The British Council Library was a little noisy and vibrant this Saturday.

Reason: There were children who listened to stories of Baloo striking a friendship with Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and of the elephant from David Walliam’s The Slightly Annoying Elephant at the library space that is usually silent and serious.

Creative Saturdays is about listening to stories followed by activities that make reading fun and engaging and help children explore, imagine and create.

After the session on Saturday, the kids picked up a character of their choice and made bookmarks. In another activity, they shared their opinions of Mowgli or Shere Khan. The session was rounded off by colouring the characters from the books.

The sessions curated specially for children break away from the traditional and adult concept of a library.

Children at the story-telling session at the British Council Library on Saturday

“The idea the British Council has promoted consistently for a long time has been a space that is for creativity and conversation. Creative Saturdays put fun back into the heart of our library. It reinforces the idea of a library as a fun and creative space,” said Debanjan Chakrabarti, director, British Council, East and Northeast India.

Chakrabarti said that in schools, children have wonderful opportunities to learn, but sometimes that can be regimented and within the syllabus.

“Learning here is freed from the shackles of a syllabus, which is what motivates children to engage better with books. British Council has always been this space which has encouraged reading and engaging with the word and images that really power this,” he said.

Creative Saturdays being held from May 24 to June 7 aim to help children in the age group of five to 14 explore and express themselves through slam poetry, vocabulary building, puzzle solving and a lot more activities.

While the sessions give an impetus to the children’s imagination, it promises to enhance language, comprehension and narrative skills.

The programme introduces children to reading, but not by instructing them, something that, for ages, children have been averse to.

“There are other ways to channelise their curiosity and giving them pathways and keys to unlock their journey into the world of words,” said Chakrabarti.

For many of those participating this Saturday, it was a change from the otherwise lazy day they would have spent at home and perhaps with gadgets.

Ankita Singha Roy brought her six-year-old son for the programme because she wants to take him from the screen to the book — a challenge that many mothers of a generation of digital natives face.

“One of the core reasons why I enrolled my son in this session is to increase his reading habit. Instead of television or a gadget, I want him to understand the same character in books,” said Singha Roy.

“When we were growing up, we had to read colourful comic books, but now the printed word has to compete with the screen and it is difficult to shift their attention from a colourful animation to a page,” she said.