Stories and reading
Long before textbooks, knowledge was passed on through stories. In our learning space, stories are told and read every week, and every child takes a library book home.
"For us, stories are not a supplement to teaching. They are our primary teaching material."
Monali Lodha, in Building a Culture of Reading
How our library began
After the Pustak Maitri course in Pune and a visit to a school library in Phaltan, we saw how much it matters when books are within a child's reach.
"A library does not have to be a room. It is a collection of books, large or small, that a child can reach for on her own."
Part 1
We had no librarian and no system. So we asked a friend, Saylee Dashrath of Mooi Resha Library, to start lending books to our children. Lending began on 15 October 2025, Vachan Prerna Divas. Every child, from the age of three, now takes home a book each week, and parents read it with them.
Library day
Tuesday is library day. Children choose a book, carry it home in a cloth bag, and bring it back the next week. We started with a paper register and moved to a shared spreadsheet, and we changed how late returns are handled as we learnt.
"Tuesday became library day, and children waited for it."
Part 3
Stories in the classroom
Our educators tell and read stories to children every week, from two and a half years and up. Younger children listen, point and name. Older children choose books, talk about them, and begin to write their own stories.
"Stories become memories, and those memories become connections."
An educator, in Part 4
Reading with children
We try not to rush to the moral of a story. Children are given time to stay with how a story felt, to look closely at the pictures, and to ask their own questions.
"Before we ask children what a story taught them, what if we simply let them sit with how it felt?"
Reading with Children
How we choose books
We leave out books that carry bias, make fun of others, or end by stating a moral. We look for books that work as mirrors, where children see themselves, and as windows, where they see the lives of others. When a story raises a question, such as The Sleeping Beauty did for one class, we read it with the children and talk it through instead of hiding it.
"Let us not rush to attach morals to stories."
How Do We Choose Books? (Part 1)
One year on
A year after the first library books went home, we asked children and parents what had changed.
"Books help me with my difficult emotions like anger and sadness."
A child, in What children say about books
"It has become a lovely family activity for all of us to read them together."
A parent, in What Parents Saw This Year
Story Time
Our series of audio stories in Marathi, English and Hindi, for families to listen to together without a screen. Press play below, or open them in Spotify.
Marathi
मराठी गोष्टीEnglish
Stories in EnglishHindi
हिंदी कहानियाँRead the full series
These articles were first published on Monali Lodha's Substack. Where there is a Marathi version, it is linked beside the English one.
- Building a Culture of Reading, Part 1 मराठीWhy stories are our main teaching material, and how the idea of a library began.
- Building a Culture of Reading, Part 2 मराठीNo librarian and no system, but a dare and a friend with a library.
- Building a Culture of Reading, Part 3 मराठीWhat the first months of lending taught us: bags, registers, late returns and parents.
- Building a Culture of Reading, Part 4Four of our educators write about reading with children.
- How Do We Choose Books? (Part 1) मराठीWhich books we leave out, and why a stated moral leaves a child nothing to think about.
- How Do We Choose Books? (Part 2) मराठीSpotting stereotypes, and books as mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors.
- How Reading Became a Habit मराठीThe simple, low-cost practices that made children open books on their own.
- Reading with ChildrenPausing on a page, reading the pictures, and asking questions with no single answer.
- What Parents Saw This YearOne year of library books, in parents' words.
- What Children Say About BooksOne year of library books, in children's words.
- Deconstructing 'The Sleeping Beauty'Helping children question the stories they read.
See how stories fit into the rest of a child's day.