Amit Shanker is a narrative soul who has written Cafe Latte with the most unusual stories that speak of incidents with the intent of evoking a effective mood.

Amit has penned Short, sweet, interesting and inspiring stories. Easy read - any place any time and its a page turner wih stories of people and events, happennings and twists n turns in lives. Some of the conclusions in the short stories were abrupt but nevertheless lets one brood of the events of life which have a story to say. My favorites were The Jazz Player, The Lion, The Leopard and The Hyena, A Rose for her, A Highway Called Life, The Chosen One, Home Sweet Home, The Other Side, The Guardian Angel, Every Mouse ain’t a Mickey Mouse, Smart TV, True Lies and Writer’s Block. Probably, I have not missed out reading randomly flipping pages which I feel, is the best way to get into reading short stories.

In fact. what appealed to me was the way the Author has written the Book. Choosing the theme of short read which is so appropriate in an age of Technology, the rising age of the use of Social networking and gadgets. When time is limit, quick read is definitely the right choice. Amit Shanker has used his words crafted with ease, detailing the incident in a very petite form of narration. His work is creative and expressive in the way he reflects his thoughts in the book. Specifically to mention, Home Sweet Home which gives a feeling that Home is where the heart is. The 50 year old distressed man get things packing to shift to a new home, His memories of his late wife who suffered from Cancer filled in spaces of his mind. He realizes that the Builder of the Apartment, had stalled the Project. Also, the false hopes and not returning the money show the inner turmoil of the man. This is when his admiration of the pigeon’s nest and not letting them face the trauma of change of home, made him think of his home sweet home. Maybe, the message around is ageing gracefully and accepting change practically.

In some stories, the narration is a flow of words penned in a style of writing that involves the reader and feel a romantic tinge. Nicely compiled, engrossing and expressive. A simply superb attractive cover catches your attention. Quite natural, stories like these can be well read with a cup of tea and I just did that with random reads. Like the blurb says, “We are brought up listening to and reading stories, which makes us form a clinched frramwork of expectations and concepts about life….” Indeed, Life is all about experiences and a mystery, exploring with twists and turns.

Good pick :-)

Find the Cutes – Festival Fun is all Vibrant, intricate, beautifully illustrated and captivating fun filled activities. The narration is simply superb flow of language that involves the Cute Family and going places with Festivals. Hard cover bound 36 pages or even available with the Kindle Edition, the imaginary journey is fun filled and exciting packed with adventure of the Cutes Family and kids. Visual, entertaining and filled with information on Festivals, make the Festival Fun too intriguing. It’s including introduction pages, 12 double pages of fun searching for the Cute kids and their lost objects among 12 festivals across the world, and 4 answer pages. The Illustrator Vincent Noot seems to have spelt charm to the right characters and objects on every page. Added with brainstorming on creative, funny things that made up a lasting imprint on minds of young kids as well as their guardians to go through the Festivals and enjoy them as if in real. I was spell bound to the cultural information and the visual perspective of educating on Festivals. Some of the Festivals I didn’t know were too informative – sweet and short which at a glance gave in-depth awareness highlighting the Festival treat. The fun search pages about Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, but also about the Tomato Festival in Spain, Songkran in Thailand, and Sinterklaas in the Netherlands are unique and informative. The hidden characters and things are fun to trace. My classroom children who learnt the ebook reading session simply loved the kindle edition and had fun observing deeply the illustrations, reading the narration and joining the cutes kids to find the hidden things. It sparked their imagination, stimulated their brain cells, educated entertained, and inspired them.

This is a gem collection in my Library and I recommend this ‘The Cutes – Festivals’ – Vincent Noot and Celestial has proved par excellence - a pair together to create such a wonderful book.

A classic read in the Literature class and practically an enthralling and touching narrative. Mrs. Stowe has portrayed the slavery and tied the characters with emotional bond. Mistakes made by ancestors are revisited and Americans find the way to knowing and correcting the fact which the book portray about the inhumane cruelty of the early 1800s. Mrs. Stowe has the influence of Christian religion and saw the religion as universal religion and others should embrace it. Slavery made them cling to it as a source of comfort and the black slaves were purposely taught by the slave holders, through various means, the full scope of Christian redemption. This and other melodrama writing and approach may not be accepted. A classic, the book touches the heart with the title character, Uncle Tom, who enlightens the reader to true spiritual conversion and self-sacrifice, as he followed the example of His Lord, Jesus Christ. Reading the book makes one realize the inside turmoil and the anger for abolishing the Slavery. Indeed, a classic read and should be on shelf of every Library.

