My Science School

            Hans Brinker and his sister have many troubles, being poor and seemingly fatherless. They are still hopeful, however, and they try to treat everyone with fairness. Their father had an accident years ago when his daughter was just a baby. Ever since, he has been ill and mindless.

            The siblings prepare to enter a skating competition with the other children. They have little chance of doing well on their handmade wooden skates, but the prospect of the race and the prize of the silver skates excite them and fire their dreams. The troubles they face, and how they overcome them, is beautifully narrated in the book ‘Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates’.

            It was written by Mary Mapes Dodge and first published in 1865. The novel takes place in the Netherlands. The book’s title refers to the beautiful silver skates to be awarded to the winner of the ice-skating race.

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               ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ tells the story of a stuffed toy rabbit made out of velveteen. For some time, the velveteen rabbit is completely ignored by his owner, a young boy.

               The rabbit spends most of his time in the company of other toys. The only friend that the velveteen rabbit has is an old toy horse. The toy horse tells the rabbit that being real and being clockwork are not the same thing. The horse goes on to explain that toys become real when children love them very much.

               When the boy rediscovers the velveteen rabbit, he quickly falls in love with him. After some time, the boy declares that the rabbit is not a toy but real. Soon afterwards, however, the velveteen rabbit finds out that, although he is real to the boy, he is not necessarily seen as such by anyone else. ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ was written by Margery Williams. The book was first published in 1922.

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               ‘A Princess of Mars’ is the first novel in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series, originally written and published  under the pseudonym Norman Bean.

               The story goes like this -John Carter was once mysteriously transported to Mars, called Barsoom by its inhabitants. Carter finds that he has great strength and superhuman agility in this new environment, as a result of its lesser gravity.

               He soon falls in with a nomadic tribe of Green Martians, or Tharks, as the planet’s warlike, six-limbed, green-skinned inhabitants are known.

               Thanks to his strength and martial prowess, Carter rises to a high position in the tribe, and earns the respect, and eventually the friendship of Tars Tarkas, one of the Thark chiefs. The Tharks subsequently capture Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.

               Later, the inhabitants of Barsoom face a life threatening situation. To save life on Barsoom, Carter uses a secret telepathic code to enter the factory, bringing an engineer along with him who can correct the situation there. Carter then succumbs to asphyxiation (depriving oxygen), only to awaken back on Earth, left to wonder what has become of Barsoom and the princess whom he fell in love with.

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               ‘The Witches’ is a children’s fantasy horror novel by the British writer Roald Dahl. It was published in 1983 by Jonathan Cape in London, with illustrations by Quentin Blake.

               The story is set partly in Norway, and partly in the United Kingdom, and features the experiences of a seven-year-old British boy who goes to live with his Norwegian grandmother after his parents are killed in a car crash.

               The grand-mother is a wonderful story-teller. He loves all her stories, but he is enthralled by the one about witches, that she says, are horrific creatures who seek to kill human children.

               The book was published in 1983. In 2012 ‘The Witches’ was ranked number 81 among all-time children’s novels in a survey.

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               ‘The Railway Children’ tells the story of three young siblings, who live in a house near a railway station with their mother. Their father, an ex-government officer is in jail. Actually, he is an innocent man being falsely accused. The children befriend an old gentleman who regularly takes the 9:15 train near their home, who eventually helps the family in proving their father’s innocence, and the family is reunited.

               ‘The Railway Children’ is a children’s book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialized in The London Magazine during 1905 and first published in book form in 1906. The setting is thought to be inspired by Edith’s walks to Chelsfield railway station close to where she lived, and her observing the construction of the railway cutting and tunnel.

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               This famous children’s novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.

               ‘Charlotte’s Web’ is a children’s novel by American author E. B. White.

               The book was first published in 1952, with illustrations by Garth Williams. ‘Charlotte’s Web’ was adapted into an animated feature by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions in 1973. ‘Charlotte’s Web’ is considered a classic of children’s literature, enjoyable to adults as well as children. A live-action film version of E. B. White’s original story was released on December 15th, 2006. A video game based on this adaptation was also released in 2006.

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              The story revolves around a poor young boy named Charlie Bucket, born to penniless, starving parents. He resides with both his paternal and maternal grandparents, who are bedridden.

               Along with Charlie’s mother and father, they dwell in a dilapidated, tiny house. Charlie is fascinated by the universally-celebrated chocolate factory located in his hometown, owned by famous chocolatier Willy Wonka.

               One day, Charlie gets a ticket to visit Mr. Wonka’s factory, and he visits it with his grandfather. Do you know what happened next? Charlie Bucket became the successor of Willy Wonka!

               ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ is a 1964 children’s book by British author Roald Dahl. The story was originally inspired by Roald Dahl’s experience of chocolate factories during his school-days.

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               ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ is a book by Dr. Seuss. It was first published in 1960, and as of 2001, was the fourth-best-selling English  language children’s book of all time.

