Unleashing your Creativity.

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the creative confidence within us all.

By Tom Kelly and David Kelly

I happened to read this book and gave it a thought to spread the message the book put forward . Having read that, I decided to write this to organize my own thoughts and feelings about the topic discussed in the book.

As part of my job, I have come across more than 15 students who told me they are not the creative type. I asked them to review a book in the form of pictures portraying the characters since I believe that pictures can speak well than words. I may be wrong in that, yet I believe it. I persuaded some others to write, giving them prompts. They easily escaped at first telling me that they cannot write or draw. Those were students who achieved high grades. I tried to convince them that they have more potential and creative talents. Most of them who were hesitant came out with quality works, be it pictures, a poem or a presentation.

Generating creativity from the scratch is a futile attempt. Along with what is already there, we need to nurture the built-in capabilities, giving them chance to explore, create and innovate. Creativity is often an underestimated term even when it comes to people who are very successful in their professional life. Education and employment systems may have conditioned them for predictable outcomes that meet specific needs or goals set up by their organization. People often judge skills in artistic endeavors like paintings, drawing or sculptures. Abstract paintings are thought to be difficult to understand most of the times due to the lack of confidence in oneself, when there are hundreds of possibilities to interpret the same work. So how do we unleash the potential of an individual and make them confident to be creators and innovators? This book by David Kelly and Tom Kelly is all about it.

“Belief in your creative capacity lies at the heart of innovation”. (Kelly Tom and Kelly David, p.2)

Education thought leader Ken Robinson in his 2006 Ted Talk “Do School Kill Creativity” says that creativity is as important as literacy in schools. In his talk he talks about a little girl who was not paying attention in class. When asked what she was drawing the girl said she was drawing the picture of God. The teacher was fascinated and told her, nobody has seen God. The girl said, in a minute they will. Kids are born talented and creative in some way or the other. The talents should be nurtured to make them more confident.

If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will not come up with the original. Most of us are frightened of being wrong. I myself am afraid most of the times, whether I will go wrong somewhere. I have not escaped from that fear yet. I conquered this fear to a great extend after my brother was diagnosed of stage IV Lung Cancer. The survival chance for him was absolutely zero and we were told that he would not survive for more than 6 months. I do not believe in miracles. I believe in the power of Science. We decided to fight it no matter how hard the process was. From a survival chance of 6 months, he lived for 18 months after the diagnosis. Later when he succumbed to cancer, I was totally devastated. I did not know what to do. My days started and ended up with thoughts of him and the time we spent together. To escape from the trauma, I started working. Later I found out that I can draw and paint. I spent days and months, drawing and painting along with my work. I never got an opportunity to explore myself and find my talents or skills. The education system I had gone through was not equipped for that. Everyone has the capacity for creativity. But somewhere along the journey to adulthood they lose it in pursuit of a profession or a goal. From a person who never thought could hold a brush, I am confident of this one thing, if not for many. Below is one of my works.

Dissociation

Coming to the topic of design and design thinking in the book, a story that the authors share in their book is that of Doug Dietz who worked in GE Healthcare and how he embraced creativity and design thinking to improve patient outcome. (Page 13-18).

The word design is used mostly in its literal sense. It is not considered as an activity but an attribute.  Creativity is concrete or palpable and the effective use of making this is design thinking methodology.

Embrace your Failures.

Learn from failure. Make sure you learn how to make things work better in the next attempt or else you are liable to make the same errors in the future. When a child loses confidence in his or her creativity the impact is profound. Compared to traditional core subjects like math and science schools should find ways to fund and foster arts and sports. Education should be able to sustain the natural abilities and enable students to make their own way in the world. A single negative remark is enough to bring the creative talents in a child to a standstill. Those who are resilient to try again are the fortunate ones. But the truth is that the unfortunate ones are more in number.

What is creative confidence?

It is seeking the path to turn your duty into passion. Forming creative thinking groups to enhance the ability of each person in an organization to obtain better results and outcome. It is about Innovation and Leadership. Pushing oneself to think in a divergent  and creative way. In a nutshell the book is a concise explanation of how to succeed without the fear of failure in an increasingly competitive world.