Paulo Coelho - And, it has been a wonderful experience reading Alchemist and later, The Fifth Mountain and Like the Flowing River:Thoughts and Reflections. While the book narrates his experiences down the time, his writing is indeed poetic which brings in hope and joy to the soul. This book is an intimate collection of the Author and powerful short stories of life and spirituality - speaking of life, destiny, love and more. When I met the Author online through his writings, it had been pleasure placing him as a Columnist and reading his books and articles became my passion. Some of the titles covered in this book which I like most are:

1. The story of the Pencil
2. Genghis Khan and his Falcon
3. On Manuel
4. Restoring the web
5. Raj tells me a story
6. Statutes for the new Millenium
7. On Rhythm and the Road

So many - experiences and thoughts of Paulo Coelho and I am sure, you will love to read this book and treasure it, gift it. Enjoy.

- ilaxi patel
Author of Guardian of Angels
Guardian of Angels: A Practical Guide to Joyful Parenting

Yoga and Literacy together makes creativitely fun sessions. Most of the children are glued to computers, staring at the screen as their games downloads. Stress at all levels - at school, with homework or with family issues! Storytime Yoga is a great pick for children who are over stressed and especially lack reading habits. It has 26 teaching literary gems with stories from different traditional values. Nicely demonstrated, the book focus on meditation and relaxation techniques with stories of love, generosity, peace and friendship. An Indian story 'Rabbit on the moon' features in Sidney Solis book. A Story teller and a Yoga teacher combination makes the book a gem as Sidney gives indepth information on Yoga and stories with Asanas. The book also has games that adds to fun. A good pick and great character building + healthy tips on Yoga. A nice educative book for classrooms too. Enjoy.

Being a great fan of Chicken Soup series, I was gifted two books recently - Chicken Soup for the Mother and Daughter Soul and Chicken Soup for the Father and Son Soul. Since I have no daughter, I picked up the second for a read as I experienced a close bond between my son and his dad.I agree with Scott T. gill, who contributed in this book when he says, "What Every son needs is, an inspiration and every father needs encouragement." Life's path are trailed to journey together in thick and thin and when my son and his dad faced the tricker situation of business, I witnessed a closer ties. Reading the stories of the contributors is truly an inspiration, encouragement. I narrated some of these tales to both of them and believe me, somebody else's tales becomes a part of motivation. The three generations of Grandfather, father and son is sometimes a sandwich for the father but I guess, rifts dimish where there is love, care and understanding for each other. These are Gem books and spontaneously love to gift these books of Chicken Soup Soul series. A good pick and must for Dads and sons.

Twelve chapters overflowing with examples, exercises and prompts - all practical tools that you can use in poetry writing. Through John Drury's book, you can actually learn to write poetry. However, to write a poetry, one need to do a lot of reading. Nothing ever can be jotted down in verses unless you have the creative juices flowing within you - Creating poetry offers insightful, thoughtful rhyme and reason. The book motivates you and it's only being confident to shrugg off the 'writer's block' with your inability to do nothing on the page. As the Author says, "The first line of any poem is the kind of door, an entrance into the rooms of stanzas, an opening" - And the flow of writing comes natural with the first lines to what's next.

The book elaborates following sections:

Preparing
Language
Sight
Sound
Movement
Shaping
Patterns & Traditions
voice
Sources of Inspiration
Things to write about
Other Arts, other Influences
Finishing

How to write a poetry and the answer comes quite natural - Grab a copy of this book. It is here to develop your poetric sensitivity with rhythmic qualities that make poems sing, shout, march, whisper or just let it roll....Recommended for all who love Poetry. Best Pick.

Highlights for Children is an awesome Magazine. I had this subscription for my Library children and they loved to read the contents. Why, the science experiments were fun and kids loved to read and browse through the pages of the mag. The jokes and riddles from the Mag adds to classroom fun as they narrated them and even wrote down in their scrap books. Good reading, good advice and all that made to 'knowledge is power' and kids can sure be encouraged to cultivate reading habits with wonderful illustrated pictures - puzzles, hidden pictures, stories, crafts fun. Appealing to kids and interesting read. A nice pick.

Tom Sawyer - A mischievous masterpiece from Mark Twain. Most of his best works have been relegated to children. A classic literature book for the higher schools in my town, the book is social commentary in a way that is exciting and thrilling. The racial tension, criminal action and the law attempting to deal. Tom has been bred to fear God and dread the Sunday school. Tom is an ordinary boy who sees dreams, tell lies and play mischief in his own ignorance. From playing pirates on a deserted island to attempting his own funeral and from exploring a cave to digging for treasure in a haunted house. Tom is an exceptional genius with friends who go even for danger adventures. He and his pal Huck Finn stumble on a midnight murder, Tom almost meets his match Joe - Almost a fun book and Tom's romantic folly never really have any dire consequences.

Tom Sawyer is sure to leave an impression stamp on younger minds. Especially, those who have learnt the book in Supplementary reading in English as there has been indepth study on the characters and book episodes. I learnt my share and found this book at times boring like Tom himself felt bored in the life he lived but later on, there is so much excitement to grip to the adventure. Enjoy!

