Children's imaginations are powerful as they exploring different ideas, feelings, and senses and are always learning. Every child is born with a capacity for imagination. And this imagination can be further enriched when they read well. It is encouraging to see children reading and writing but when it gets to actually publishing a book, that effort should certainly be appreciated.
Sistine Maryann Emely Eudocia Menezes is a nine-year old who is the young author of not one but two books, which will be released this Sunday. Daughter of Eufrazio and Cynthia Menezes and the young sister of two brothers, Earl and Carl, from Raia, Sistine is excited for the books to reach out to other children. ‘Bulbul’s Fables’ features moral stories while ‘Bulbul’s Verseletes’ are a collection of poems for children. The book launch will be held at the Black Box, Auditorium, Ravindra Bhavan, Margao on November 5 at 4 pm.
Currently a student of Class 4 at The King’s School, Mugalli, Sistine fell in love with reading as she grew up looking at her elder brothers reading books. By the age of six years, she was ready by herself and it is hard to make her put down the book once she starts reading. Sistine enjoys reading story books especially fable stories. Some of her favourite books include Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots and children’s magazines like Panchatantra and the Magic Pot. “I love visiting the Central Library in Navelim. Earlier, we used to buy books but in the library, I have a huge choice to select books from. I always borrow one book and one magazine. As I have been reading and I knew how these stories were written, it was easier for me to write stories with my own twist,” says Sistine, who has been reading by herself since class 2. Sistine says that she was encouraged by her English teacher, Lavita Barretto to write stories.
The book release ceremony will be attended by Melvin Pereira, chairman, The King’s School, Ligia Pereira, director, The King’s School and Fr Mathew Rebello, Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol, who have also written forewords for the books.
While Earl plays the violin and Carl plays the keyboard, Sistine is learning to play the clarinet and started music classes last year and is currently preparing to answer Grade 2. She is pursuing her musical training in Solfeggio, vocals, clarinet under the guidance of
Fr Mathew Rebello.
Sistine mother and homemaker, Cynthia, informs that during the summer vacations, in the month of May, Sistine made a complete planner of what she will do day by day which had activities like going swimming, visiting her cousins and trips to beach. “During some of the free days, she used to read. One day she got curious about how a book is made. She asked me if I would publish her book if she wrote a few stories. I told her that you need to write at least ten stories. She took a few A4 size pages and started writing at her desk. Within three hours, she came back with her stories. I was surprised to read her stories. Her next question was what can I write next? So I told her to write poems. As she is learning music, Fr Mathew has been teaching them the rules about writing poems, how to rhyme and how to conclude the poem. She used that and wrote around 12 poems from what she was learning in school. From her pets, to even the plants, it's the small wonders that she studied in class,” says Cynthia.
Sistine has paid minute attention to every detail of the stories and poems. “It was really amazing. We took copies of the printout and showed her teacher and director in school as well as Fr Mathew. To encourage her, we asked the teacher if we could distribute the leaflets as a single book among her classmates. However, Sistine was keen on publishing her book,” says Cynthia.
Eufrazio, whose last assignment was ex-vice president Commercial & Finance of Starflex India Pvt Ltd, Verna, explains the publishing process. “When Sistine asked me to publish her book, she had very specific needs. She has been reading for a while and has come across different colourful books. She wanted a hardbound, A4 size, coloured book. As we were completely new to self-publishing, we referred to different printers, who gave us a rough costing. We finally narrowed it down to St Thomas Printzone, Aldona. We also met Prof Carlos Fernandes, program director and assistant professor of Library science at Goa University and ex-curator of Central Library, Panjim, who informed us that there is no classification for poetry and stories together in a single book. I also applied for the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for Sistine as an author. The books were spread out and Sujay Naik, her art teacher, has done a wonderful work with the illustrations.”
Sistine has also added a glossary list at the end of both the books, which makes it easier for the young readers to learn new words. “As I go to higher classes in school, I learn new words and I remember those words and try to use them whenever I can. I don’t refer to the dictionary as most words are easy to understand,” says the young author who has penned interesting stories like ‘The Failure Of The Cunning Fox’, ‘The Parade Of Talents’, ‘The Penguin King’, ‘Wisdom Defeats The Pride Of Strength’ and ‘The Duck And The Ducklings Cooperative Behaviour’. Her poems are based on her varied topics including ‘My School’, ‘Earthworms’, ‘My Cat’ and ‘Birds’.
She is already on her next project, a novel, and is bubbling with new ideas, not wasting a single day of her holidays. “I started writing the chapters for the novel in this Diwali vacations. It is based on my two cats and their forest adventures,” concludes Sistine