Bangalore, 27 February 2016: To encourage reading among children, Canadian International School (CIS) invited the award-winning children’s author Payal Kapadia to interact with the school children. As part of the interaction Payal read sections from her recently launched book, ‘Horrid High – Back to School’, a sequel to, ‘Horrid High’. The author enthralled the children in the characters of her new book through her storytelling skills. She chose amusing ways of revamping on their grammar and vocabulary by using alliterations to their imagination. As a part of the entertainment, few kids played the fictional characters of her book, as an attempt to unlock the climax.
Her debut novella ‘Wisha Wozzariter’ won the Crossword Book Award 2013 for Best Children’s Book and is also listed in the category of, ‘101 Indian Children’s Books We Love’ guide book compilation. She is also the author of ‘Colonel Hathi Loses His Brigade’ and ‘Puffin Lives: B.R. Ambedkar’.
Seeing the enthusiasm of the children during the book reading session, the renowned children’s author, Payal Kapadia said, “It’s wonderful to see that books and reading are a priority in CIS. Reading is the last bastion of freedom in the world we live in. Reading is the last opportunity for stillness, it’s that period of time when you engage with the book and escape into any world with the sheer device of imagination. The children should keep reading as it is never going to go out of style.” says, Payal Kapadia.
The session ended with the children interacting and throwing several agog questions to know more about her passion for writing and love for children. This session instilled the inquisitiveness of the kids to  unravel the ‘Grand Plan’ in her sequel, making them motivated to read her books and take up reading as a value addition hobby.
CIS believes in the power of reading that fuels the imagination and vocabulary of children. In addition to classroom learning, they encourage their students to read other fictional and non-fictional books that will give the students the freedom to explore their own world of creativity and visualization that they can incorporate in their areas of knowledge and development.
Abid Khan, a fifth grade student from CIS said, “I liked the session. She was funny and the story is quite nice. The interactive part was the best as she was talking to us which is more fun than actually just reading the book. Then there is no emotion in it because it’s just reading. Payal Ma’am interacted with us in a way as if she was one of the characters of the story. And I’m waiting to read the book!”
The kids said with a laugh, “It was a thrilling session and our school, teachers and principal are not ‘Horrid’ like the ones in ‘Horrid High’ or ‘Horrid High back to School’.