“The fear of failure leads to the fear of experimentation. The worry that a new idea might not live up to its promise may result in the idea never being born”.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Soar to heights you never imagined!

“We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.” 

Richard Bach.

Would you like to read a book which will take less than one hour that makes you pause and think every now and then? Would you like to read about dedication, mastery, and perseverance? I suggest Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It is a story of unrivaled aspiration and uttermost inquisitiveness. Best sellers never attracted me. This book remains an exception to that. It can be regarded as timeless and it is worth reading more than once and has profound textual and pictorial details.

Jonathan was different from other seagulls. It was not eating that mattered to him. He insisted on doing something which the other seagulls have never done. A different pattern of flying. He tries different methods and combinations of flight. Jonathan just wanted to know, to reach out to heights. His parents and other sea gulls in his clan despised his outlook. They wanted him to be like other gulls. He was treated as an outcast. But nothing took away his desire to soar to heights. He stuck on to his passion to fly. He was expelled from his colony. But he tried to soar more and more. He chased his dream to fly. He conquered heights. Trained other gulls from his flock who were expelled too, like him. His learning never stopped. He proved that there are no limits.

“His sorrow was not solitude, it was that other gulls refused to believe the glory of flight that awaited them; they refused to open their eyes and see.”

(Richard Bach, 2006, 25)

I was skeptical about the book at first, but the book totally changed my perception about learning and courage. Knowing is a great feeling. Striving for something passionate is wonderful. And everything can be conquered finally with patience and skill. Rationale and out of the box thinking is considered bizarre and antisocial more often. This book proves it wrong. Those who are dubious about their abilities should certainly read it. And I would reiterate that the time you spend reading this short book is a time very well spend. Read this book in its entirety and feel the power. 

Follow your heart.

Embrace your passion.

Master your mind to conquer heights.

Never say No to learning.

Take up the challenge.

Below is a painting I did some years back inspired by the book.

Disconnected Dreams

“You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.” 

Richard Bach.

Peter Lerangis at GMA

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.”

J. D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye.

To have a children’s writer or an illustrator in your school is a stimulus for any student who loves reading and writing.  If the author is someone who talks to an audience in a way that appeals to them he can inspire even those who are not much interested in reading or writing. GMA was blessed to have such an author at school on the 6^th of November. The author is none other than Peter Lerangis the American author whose books are widely acclaimed. Peter has written more than 160 books and is well known for his adventurous fiction Seven Wonders. Students from grade 5 to 7 had a delightful session with the author for more than one hour.

With more than 160 books in his credit and more than four million copies sold, Peter manages to break free from his writing studio. He has become known for his lively, informative school visits before audiences of all sizes and ages. He has always been a strong advocate of literacy and the encouragement of reluctant readers. Early on Peter wrote puzzle books and movie novelizations such as The Hardy Boys and The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Super mysteries, The Three Investigators and the Babysitters Club. In 2003, Peter was invited by the White House to accompany First Lady Laura Bush to Moscow, with R.L. Stine and Marc Brown to represent the U.S. at the first Russian Book Festival. More recently Peter became one of Scholastic’s Dream Team of authors for their New York Times bestselling series, The 39 Clues, a ground-breaking ten-book adventure series designed to increase readership by encouraging involvement with the adventure online.

Source: http://peterlerangis.com

After a welcome speech and a short introduction of the author by our students, Peter began his magical talk. Unlike many others, Peter explained how he started writing as a student and how reluctant he was to show his work to others. This really made me wonder since I have experienced students who are voracious readers telling me that they are reluctant, sometimes shy, sometimes scared to show their work to others. He explained realistically how failure can lead one to success eventually. He said he believes there are five steps to successful writing. Step one is you fail, step two is, you fail, step three is, you fail, step four is, you fail and step five you succeed! He told the students that the point where they succeed, they feel like the characters in the story urge them to change the story and tell them what to do. I could watch brimming enthusiasm on the face of most of the students who attended the session. I am sure this particular point made every student think for a second.

