A 'wordless' picture book? Sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it? Well, wordless books can actually be a great addition to your reading shelf - virtual or otherwise. 

Wordless books are something to share with children of all ages. They're a fantastic way to explore, engage and educate children and vocabulary, storytelling skills and creative muscles can be stretched with wordless books. But best of all, and most importantly, worldless books are a sheer joy to behold! 

Last year, the #6FrameStoryChallenge was launched with the core idea of creating a rich illustration bank for StoryWeaver and thereby creating a repository of simple, wordless stories told in 6 frames. At the time, the Pratham Book's blog wrote this:

'In the 1980s and 90s, the National Book Trust had published a few precious wordless picture books. Over the last decade, we haven't seen as many of these being published in India and so the time seems ripe for this flood of beautiful wordless stories. Not only will these stories cut across language barriers, but they will also inspire young readers to weave their own stories around the illustrations, offering ample room for multiple re-imaginings and unique perspectives.'

You can read the rest of the post here.

Wondering what to do with wordless stories? 

The StoryWeaver team has put together some ideas for you, incase you're wondering how to enjoy a wordless books with your children:

- Explore the story in a leisurely manner. Draw attention to the details - the expressions of the characters, setting, colours, etc. 'Out in the Garden' is a worldless story created with Sonal Gupta's illustrations that lends it self beautifully to this activity. 

- Encourage the child to build her own story. If the story is being shown to a group of children, you could ask each of them to contribute a sentence or two for each illustration. Take joy in exploring each illustration and build the story as you go along.

- Use themes explored in the story to start a discussion. For instance, in the story, 'The Birthday Party' illustrated by Megha Vishwanath  you could ask children about what they did for their birthday, or even how they help out at home.

- Encourage children to create 2-3 different stories using the same set of visuals. This will help them explore their own creativity! Here are some lovely illustration sets to get you started! 

Muhammed Shafi's simple illustrations of a man in a boat. You can find more illustrations from him here.  

Aritra Roy's whimsical bear and its adventures with a parachute. You can see the other illustrations from this set here. 

If you'd like to see more amazing illustrations and inspirations for wordless stories, follow us on Instagram and watch our for our #6FramesFriday! 

We hope you enjoy reading and creating your own wordless picture books and sharing them! Do leave us a comment below or on our Twitter and Facebook page with #WordlessPictureBook. 

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All children read at their own pace. To help you find books that are suitable to a child’s reading ability, books on StoryWeaver have been categorized by reading levels (there are 4). These reading levels are not representative of a child's age or grade, and instead are based on the length of the book, complexity of vocabulary and the storyline. For example, a child in Grade 1 may be able to read a Level 3 book fluently, but a child in Grade 3 may not be able to read a Level 3 book. Also remember that children need not be at the same reading level across languages. For example, a child's reading level in Marathi may be 3 but in Hindi it may be 1! You can find out more about StoryWeaver's reading levels here.

Re-levelling books

'Re-level' is probably one of the most useful tools for educators.  In essence, it means changing the level of the story.  Let’s consider a case where the storyline and characters of a storybook are extremely entertaining, but the sentences are long and complex, making it difficult for a younger child to read it. This is where the re-level tool comes in handy.  You can re-level by cutting down sentences or changing complex words to simpler words to make the story easier to understand for the child, all the while keeping the storyline intact. 

How to Re-level Books on StoryWeaver

Here we’ll show you how to relevel a story in a few easy steps.

Step 1

Find a story you like. We’ll be re-levelling ‘The Day it Rained Fish’ by Ramendra Kumar and Delwyn Remedios. This is a Level 2 Book. We’ll be creating a Level 1 version of the same story.

Click on the re-level icon at the bottom.

Step 2

Choose what level you’d like to change the book to. Let's re-level this book to level 1.

Step 3.

The Story Editor window will now open.

The original text of the story will show and you can type in your text in the text box below!

