PESHAWAR: Authors, social activists and bibliophiles have asked children and youth to utilise staying home time against coronavirus threat by developing a taste for book reading as it would help them to drive away boredom and explore new worlds of creativity.

The book lovers said that children could be engaged in writing their personal diaries, collecting poems, best stories, reading sessions and improving language skills in the current situation.

Rashid Menhas, a resident of Hayatabad, told this scribe that children took great interest in story books as characters in fiction titles fascinated and gripped their attention because most often they tried to identify themselves with those characters and at times internalise some concepts through the plots of the story books.

Samreen Dua, another bibliophile, said parents could motivate their children to collect poems, write their own dairies and surf online titles on topics of their choice. She said that she opened her personal library for her school-going children and spent exciting hours with them by reading out interesting stories with them.

Book lovers say reading can also address boredom in students at home

Saidul Amin, an avid book reader, said that he started reading sessions with his children and engaged them in different activities. He added that staying home during the present lockdown could be best used to inculcate reading habit among school going children.

“Every day, I open shelves of my home library to pick up titles from a wide range and go into reading session for two hours with occasional breaks for tea and walk in the lawn. Then another session is dedicated for debate over what we have read in the books. In this way, we together spend hours in a fruitful manner,” said Mr Amin.

Tashfeen Ahmad, an 8th grader, said that he and his two sisters had purchased set of animals story books and fixed morning and evening times for sharing reading experiences . He said that after finishing a 100-page story, they wrote brief review and showed it to their mother, who taught at a private academy.

“My mother has asked me to write my daily routine diary while my elder sister Ramsha Sultan has been assigned to pen down an essay on our pet dog Bushi and younger sister will read out a story to us tomorrow evening,” he said.

Saad Haleem, another book lover, said that he thought it was the best time to arrange reading sessions at home for children and even online books club could be utilised.

He said that he had bought a series of Prophet’s stories from a bookstore in Saddar. He said that his daughter Nausheen, a 9th grader, came up with beautiful stories she wrote during the stay home.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2020