The narration of biography needs a special talent to catch the attention of the audience without getting them bored and Peter proved himself to be a great storyteller and narrator in every word he spoke. Students listened to him as though they are watching an animated movie. They were totally captivated, while he talked about how he came up with ideas to write. He showed the illustrations and stories he did as a student. Later he shared his real-life experience of being asked by the Obama administration to go to Russia on Air Force one to meet Putin. His presentation was well received by the students since he had a special sense of humor, suspense and lot of enthusiasm and spirit.

The students had a quick question and answer segment after his presentation, Questions ranged from what inspired him to write, how long does he usually take to finish a book and how does his start a story. There was also a book signing session for the students for his series Seven Wonders and his latest book Max Tilt: Fire the Depths. He patiently signed all the books piled before him and the students were totally enraptured to have the signed copy of his book. A big Thank You to Peter Lerangis from GMA for his auspicious presence and wonderful presentation for our students.

For an author visit to happen, it should be carefully planned, prepared and executed. It requires time, commitment and patience from a group of people. Thanks to all the people who put their effort to make this happen. What I could make out from the happy and contented face of the students who left the library after the session was that, the event was one of the most powerful and inciting literary experience they will always cherish in their life.

Kazuo Ishiguro wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.

"The British author Kazuo Ishiguro said he was both honoured and “taken completely by surprise” after he was named this year’s winner of the 2017 Nobel prize in literature, even initially wondering if the announcement was a case of “fake news”.

Ishiguro, author of novels including The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, was praised by the Swedish Academy for novels which “uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world” and were driven by a “great emotional force”.

Source : https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/05/kazuo-ishiguro-wins-the-nobel-prize-in-literature

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY:  KAZUO ISHIGURO

Spoiler Alert: This review reveals the entire plot of the story.

Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese writer, born in 1954 in Nagasaki. Ishiguro’s family immigrated to London later, where he spent his childhood. His first two books A Pale View of Hills (1982) and An Artist of the Floating World (1986) won The Winifred Holtby Prize and The White Bread Book of the Year awards respectively. The Remains of the Day, his third novel won him the Booker Prize in 1988.

I happened to read The Remains of The Day some years back suggested by one of my friends. Anyone who can enjoy P. G Wodehouse and considers him as a literary genius, anyone who feels after reading a book by Wodehouse, that the gloom is lifted up after a tiring day, can very well enjoy Ishiguro’s writings. I could always connect these two writers in many ways. The Remains of the Day is a hangover cure. After going through the news clippings about Ishiguro winning the Nobel for literature this year, I thought of writing about the book.

I browsed through my bookshelf and was amazed to see how long since I have read it, as the pages have turned yellowish. The Remains of the Day is an aristocratic English novel setup in pre-World War II.   Ishiguro’s novel is a haunting invocation of life amidst the wars in a Great English House. The book talks about lost love and causes. It is a study of personality, class and culture. The protagonist and the narrator Stevens is the Head Butler at Darlington Hall. He is a personification or incarnation of a brilliant and perfect English Butler. He is always refined and formal in his talks and is very meticulous in whatever job he does. His absolute loyalty is towards Lord Darlington and he conceals his true feelings from everyone. Stevens’s father was also a butler and he believes him as the most successful man he has ever seen. While reading the book we come to know that Stevens’s role model was his father. After Lord Darlington’s death, the house came under the ownership of Mr Farraday. Unlike Darlington, Farrady is an American and is a very sociable person. However, Stevens fails to interact with him in an informal way which he is not used to.

Stevens decides to take a six-day road trip to West Country London. He sets on this trip to meet Miss Kenton. She used to work for the Darlington House. However, Miss Kenton left the job to get married. Later Stevens receives a letter from Miss Kenton, which gives a hint that her marriage is failing and would like to return to her work in the Darlington House. The story is all about Stevens recalling his job under Lord Darlington. It has been revealed in the story later that, Lord Darlington was a sympathizer of the Nazi agenda before World War II. Darlington tried to foster ties between Great Britain and Germany. His name is besmirched through this act eventually.