Remember, it’s important to stick to the storyline of the original book when re-levelling, and to use words and language that are appropriate to the level you are aiming for. It’s a good idea to spend some time on StoryWeaver to get a sense of our 4 reading levels. Here is a story and a re-levelled version of it to help you understand this better: 'Gulli's Box of Things'  by Anupama Ajinkya Apte is a Level 2 book. One of our team members has re-levelled it to Level 1 here.

We hope you find the re-levelling tool useful! If you’ve re-levelled a story, leave a link to it in the comments section below!

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Swetha Prakash has an MA in Writing from the University of Warwick and is the recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Award by the British Council.She has won the The Times and Scottish Book Trust's New Writer Award and her book  'Padma Goes To Space' has been published  by Tulika Books. She has  edited India's first book on storytelling for schools published by Kathalaya, and recently wrote a  nonfiction book called “Indian storytelling traditions.” She writes about how she is using StoryWeaver to raise funds for an NGO. 

Everbefore the story goes...With humanity came myths and with myths came civilization. Myths are our collective dream. Myths are profoundly important for our individual and collective consciousness. 

I am running a charity fundraising campaign for the Bangalore based poverty alleviation initiative, The/Nudge Foundation by creating original myths everyday. The campaign is called The Living Myths project. As a part of this campaign, I am posting one myth everyday on Storyweaver for 21 days. I am also urging friends and family to raise funds for The/Nudge Foundation by donating to my campaign on Ketto, which can be found here.

The/Nudge Foundation is a non-profit working on tackling poverty, which is the greatest human development challenge of our times. Their goal is to nudge 1 million people out of poverty.
How are they solving for it? Their flagship program, Gurukul, is a 100-day residential program for underprivileged youth where they are educated on livelihood skills, digital literacy, financial management, family management and personal development. The program works towards the holistic development of the students and makes sure that they work towards growing in their respective careers and always aspire for better opportunities. The Gurukul program assures job for every student and boasts off 123% placement rate. 

Stories, myths and collective consciousness

What is storytelling really? It is an expression, which arises within the body from the same space that makes people paint, sing and dance. It is a message from your soul that you want to transmit to the world at large. Storytelling defines how we react to both external solid realities and to ephemeral ideas. The tellers are adepts at conjuring up the confusions and misapprehensions of life universe and everything. Stories attempt to pierce through the evanescent illusion of all life and creation. They bring to us the fullness of all life, its fulfilment, its elixir of immortality shrouded in the casket of death. Stories help us access the embodied existence of others, providing us with the fullness of our own being. They change and mould our collective consciences and teach us to extend our sympathies to other beings that share this existence with us. Stories are in their core lessons in sympathy, helping us extend our compassion and empathy to others.

Myths are narratives that answer the most profound and primordial questions of existence through fascinating stories populated by fantastic creatures. Myths typically attempt to explain how the universe is created and the primary powers that are behind all creation, manifestation and destruction. Myths about powerful beings responsible for creation can be found as far back as the Vedas. 

Devdutt Pattanaik says in Indian mythology: tales, symbols, and rituals from the heart of the subcontinent, ‘Myth can be defined in two ways. First, it is a sacred idea that is inherited over generations. Second, it is absurd, irrational, and fantastic concepts about the world that appeal to unsophisticated minds. The two meanings are two sides of the same coin. Depending on one's point of view, a story, an image, or a custom can be sacred or stupid’ 

Most Indian myths can be found in the Puranas. Varied versions of the same myth exist. The same myth again may be open to varied interpretations depending on the audience and the purpose of narration. A myth may serve as simple delightful entertainment for the whole community or it may be understood as an entire philosophy encapsulates in symbolic code that opens up an entirely new field of meaning to a spiritual initiate who is able to read the sandhya bhasha or mystery mystical language. 

You can read Swetha's modern myths here.

Are you using www.StoryWeaver.org.in in an interesting way? Write in and tell us at [email protected]

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