At the beginning of June, the books were printed, and I thought I’d celebrate with a launch event at Bagheera, a lovely place for children and a little paradise for book lovers.
On July 4th, I found myself surrounded by around fifteen adults and twenty children talking about Bandati.
Once everyone had arrived, we sat for a reading session, a difficult exercise for me, who still can’t stand to hear my words out loud! And I had just spent an hour talking to many people with kids screaming everywhere, which had drained most of my energy. But the kids sat down, and suddenly there was silence, and I took the plunge! I managed to find a passage to read in Bandati - Fun Activities, and the little ones started interrupting me almost immediately. After the first reaction of irritation, I realised that my book was working: just as I’d meant, it was triggering conversations! And I actually really enjoyed these exchanges with the children.
Now, shall I tell you what happened next? After a couple of pages, I asked my audience if they wanted me to continue reading, and most of them said “yes”, except for one six-year-old girl, who had almost been talking to me non-stop since the beginning, as if she and I were alone in the room, and said “No, it’s boring!” I chose to ignore her, and carry on with the other ones. So she lay down and began to yawn ostentatiously. Ignoring her even more, I carried on. Realising that her antics weren’t working, she got up and walked away, much to my relief. Two minutes later, she was back, laughing her head off as Bandati rolled down a snowy slope on his bum! Was I finally out of the wood with her? Maybe, but right then, her three-year-old brother, who had thrown my playing cards on the floor along with all the boxes of crayons, started climbing all over me in the alcove where I was sitting. Then he started trampling all over my books. I moved away, and ended up wrapping the session.
I will remember that launch for quite some time! And hopefully more for the interaction I had with the kids than the challenges these two put me through…