Stevens worked with Miss Kenton for seven years. They had a difference of opinion regarding work. Nevertheless, Stevens later realize that he had romantic feelings for Kenton though he never expressed his feelings towards her.  He does absolutely nothing to change the course of the events. Towards the end of the novel, Kenton confesses to Stevens that their marriage would have changed things better for her. As taken from the book:

'What a terrible mistake I've made with my life.' And you get to thinking about a different life, a better life you might have had. For instance, I get to thinking about a life I may have had with you, Mr. Stevens. And I suppose that's when I get angry about some trivial little thing and leave. But each time I do, I realize before long—my rightful place is with my husband. After all, there's no turning back the clock now. One can't be forever dwelling on what might have been".

Day Six- Evening

Miss Kenton, p.251.

As I felt it, the most touching part of the story is, when Stevens observes the changes in Miss Kenton after years. As taken from the book:

“As we continued subtle changes which the years had wrought on her. For instance, Miss Kenton appeared, somehow, slower. It is possible this was simply the calmness that comes with age, and I did try hard for some time to see it as such. But I could not escape the feeling that what I was really seeing was a weariness with life; the spark which had once made her such a lively, and at times, the volatile person seemed now to have gone."

Day Six - Evening

Stevens, p.245.

Stevens, however, regret about not revealing his love for Kenton. He returns without reacting to her confession and decides to work for his employer as loyal as he can. Commitment to his profession takes his personal life, which he seldom cared. The story ends with his struggle about his failure to accept the fact that Lord Darlington, the man he worked for and lived for is not as perfect and remarkable a person.

Though very devastating and ironic a plot the story covers, it is undoubtedly a technical masterpiece of the great author. The book exposes the concepts of upper-class smugness, society,  and inner struggles of the human mind with much insightfulness. It is certainly a good read for anyone who hides their true inner feelings. 

Related links:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/06/kazuo-ishiguro-the-remains-of-the-day-guardian-book-club

https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2015/jan/16/kazuo-ishiguro-the-remains-of-the-day-books-podcast



Written by

Sreevidya Devanand.

Obituary to Robert M Pirsig

Robert Maynard Persig the writer born September 1968 dies at 88.

The philosophical novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is Persig's masterpiece. In a forward to the book, Persig told readers that despite it's title "Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", the book does not associate with Zen Buddhist practice. He added that it is not factual on motorcycle either. In his own words the art of motorcycle maintenance is a miniature study of the art of rationality.  

Ever since I read this book I wanted to write about it. I try to analyze and interpret the books I read. Some books remain in memory forever, like Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, J D Salinger’s 'Catcher in the Rye' and Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road'. But Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a book that changed my perception about life. It changed the way I think and see things.

I never had the courage to write about this book, though I wanted to. Every time I read the book, I gain new insights. Like an abstract painting, it unfolds the threshold of my very existence. I imagine myself getting stranded in an island wondering whether to start again or to give up. To my surprise I am born again each time. 

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An enquiry in to "Values".

Introductions spoil the spirit and essence of the story, hence I skip introductions. My brother who left me few years back gifted this book on my 15th birthday. As a  fifteen year old, the book, the title or the cover did not attract me at all. I wondered what I had to do with Zen or Motorcycle. I couldn't find any correlation between the two. I flipped through some pages and kept the book aside. After a few years, I decided to read the book. This time I decided to make an exception and read the introduction. 

The subtitle of the novel is " An enquiry into Values". Persig offers the story as a road trip with his son and his two friends as a journey in to the enquiry of values. The story is in the form of a personal trip the author took from their home at Minnesota to California with his 12-year-old son and his two friends whom he calls the Sutherlands. The book is a conflict of the author’s personality and his philosophical quest in form of conversations with his son and his friends who joined the trip. The interior monologues and  conversations are mentioned as Chautauquas.  His friends the Sutherlands doesn't make attempt to understand the technology of their bike to which Persig argues and insists that " godheads resides comfortably in the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. 

The book upholds the idea that Quality cannot be defined. Once you try to define Quality it loses its meaning. While serving in the Army Persig visits Japan and gets interested in Zen Buddhism. Zen is what we call the ultimate realty or the absolute. It cannot be described. One can experience living life to the fullest, with out any transcendental meditation which is supposed to give psychic comfort. This book ranges from Eastern philosophy to empiricism, and rationalism to rhetoric.