                The plot centres around Joey who refuses to eat green eggs and ham. One sunny morning, Mr. Sam asks Joey to eat his breakfast-green eggs and ham.

                Joey tells him that he doesn’t like that food at all by saying, “I do not like green eggs and ham”. Sam continues to ask Joey if he would eat that food in and on eight different locations (house, box, car, tree, train, dark, rain, and boat) and with Sam’s three different animals (mouse, fox and goat), but Joey still refuses by saying, “I do not like them here (this place) or there (the other place). I do not like them anywhere”.

                Finally, he gives into Sam’s pestering, and tries the green eggs and ham; Joey is so surprised to find that he does like them after all.

               ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ is loved by children around the globe.

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              Hobbits are a race of small humanlike creatures. Bilbo Baggins, the leader of the race is persuaded to join Thorin and his 12 dwarfs to recover their stolen treasure, which is being guarded by the dragon Smaug. During the expedition, Bilbo finds a magical ring that renders the wearer invisible. It tells, how later Bilbo became a strong fighter, for the greater good.

              ‘The Hobbit’ is a 1937 children’s adventure fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. It has had many adaptations, most significantly the three Hobbit films by Peter Jackson.

               The novel introduced Tolkien’s richly imagined world of Middle Earth. The novel is loved by children around the globe.

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               ‘The Harry Potter’ books make up the popular series written by J. K. Rowling. The series spans seven books. The books have been made into movies by Warner Bros. Movies based on the last book-were split into two films.

               The books concerns a wizard called Harry Potter, and his journey through the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The stories tell of him overcoming dangerous obstacles to defeat the Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort who killed his parents when Harry was 15 months old. The first book, ‘Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone’, was published in 1997 by Bloomsbury in London. The last book ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ sold more than 12 million copies in the US.

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               Harold is a curious four-year-old boy who, with his purple crayon, has the power to create a world of his own simply by drawing it. Harold wants to go for a walk in the moonlight, but there is no moon, so he draws one. He has nowhere to walk, so he draws a path. He draws a forest with only one tree, and a dragon that guards the apples on the tree.

               He creates an ocean and a sailboat to navigate it, and land to land on. On the land, he draws a picnic with nothing but pies, a hill with only one side, a hot-air balloon to save him from a fall and a big city with lots of windows. But none of the windows are his, and it’s time to go home. He has many adventures looking for his room, and in the end, he draws his own house and bed, and goes to sleep.

               ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ is a 1955 children’s book by Crockett Johnson. This is Johnson’s most popular book. It led to a series of other books, and inspired many adaptations.

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               Once there lived three little piglets. But on one ocassion, they happened to jail a poor wolf! Do you know how this happened?

               The popular book ‘The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs’ narrates it from the perspective of Alexander T. Wolf, a big bad wolf. The wolf has spent ten years in pig prison for the destruction of the three little pigs, but he has a different story to tell.

               At the beginning of the book, he is baking a cake for his grandmother’s birthday, but he has run out of sugar. He goes to ask his neighbours, the pigs, for some sugar. They all say no to him. As he has a bad cold, he sneezes, and blows the first two pigs’ houses down. Since they were already dead, he eats them. The third pig’s house does not break. But the third pig provokes Mr. Wolf into a fit of sneezing, because of his insults to the wolf’s grandmother. When the police arrive and see Mr. Wolf yelling, he is arrested.

               ‘The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs’ is written by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.

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           ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ is a science fiction adventure novel by the French author Jules Verne. It was first published in France in 1864. The first of its several English translations was published in 1871.

               The main characters in the novel are Axel, a young German, and his uncle Professor Lidenbrock, a professor of geology at Hamburg University who also prides himself on his ability to speak, and read several languages. The two men discover a piece of parchment which carries a coded message. The message tells them that it is possible to descend to the centre of the Earth, from one of the three craters on an Icelandic volcano. Axel and the professor travel to Iceland. They hire a local guide, Hans Bjelke, who leads them to the volcano and then accompanies them on their journey deep underground.

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               ‘The Little Prince’ is a classic children’s story written and illustrated by the French author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It was written during the Second World War, when Saint-Exupery was living in the United States, and was first published in 1943. The book has been translated into 250 different languages and dialects, and has sold more than 80 million copies.

               At first a pilot meets a young prince visiting Earth from a tiny asteroid. The prince speaks about life on the asteroid. He describes spending his earlier days cleaning the volcanoes and weeding unwanted seeds that infest his planet’s soil.

               In the end the prince is bitten by a snake. The story ends with a drawing of the landscape where the prince and the narrator met, and where the snake took the prince’s corporeal life.

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               ‘The Colour Kittens’ is a children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, and published as part of the Little Golden Books series in 1949.

               The story revolves around two green eyed kittens, “Hush” and “Brush”, who attempt to create green paint through mixing their other paints. During the process, they create a lot of colours, but none of them is green. Their colour making is the central theme of the famous children’s classic ‘The Colour Kittens’.

               ‘The Colour Kittens’ famous catch phrase is “Blue is blue, and red is red! They still need green!”

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