Educator Jennifer Thomas at Muktaangan Schools, Mumbai ….

Tuesday was over all the best day of my week so far, thanks to Bindi Su.

So I started with a small picture talk with the std II children. They tried to guess what Bindi Su was looking at the cover page. They came up with many things seeing the green and the red….chaadar, nose, sari, bindi…. Then when I pointed out to the white tyres…someone said “Tyre!” and then there was a flow of bus! lorry! car! They were thrilled….

We read the whole story together…the repetition pattern worked very well. They were mouthing the words soon after two examples. Though, I realized text-wise, the book was very simple for my Std. II. They were able to decode easily and I think the repetition pattern helped comprehension. 

Children noticed small details on the page during the reading…like the balloon seller and his  balloons. They also LOVED predicting which animal would come next. And they were SO thrilled when they got it right! 

They especially loved the page on the sea…the ferry was new for my Mumbai kids. They all wanted to touch the blue and the fish. 

When we finally came to the last pages, I gave them all a paper and they were quite enthusiastic about the questions the book left them with. They weren’t disappointed that the story did not ‘end’. All of them, well most of them said, no the car doesn’t stop. 

I was fascinated by some of their responses to why the animals ask Bindi Su to stop : 

· they wanted a lift to the jungle

· they wanted to cross the road

· they were scared of her because she was going TOOO fast

· my favourite – they wanted to stop her and tell her “Ooooh how lovely you look!” 

· she ran over the frog and crushed it, they had to take it to the hospital

Special Educator Niquita Ferrao, Goa wrote:

I woke up this morning thinking: “Why didn’t Bindi Su stop? WHY? That’s the effect Bindi Su has on its reader! It gives EVERY child the opportunity to think creative and let their imagination soar! It delivers exactly everything a book that every child should be encouraged to read.  It is learning oriented and fun! This picture book is engaging, fascinating and captivating. With inclusive education in every school, even children with special needs will also benefit from this book. Children on the Autism spectrum for example possess great attention to details; they look for the finer details in a picture drawing and are commonly visual learners. The illustrations of Bindi Su bring to life the text to kids who have just started reading or may never really learn to read.  . Easy reading, one line per page and repetition of the same words through the book will definitely help children with learning disabilities. Even the font colour and size have been appropriately chosen for children who are partially visually impaired. If you look at pages 1 and 2, the colour of the font shifts from white to black to enable better contrast. The end of the book is what I would consider a knockout. As a special educator, Bindi Su, gives a child the freedom to choose his form of expression and to think creative. One is not limited to write but even draw- which facilitates fresh and honest assessment.  …and now I’m back to thinking: Why didn’t Bindi Su stop?