In the book, Persig identifies himself as different personalities. He describes himself as a professor who makes his students go crazy over a definition of quality, a man who is sectioned to an electric shock treatment in order to remove his past from his memories, a father who tries to bond with his 12-year-old son and as a man whose unsettling experiences bring him to a mental break down and his intellectual journey through the two worlds he calls sane and insane.

I am curious about the sort of person Persig was, because most of his autobiographical musings remain unexplained. There was a time, where I considered writing a personal letter to the author. It is like a maze. You get petrified at times, trying  desperately to escape, feeling all the while about the same as an entrance to a goal. The book is a desire to your existence. It tries to differentiates Quality and Reason. Quality as such is undefinable whereas reason is concerned with things that can be defined and explained in detail. Persig regards quality as the primal experience, the absolute bedrock from which all languages arise. There is a conflict when you try to define Quality using language. Quality, otherwise reality is undivided. Language splits things into parts while trying to define something. So the very attempt of trying to define Quality is absurd. It is an evolving process of experience. 

The words we use to describe our experiences are never adequate to encapsulate the uniqueness and the zest of the actual experience we feel. Trying to explain it with a work of art, the artist creates his work and leaves it to the art enthusiasts who interpret the work according to their perception. Should art needs to be explained? If you ask me, my answer will be 'No'. Art goes beyond language. It unifies people and culture. It pricks you with positives and negatives. It irritates you, enlightens you. It reaches the depth of your rationale. Take for example an Impressionist painting. It has different dimensions. One person gets attracted by the use of colours while another by the representation of light. It depends on personal experiences and the ways through which ideas are conceived. No two persons can have the same feeling while looking at a work of art. But once you try to describe it the whole purpose of art fails. When an artist starts to twaddle about what you should think, feel and see, the very purpose of art fails. Persig explains Quality in a somewhat similar way.

The book also has an autobiographical touch in it. Persig describes himself in the book as a difficult professor. In his own words, by the end of the terms, his students were so exhilarated that, if he had asked them to jump out of the window they would. The name Phaedrus which he pronounce in many pages in the book remains a mystery which unfolds at the end of the story. Phaedrus refers to the consciousness he once had, in other words his alter identity. Phaedrus is an academic prodigy who gets discontented with the Western notion of reason. Phaedrus, is named after an Ancient Greek Sophist who appears in Plato's Socratic dialogue, 

Among the many excerpts from the book which I like, this is my favorite.

“In our highly complex organic state, we advanced organisms respond to our environment with an invention of many marvelous analogues. We invent earth and heavens, trees, stones and oceans, gods, music, arts, language, philosophy, engineering, civilization and science. We call these analogues reality. And they are reality. We mesmerize our children in the name of truth into knowing that they are reality. We throw anyone who does not accept these analogues into an insane asylum. But that which causes us to invent the analogues is Quality. Quality is the continuing stimulus which our environment puts upon us to create the world in which we live. All of it. Every last bit of it”.

(Pirsig, 1974, p.317).

Persig's key message to us is his recitation of Socrates's message to Phaedrus: And what is good Phaedrus and what is not good/ Need we ask anyone these things?

The dichotomy between romanticism and empiricism, passion and logic, religion and science : the book is all about it. If the words  'Zen' and 'Motorcycle' are not approached literally, there is a lot to be gained. It is a philosophical odyssey in to the fundamentals of life. 

Pirsig’s iconoclastic approach did confuse me.  It still does. But from my personal experience, I suggest this book to all students who take philosophy as a serious subject- with a note of caution that it is not for light reading.

Reference:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/25/robert-m-pirsig-interview-july-12-1974/

http://www.naturalthinker.net/trl/texts/Pirsig,Robert/Zen%20and%20the%20art%20of%20motorcycle%20maintenance/nyt.htm

Images are taken from Wikipedia under Creative Common License.

Written by Sreevidya Devanand.

Are You A Maker?

May 2^nd Tuesday was Global Day of Design to inspire children to design and create. It was Maker’s Day for our students in the Resource Centre. It was not a preplanned project. We collected whatever materials we could like popsicle sticks, straws, buttons, balloons, paints, brushes, toothpicks, and a box of wooden blocks which was Shirin ma’am’s treasure. We had some ideas in mind but we just gave random materials to the children when they came to the library and asked them to brainstorm and come out with some ideas making them sit in groups of five.

