✦Sudha Murty · Reading companion
Grandma’s Bag of Stories"
Choose one tale from Sudha Murty’s collection and explore a storyteller’s voice, meaningful details, and the questions a story leaves behind.
A book to read together
Grandma’s Bag of Stories"
Original prompts to use with your copy.
This original Curiosi companion is for Grandma’s Bag of Stories by Sudha Murty. Choose one tale from a family or library copy and read it together, returning for another tale in a later sitting. Check your edition’s title page for its illustrator or other contributor credits. These prompts help you discuss the book alongside your copy.
Choose a tale and a question
Browse the contents in your copy and choose one tale together. Read its title and invite one question about what you may discover. Notice who wrote the collection and which illustration credits appear in your edition. Agree on a comfortable stopping point so one reading session does not have to cover the whole book.
Notice how the telling sounds
While reading, pause at a detail that catches the child’s attention. Is it a description, a character’s voice, a surprising comparison, or something in the picture? Ask what effect it has. The child can explain in their own words rather than copying a passage. Listen for how the telling shapes the atmosphere of this particular tale.
Talk about a choice and its effect
After the tale, choose a decision or question to discuss. Which detail helped you understand it? Consider who is affected and whether another reader might see the choice differently. You can enjoy a tale without agreeing with every action in it. In a later sitting, compare one feature with a second tale, without needing to retell the whole collection.
Invent a tale with three cards
Draw three everyday objects on separate cards: a key, a kite, and a clay bowl. Arrange them in any order and invent your own short tale connecting them. Let a partner ask one question that helps you add a detail. Trade turns as teller and listener. Keep the new characters and events your own, rather than adapting a story from the book.
Your turn to read
Keep the conversation going
There is no single right answer. Invite young readers to notice, wonder and imagine.
Which detail caught your attention in your chosen tale?
How did the way it was told affect the mood?
What question helped you develop your own card story?
Make something: Change the order of your three object cards and invent a different beginning. Ask a partner what changed about the mood or the character’s goal.
