Vile Parle-based resident Vidhi Joshi started Young Readers Book Club five years ago, to encourage children to read. “My elder daughter was an avid reader. On her 10th birthday, I hosted a book club party. I gave 10 books to all the children — one to each — and asked them to read them.” Joshi and the children, then, met and celebrated with discussions on what they read. Joshi now runs four batches with four to five children each; two of these are for young readers around the age of five and two for older children. 

“Adults can talk to kids, but they will never speak in the same wavelength as the kids want them to,” she says. This need, alongside the desire to help her daughter find more reader companions, led her to start the club. During the lockdown, she tried to conduct a few sessions online, but they didn’t always work out. “The children were young, and not really into the idea of sitting in front of a screen and talking about a book. As time passed, my younger daughter and her friends took a lot of interest. Primary school children have plenty of time in hand. We meet once a week now,” she tells us.