 While asking the students to brainstorm, I was thinking about the last time I fixed something or created something. To my dismay, I realized that I never tried to design or discover to accomplish something. Not everyone is a maker. I told myself. But a conversation with the other librarians reminded me of my childhood when I used to make balls, watches, caps and tops out of palm leaves. It was a kind of weaving technique which most children of my age knew how to do. I also used to make wall hangings out of recycled materials. Is not that making too? I think it is. Well, I was a maker too then.

Times have changed. Children need not have to sit with palm leaves to make balls and watches. In the new wave of technology, children make VR Headsets. So what exactly is a maker space and who is a maker? Anyone who makes something by hand is a maker and the space they utilize for the purpose is Maker Space. Maker Space in the Resource Centre is an initiative by Ms., Madhur. We have many children who are real creative genii. For them, this has been a wonderful opportunity to nurture their spirits and become makers or creators or developers. As educators, we are committed to making students help learn new technologies and interact and collaborate with their peers to work on hands-on projects.

Given along with this post are the pictures we took when the students were in the process of ‘making'. Most of them were surprisingly enthusiastic and they came up with these amazing stuff.

Chain Reaction with Popsicle Sticks

https://vimeo.com/216178878

Chariot from Sphero

https://vimeo.com/216179088

Mat from Popsicle Sticks

Banjo..

If you want your students to be creative you need to give them challenges and specific themes to work on. Some examples are building a house out of cardboard, making something that a Sphero can pull around the library etc. These help students to stay focused. Let them explore new tools and come up with amazing results. They should be given some free days or blocks of free time so that they do not feel restricted. Let them be creators, innovators, explorers.

“Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.” 

Austin Kleon.

Kwame Alexander at GEMS Modern Academy

Monday 24^th of April was a special day for The Resource Centre. Newbery Award-winning author Kwame Alexander visited our library and had a book discussion with the students.

“Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator and New York Times bestselling author of 24 books. He received the Newbery Medal for his novel The Crossover. Newbery Medal, is the American Library Association’s top award given to the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Kwame Alexander regularly travels the world as a literacy advocate and expert.”

http://kwamealexander.com/

His book Crossover has many features that distinguish it from other novels. The novel is basically in the form of poetry. In other words, it can be called as a novel in verse. Words change from line to line and sometimes drops diagonally across a page as if the narrator moves down a basketball court. 12-year-old Josh Bell offers his story in a painful, sad and funny way. The story is quite compelling. Although the story tells a lot about basketball, it rummages through deeper issues like tension revolving around Josh and his twin brother. In Alexandre’s own words he tried to bring into attention in Crossover, the joy and sense of humor that was ubiquitous in his family.

It is not a small achievement to listen to a Newbery Award winner who is as persuasive and alluring as Mr. Alexander. He captured the attention of a large group of students from different grades with ease. He kept on switching from personal anecdotes, reading out his poems and asking questions to the students that made up the audience. Among the questions were who among the audience is a great basketball player and who is the best rapper among the audience.He recited some of his poems for the audience.

https://vimeo.com/214875545

The students in the library were literally celebrating the moments with Mr. Alexander and passionately asked him questions like what inspired him to be a writer, what was his latest work, how many books he has written, why did he choose basketball as a theme in his novel and what made him switch on from basketball to soccer to endangered species and finally to a novel. Mr. Alexander was taken by surprise at the variety of questions coming from the students.

His another work ‘Booked’ deals with serious issues among middle schoolers like bullying, racism, and education. It is relatable equally to students, parents, and educators. It has a lot of message about family, friendship, and learning. One of the beautiful chapters that caught my attention while having a quick glance through his work ‘Booked’ is given below.

Basketball Rule #1

In this game of life

Your family is the court

And the ball is your heart.

No matter how good you are,

no matter how down you get,

always leave

your heart

on the court.

It was a wonderful experience to listen to such an appealing writer as Mr. Alexander. The students who attended the session were indeed lucky to have interacted with such a great author. His presence in the library was electric and heartfelt at the same time and he kept the students on their toes till the end. Applause to Ms. Madhur who arranged such a wonderful event in the library which I feel will remain in memory forever for all who attended the session.