic chores. Madhu shares the magic of those story-telling sessions in the following anecdote:...
Children and Water
Educators Wynne Harlen and Jos Elstgeest take us on a wonder-filled trip into the scientific world in their classic book: UNESCO sourcebook for science in the primary school, published by the National Book Trust in association with Unesco publishing. Water is a common yet exciting material, freely available almost everywhere, which lends itself to an endless variety of genuine science activities. Common as it appears to be, water can be a source of wonder to children and to adults who have kept up the habit of questioning and wondering....
The Day the Bomb Fell
Near the centre of the explosion, people were instantaneously vapourised by the seeing heat, leaving only their shadows scorched into the stonework of walls or roads. Thousands more were killed by being blown to bits, more commonly being hurled against solid subjects, crushed beneath falling buildings. Others were simply cremated into charred corpses or hideously burned with great patches of skin stipped from their bodies and hanging in flaps around them. In Hiroshima, 13 square kilometres of area was devastated and 92 per cent of its buildings were destryed....
The Woman who Collects Children
An inspiring story from our archives: June 2000 Some people like to collect stamps. Others prefer stickers, posters, tattoos or coins. But Pinky Bhutia is different. She collects children. In her mountain village, in Sikkim, she is known as the wonderful young woman who adopts all the children she can. Pinky was 14 when she adopted her first child, a Nepali orphan. Today, she has a dozen adopted children, and two sons from her marriage....
The Language of a Cat
The poet Carl Sandburg wrote, “The fog comes in on little cat feet.” So do a large number of our words and expressions. Let’s think of the cats that run and leap and pounce and slink and purr and meow through the English language. There are a number of explanations for the phrase, “it’s raining cats and dogs”? Cats and dogs were closely associated with the rain and wind in the western mythology. Dogs were often pictured as the attendants of Odin, the storm god, and cats were believed to cause rain....
Dancing to Glory
It was a children’s dance-drama festival with a difference. At New Delhi’s LTG Auditorium recently, a group of ‘disabled’ children left the audience spellbound with their natural, joyful performances. Some of the children could not hear, others could not see or had difficulty walking. And still others were grappling with mental challenges. But that was no dampener to their spirits as they performed to an appreciative audience of eager parents, teachers and children. Dancing to Glory The Annual Inter School Dance-Drama Festival saw over 300 children from 20 schools all over Delhi, participate in the event....
The 24-hour Film!
Guess how long it takes to make a feature film, say like Star Wars or The Sixth Sense? Nothing less than three to four months! And that’s rushing it through. And if it’s a musical or action film, it will take longer as you add in rehearsal time. Hollywood makes something like 250 films a year and that’s counting foreign language films too. However, the largest film producing country in the world is India with over 700 feature films a year and in 16 Indian languages....