- ilaxi patel

Peace is within. How oft we realize, we don't need to find peace but need to meditate and look inside our very own souls. We find the solutions of the conflicts of our mind. The Author has well written the book - so clear and inspiring. The stories and parables, meditation tips are too useful and transforming tactics of inner self. Sometimes, one need to think out of the box and think positive. The Author teaches the wisdom of life with his own experiences and life life assertively by accepting who you are, what you are and accept the way god wants you to live. Walking for a while, having meals with family, appreciating the surroundings and whatever you get with a smile instead of nagging, keeping a cool to charge the emotional switchboard instead of getting on high temper and many more - all useful reading is provided by the Author that one can digest and understand. Everything is in the Mind and so, any individual need to think mindfully and accept life as it comes our way.
A Good Pick and all #### stars from me. Enjoy!

A very inspirational book. Jack and Mark Victor Hansen are my fav writers and I never miss out grabbing a copy as and when I can. This one is full of inspirations and values that can tranform life. Attitudes always do matter and here's a book to recommend every women - this means, parents of younger kids too coz the chapters cover up very useful message in overcoming obstacles, friendship, parenting and across generations. Life is ever a twist and a turn but books like these always stand by in our thick and thin. A good pick. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

Many of us have studied this book as a supplementary read. The book had been somewhat an adventure but also a serious learning at times. However, what is so good about learning Supplementary reading is using the Language as a tool of thought, the usage of grammar skills and answering tactics.

Moby Dick has been one of the great novels in Literature. The story of the hunt for Moby Dick, a fierce white whale supposedly known to sailors. Captain Ahab, the captain of the whaling ship Pequod who lost a leg in an earlier battle with Moby Dick, and is determined to catch the whale. Born of 1st August, 1819,Herman Melville is the author of this brilliant novel that describes the dangerous and often violent life on a whaling ship and contains information the the whaling industry and nature of whales. Moby Dick is a deeply symbolic story. However, often ignored or misunderstood by critics and readers but later on, this American Author was finally recognized as a genius and his reputation spread throughout the world. Many of Herman Melville's works are literary creations of a high order - blending fact, fiction, adventure and subtle symbolism. Melville's wealth of personal experience in far away places was remarkable even in the footloose and exploring world of the 1800s. He brought vivid imagination, philosophy and American English touch.

Pip the Sailor had ever been my fav and so, when it comes to seas and ships or the like - ever it's adventure and no wonder, Moby Dick is a good read.

- ilaxi patel

Jaws (Widescreen Anniversary Collector's Edition)

(A fav pick)

I have come across these Scholastic Language books and this seems to be a great Vocabulary resource for kids. Especially with the slow learners, the Dictionary of Spelling is a blessing. Words that are seperated into syllables with clear indication in bold, makes easier for pronunciation. Moreover, the phonetic reads become easier when children can use the book as additional reference in classroom. Scholastic has made way to India in classrooms too and as we teach them these easy scholastic book, it is fun way using and great resource to teach kids while they play and learn.

- ilaxi patel

The Wizard of Oz ever been the classic read in my Library is a great read as well as viewing the DVD too. Children love to read the classics and this one is quite an imagination soaring to Emerald City. "At sunrise Dorothy and her friends resumed journey to see a beautiful gree glow in the sky when Dorothy said, "That sure be the Emerald city". Then, she rang tha bell and the big gate swung open slowing and there was a large room covered with sparkling emeralds....So goes on. Dorothy and her dog Toto reach to the Land of Oz after the cyclone hit. She along with the others, scarecrow, Munchkins, Tin woodman and the Lion explores and gets the rewards from the Oz. All are happy except Dorothy who wish to return to her home in Kansas. And there comes the winged monkeys with the charm of the Golden cap,who can fly her to her home. Later, Dorothy meets Glinda, an attractive witch who helps her out and she fly home. There is a slight different version I find in the DVD but the book is much a better read and a lot classic teaching in the classroom. Children find the book quite interesting too. L Baum's first published book Wizard of OZ later has 13 sequels of the original story. A hundred years and L Baum's works now appears in Gutenberg Project too. However, Wizard of OZ is a must pick and this book should be taught as a Literature supplement in the classroom. Enjoy.

- ilaxi

The Wizard of Oz (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Arabian Nights - The classic Tales of Adventure, thrilling suspense, romance and more. These Indian, Arabian and Persian mix tales are ever enchanting tales and an interesting read. The school syllabus picks up the best of the best Arabian nights stories into the text lessons since many years, esp. Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Sindbad the Sailor and Alibaba and the Forty Thieves. All my fav stories but the most adventurous is Sindbad the Sailor. Why, I remember Pip the Sailor and of coz, Popeye but than, the classics are the ever best of the best on my book shelf. Even Ali Baba takes you on a dreamy path to being rich and Aladdin reminds of the Genie who obeys orders.

