Pleasures of reading : James Henry Trotter comes alive at book reading session

Liberty Books and The Express Tribune organise a story-telling session for more than 100 children.

KARACHI: The characters of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach came alive on Saturday evening when a bunch of young readers enjoyed a story-telling session with writer Bina Shah.

The story telling session was organised by Liberty Books in partnership with The Express Tribune. With her gripping oratory skills, Shah led the children through a journey with James Henry Trotter as he discovers the talking arthropods and an earthworm and plots to escape his two evil aunts. More than a 100 children, between the ages of three and 11, cramped inside the basement of Liberty Books in Clifton enjoyed this hour-long journey.

More than 100 children gathered at Liberty Books in Clifton for the story-telling session by Bina Shah, in collaboration with The Express Tribune. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

Amongst them was eight-year-old Sara Khan, who laughed out loud as Shah spoke out in an old man’s voice. “I love the way she is telling the story. It is nice and funny,” chuckled the little girl sitting cross-legged. She enjoyed the story so much that she was very excited to buy the book.

With a microphone in her hand, she flipped through the book and made sure the children didn’t lose their attention between the story. Whenever the young ones tried to talk or move away, she pulled them back to the storytelling session, making all of them experience James Henry Trotter’s journey.

Shah also kept a basket full of peaches by her side as she adopted the voices of various characters and lightened up the mood with her frequent one-liners. The crowd enjoyed her performance, screaming, shouting and shivering, along with the characters of the book. Huzaifa Farooq, 11, who sat with his brother, said that he loved the magical parts of the book. “I wish to meet giant insects as James meets in the book.”



Raiyyan Shahzad, who loves reading horror stories that give you goose bumps found the quiz after the book reading session to be equally interesting. “I knew all the answers because I have read the book several times,” he grinned. His mother, Sonia, agreed that the book reading was a fun activity and should be held on regular basis.

Assistant branch manager, Zoya Altaf said that activity was planned to cultivate reading habits in children. “These days children are just glued to screens - television screens, mobile screens, and ipad screens - they don’t reach much.” She was glad Liberty Books organises such sessions every month.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2013.