Author: Ashok Rajagopalan's new series for Middle School and Illustrated Handbooks on Digital Technologies

Guru Guru of Salegama
Ashok Rajagopalan
talking cub
250 rupees
Suitable for: 8+ years

Gulgul of Saregamma by Ashok Rajagopalan
(Source: Amazon.in)

When Gajapati Kurapati was published in 2010, it was the beginning of an enduring love story. A lovable Temple who catches a cold and is afraid to annoy her friends, her elephant antics were an instant hit with early readers. A series of books followed that greatly delighted its very young (and some older) fans and entertained readers with a ringside view of Gajapati’s adventures. Writer and illustrator Ashok Rajagopalan’s The Adventures of Gulgul series is aimed at a slightly older readership, but with much the same intent. Set on the fictional planet Green, the new Space Her fantasy series follows a precocious girl, Gurguru, as she embarks on an intergalactic adventure. The first of her three books in the series, Yungal’s Guru Guru, Seesaw Her Gala Guru Guru, Parapara no Guru Guru, is followed by Up Her Up Her Pura Guru Guru, Papadom’s Guru Guru, and Salegama’s Guru Guru.

As with Gajapati Kurapati and Dzungar Guru Guru, the series features many elephants and other fantastical creatures. At the center of Saregama’s Guru Guru is the Niriphant Nisha. It is a flying yellow elephant with pink wings that Guru Guru and her classmates encounter on a school trip to Saregama, the planet of music. Nisha is training under the guidance of her Grand Maestro, Gana Guru, but wants to return to Nila with Nini Mama and Nini Papa and eat bamboo, bananas and jackfruit. It’s up to Guru Guru to convince everyone to do it, but not before there’s a musical performance or two to entertain everyone. For one thing, clever puns and laugh-out-loud moments are all characteristic Rajagopalan trademarks, and are sure to please readers of all ages.

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A small handbook of cool tech
Shalini Satish and Ram Baranidaran
harpercollins
399 rupees
Suitable for: 9+ years

Cool tech little handbook by Shalini Satish and Raam Baranidharan
(Source: Amazon.in)

According to the 2019 UNICEF report Growing Up in a Connected World, one in three children under the age of 18 happens to be an internet user and one in three internet users is a child under the age of 18. One of the many changes the pandemic has brought since then is a sharp increase in the number of children using her web for educational and recreational purposes following prolonged lockdowns and school closures. The first book in the Young Techie series, The Little Handbook of Cool Technology, introduces readers not only to the wonders of the Internet, but also to the human mind and how to store data, disseminate information, and solve problems. I’ll show you what’s different. — but it also makes for fun trivia and is always very appealing to geeks young and old (e.g. the well-known history of the term Google: misspelling “googol”, the math term meaning 10 to the 100th power; or , in fact, at the time of this writing, Antarctica is “the only continent not connected to the Internet by submarine cables,” a network that connects 33 countries across four continents of the world.)

From Artificial Intelligence to Augmented Reality to the Internet of Things, this book touches on important topics in a clear and concise manner, presenting information in capsules and breaking it up visually with graphics and animations.

But like all technology, the web comes with its own perils. Worldwide, there has been a record increase in cybercrime against children in the last three to her two years. In India, the National Crime Records Service reported her 400% increase in cybercrime against children in 2020 compared to 2019. Various awareness programs and security measures are in place at the institutional level, but given the fact that digital exposure is only likely, one effective way to make children aware of the web’s boundaries is , is to analyze how the Internet works and present both its advantages and limitations. The way the web works and its miraculous ability to shrink the world to a device are expertly told, but the chapter on cybersecurity and the FAQ that serves as the coder are especially enlightening. Here’s a nifty list of things you shouldn’t do and advice on how to avoid malware and strangers who attack us as intruders. It’s also a must-read for anyone wanting to learn more about the technology that’s becoming more and more commonplace in the US.

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