BHUBANESWAR: A special story-telling session of famous Australian children’s author Patricia Bernard organised by Bakul Foundation had children ferried into the world of Australia here Sunday.
The focus of the session was on children’s books from Australia. Picture books for small children and books for young adults and adults including collection of aboriginal and folktales were available in abundance at the venue.
Patricia has been author of 78 books for both children and adults and she has written many children’s books that introduce different countries such as India to children in Australia. She narrated ‘The Stolen Tea Tray’, a story from her book, to the children.
It is the story of Niwas, a boy who sells tea to earn his plate of rice and curry, and what happens to him when his precious silver tea tray goes missing. Patricia then interacted with children and adults gathered and spoke about how she started writing and eventually improved on her spelling and grammar.
She also emphasised on the importance of reading and how it strengthens the mind as well as body. She shared anecdotes of how she used to say outrageous lies to her mother and that was the beginning of her spinning tales. But she clarified that her lies were too outlandish to be believed such as finding lost elephants in her town in Australia when there are none of them there.
It was a heart-warming sight to see many children come and read books early in the morning on Sundays at Patha Utsav where many of them were taken in a semi-awake state by their parents.