The tales are just poetic and take kids to a world of imagination. However, I guess if religion is pushed aside by avoiding repeat 'allah', I guess this book will be a great pick by all. However, kids are sure to love reading these lovely stories. A nice pick.

As kids, we use to sing Nursery Rhymes and get the best treat of 'Chocolates' as a reward from our dear ones. It ever was a 'Cloud nine' feel as we felt a pride of achievement. Nursery Rhymes has ever been a means of communication and Expression. Children love to sing the rhymes and as they grow up, these rhymes leave memories to spur on the surface as delightful experiences. I got this Rockosaurus Rex 'Big Bang' some few days ago but the moment I heard, it was a reaction of flooded childhood memories. Big Bang! is more fun with the Rock Rhymes, packed with 21 classic rhymes in 50 minutes play time. The wailing Guitar solos and driving percussion are the new gen beats I admit but nevertheless, kids today like to sing Rock! It do have some the hard rock to soft rock ballads to dreamy rock music. The band seems to be from Austin (TX) yet, aliens, come down on earth as hard rock band of four Dinosaurs - Rex on guitars and vocals, Screech on guitar, Bones playing Bass and Sara Tops with Drums.There is an influence of the age old rock n roll music, the Rockosaurus Rex sings the Queen inspired 'This old man' which reminds of the 'We will, we will rock you', the Hard rock, metal and Instrumental 'Skip to my Lou' and 'Pop goes the weasel' with more of a friendly 'Six little Ducks and my fav ' She'll be coming round the mountain' a classic Rock Rhyme collection with more rhymes tracks to make you get rock rhyme lover. It was a pleasure to listen to John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, a number I didn't know apart from If all the little raindrops that I heard for the first time. The Rockosaurus Rex Band gives a cleaner rock influence of the Dinosaur group guiding them away from big bad world as they sing at home, in school or just have fun partying with rock rhymes. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

Though Walt Disney and Enid Blyton are my fav picks for children, The Jungle Book is a nicer read. Mowgli is just a loving character and as an Indian version of the Jungle Book is a fav among kids in Hindi, this is a sure pick for all children. Rudyard Kipling takes kids for a ride to an adventure with thrills and fantasies - it all depends on the taste and choice of read. However, I recommend this book as this is fun read and kids in my library too, love to read and watch The Jungle Book. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

A fan of Mark Twain and a fond reader of Prince and the Pauper, I recommend this read for children's classics series. Though not for a supplement read in the classroom, undoubtedly the book is a great read as you meet the characters:

Hank Morgan, the Connecticut Yankee

Clarence, a page who become Hank's right hand man

Merlin, the King's magician

King Arthur, King of England

Knights of the Round Table - Sir Launcelet, etc.

King's wife, an evil queen Fay, an old abbot, etc.

Having spent his boy hood in a town in Mississippi, Mark Twain is one of the America's greatest and most beloved writers. In this book, Hank Morgan wakes to find himself in King Arthur's England. The Yankee uses all his scientific knowledge to be a Chief Minister in the King's Court. He outwits the magician Merlin and gracefully win the kingdom. There are exciting chapters like the Ogre's Castle, The Yankee and the King sold as Slaves, Yankees fight with the knives, in merlin's cave. Was it a dream and did he get back to Connecticut - You got to read the book. Seriously, if there were no video games or the television shows, kids would have loved to read these classics or rathar listen to the adventure tales like these. A good read.

An all time favorite book on my shelf, the tale of Cindrella is an excellent narration of a girl who loves to dream and yet, slog with household work and ill treated by her step mom and sisters. This has been the first gift to me on my birthday alongwith Snow White years ago. The story sets a moral that those who take an advantage of others aren't admired. It shows how to be kind towards siblings. The physical ugliness of the step sisters attribute to their ugly behavior. There are hidden lessons to be taught to children - not to be rude, jealous or misbehave with their brothers and sisters. Cinderella is an example of the high morals to begin at home and form unity within the family. A good pick for children to enhance love for books and instil moral values.

- ilaxi

Mark Twain classic "The Prince and the Pauper" has ever been so excitedly ever told tale of two look-alike boys; a tale of the rich and the poor. No wonder, this has ever been the best educational pick in the classroom as kids would love to dive into imagination and get the moral of the story. Two different worlds and Tom Canty and Edward Tudor shared the same birth date and same features. Fate brings them and they decide to change clothes for few minutes. This leads to the adventures beyond wildest dreams. He pokes fun at the old upper class in England and showed how wrong it was to judge people by outward appearances. Born in November, the author's other famous Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were my fav too. A good Pick for all ages.

- ilaxi