Gift from a child scholar

The average common reader anticipates children’s book written by adults, who have been claimed as researchers in the field of child psychology. But it so happens that there is also a trend where children who are gifted writers engage in the writing of books for children.

But the trend is not quite common in our country. May it be said in good earnest that there are children who can express their experiences much better than adult writers. The book which I received a few weeks ago, comes as a variant and an exception to the rule.

The writer is Sajani Jayathma Senanayaka, whose novella, or a children’s narrative, is titled as ‘Gift of Wonders’, an author publication. Sajani is a grade 7 student of Sirimavo Bandaranayaka Vidyalaya, Colombo. It is recorded that she has achieved creative inspiration during her stay with her parents in Atlanta, USA, in 2009 – 2010.

Reading bowl

The period of stay had paved the way for her to read plenty of books written by world famous English writers. To her credit, she has received the reading scholar award from Evansdale Elementary School in Atlanta and had represented the reading bowl team of the same school.

The book titled ‘Gift of Wonders’, which I read with great interest, is a local experience revolving around two twin sisters Sithumi and Mithu. As urban dwellers, they yearn to go on journeying to places not quite accustomed. This falls as a birthday present to them as they arrange a long journey to the South with the parents and just one relative Disira Ayya.

Unlike the famous ‘Famous Five’, there are no trick-ending or pitfalls. On the other hand, there are surprises and ecstasies encountered in the soil of their own. As such the narrative, which runs to ten short chapters, is enveloped in many local experience in the form of a pilgrimage.

There is something to ‘peep in’ in each chapter, and never a moment of dullness on the part of the reader. Sajani uses a mixed technique in her narrative, where she uses both dialogues in the form of a play script and commentary pared to the bottom, as in a storytelling process.

Planning journeys

There is a hope of gaining the maximum capacity of information on the part of the twins. As such, they plan their journey together classifying their functions. Hopes blossom on the birthday with the arrival of Disira Ayya from Sydney. They are dreaming about a laptop they are going to be gifted by Disira.

Then the arrival of Disira is marked with some surprise, as he comes disguised with a mask of ‘gara yaka’, which brings fun and frolic to all of them. The narrator says: ‘Then in a flash, gara yaka took off his mask and out came a known smile.’ The most interesting chapter is on the interest taken to prepare for the trip.

Disira, the young relative, gives them a living spirit which extends like a sensitive thread. He becomes an informed person to all of them. His actions give them strength and courage.

A young reader who flips the pages will be benefited on the subject of ‘planning’, ‘caring’ and ‘sharing’ as an inner development of the individual. The members of the crew listed to go on the trip are entrusted with ‘ministries’, or as she calls ‘minis-trees’ (human trees).

The collection of duties, when taken as a whole, becomes a cabinet on a trip to an unknown place or a place in search of something for their benefit. All what they encounter on their way becomes either ‘surprise’ or ‘ecstasy’, which could be read into extra meanings and dimensions.

There are mirages, they see, and the discussion is centred on what a mirage is and how it is formed. The adults and children discuss, as they are a team of researchers. Then they come across ‘jelly fish’, a kind of fish which if touched would give an itching sensation.

They have a close look at the jelly fish stranded in the sea beach, unable to float back. But as the waves cap the sand, they too are washed off to the sea. Then they learn about the behaviour of animals small and large.

Giant beggar

One such lesson comes to them through the site of an elephant who had walked out of the thick forest to the roadway in search of food. A bus driver, having known the behaviour pattern of the elephant, in a calm mood gives a melon.

The elephant, like a tamed one, takes it without making any trouble. On visiting various places, the twins learn a lot about the culture, history and other aspects of the place. One such place is Kataragama. A reader will have a natural urge to rediscover the underlying facts of the holy places of worship.

The elephant whom they encounter on the roadway is indicated as ‘the huge strange beggar’, which I feel is a sensitive expression of a child’s imagination. The children are taught to learn the realities of the animal behaviour. If you don’t harm animals, however cruel they are, they in turn may not harm you.

They also learn the lesson of signs that indicate the various places where animals cross the road. Then they learn about fauna and flora of the country, a practical lesson, which may be missed in the classroom. An undercurrent of discourse is followed or hinted on communication technology, which has entered the contemporary life of an average teenager.

The twins have to transfer their photos to better equipment. Hence it is provided by their benefactor, Disira Aiya. This culminates in the gifting of a laptop to the twins. It is a narrative with a happy ending, reminiscent of a modern fairytale.

[email protected]