15 Back to School story ideas, each one a book your child stars in: Holidays are over, the bag is packed and old friends are waiting at the gate. Pick one, add a few details, and the illustrated book starts right away.
Every story is painted in a soft, hand-drawn watercolour look, with your child as the hero of the big day.
Back to SchoolAfter two months of holidays, the school bus horn sounds far too early. Your child climbs aboard grumbling, then sees the whole gang: Riya with a new haircut, Aarav with a cricket story, the driver uncle with his same old joke. By the time the bus turns into the school lane, Your child is the one laughing loudest.
Lesson: The things you miss are often the things you dreaded
Back to SchoolEveryone says the new class teacher is strict, and Your child spends the whole bus ride worrying. In class, Sir asks each child to share one holiday memory. Your child tells the story of the goat that ate Dadaji's newspaper, and Sir laughs so hard his glasses slip. Strict, it turns out, is not the same as unkind.
Lesson: Give people a chance before you decide who they are
Back to SchoolThe night before school reopens, Your child remembers the holiday homework: a scrapbook about 'my summer'. There are no printouts and no glue. So Your child draws every page by hand, sticks in a mango leaf, a train ticket and a photo of Nani, and writes one true sentence under each. It is the only scrapbook Ma'am reads aloud to the class.
Lesson: Honest work done your own way is always good enough
Back to SchoolThe night before school reopens, Your child tries on the school shoes and they pinch: the summer has made the feet grow. The shops are shut. Papa suggests going in slippers, but the uniform rule is strict. Your child remembers Dadaji's trick and stuffs the shoes with wet newspaper overnight. In the morning they fit, just, and Your child walks in on time, a little taller than in April.
Lesson: An old trick and a calm head solve a late-night problem
Back to SchoolOn the first day back, Your child runs to the usual bench and finds it empty: the best friend has moved to another city over the holidays. The day feels grey. At lunch, Your child notices a new girl sitting alone, and knows exactly how the empty bench feels. Your child sits beside her. That evening, Your child writes a letter to the old friend, with a whole paragraph about the new one.
Lesson: An empty bench is a chance to fill someone else's
Back to SchoolEveryone is boasting about their holidays: Goa, Singapore, a hill station. Your child spent the whole summer at Dadaji's village with the goats and the well. When it is Your child's turn to tell, the heart sinks, but then Your child describes catching fireflies in a jar, the night the well filled with rain and the goat that ate a maths book. The class votes it the best holiday.
Lesson: A holiday is as good as the story you tell about it
Back to SchoolThe new class has a new timetable, and on day one Your child brings art materials for a maths period and forgets the PE kit. It is embarrassing. That night Your child copies the timetable onto a big sheet, colours each subject differently, and sticks it on the cupboard door beside the bag. Every evening, packing takes two minutes with the colours, and nothing is forgotten all term.
Lesson: A little planning at night saves a red face in the morning
Back to SchoolThe new class teacher is famous for being strict, and the whole class is scared on the first day back. Your child decides to find out rather than fear. After class, Your child asks her what she likes most about teaching. She blinks, and then talks for ten minutes about butterflies. By the end of the week, the strict teacher has brought a butterfly chart to class, and nobody is scared any more.
Lesson: Curiosity melts fear faster than hiding does
Back to SchoolThe new books make the bag so heavy that Your child's little brother, in a lower class, cannot lift his. He is close to tears at the bus stop. Your child swaps bags without a word, carries the heavier one on the front and the own on the back, and walks like a camel to the bus. The conductor laughs and helps them both up. From that day, Your child is the official bag-carrier of the bus stop.
Lesson: Carry a bit more so someone smaller can keep up
Back to SchoolAfter a summer at the beach, Your child is browner than everyone in class, and one boy makes a joke about it. It stings. Your child thinks of Nani, who says the sun paints you when it loves you, and says so, out loud. The class laughs, but with Your child, not at. The boy, who has never seen the sea, asks what the beach was like, and Your child tells him.
Lesson: Answer teasing with pride, and it turns into a question
Back to SchoolThe new class is voting for a monitor, and Your child wants the job badly. But the shy boy who is also standing has better ideas: a lost-and-found box, a plant on every window. Your child listens, then stands up and says the class should vote for him, because his ideas are better. He wins. He makes Your child deputy, and the lost-and-found box is full by Friday.
Lesson: Wanting the best for the class matters more than wanting the badge
Back to SchoolBefore the holidays, Your child and a friend had a huge fight about a cricket ball, and both went home angry. On the first day back, they see each other at the gate. Neither remembers exactly what the fight was about. Your child walks over first and says, 'That was a silly fight.' The friend grins and says he does not even remember whose ball it was. They walk in together, arguing about something new.
Lesson: Most fights are smaller than the silence after them
Back to SchoolThe new science teacher is fresh from college, and on the first day her hands shake and she drops the chalk twice. Some children snigger. Your child picks up the chalk, hands it back with a smile, and asks a real question about the lesson. The teacher's shoulders relax. By the end of the period she is drawing volcanoes on the board and the class is asking for more.
Lesson: Be kind to someone on their first day, even if they are the grown-up
Back to SchoolThe first lunch of the new term and Your child opens the box to find the little brother's lunch: two biscuits and a banana. The brother, three benches away, is staring at Your child's parathas. Your child walks over, swaps the boxes, and shares one paratha with him anyway. Mummy laughs about the mix-up that evening and says she will write names on the lids from now on.
Lesson: Fix the mix-up, then share a little extra
Back to SchoolNani gives Your child a small notebook and asks for one line a day about the new class, so she can read it at the weekend. It seems silly. But every evening Your child writes a line: the strict teacher's butterflies, the heavy bag, the new girl at lunch. On Sunday, Nani reads the whole week aloud on the veranda, and Your child realises the first week back was actually rather good.
Lesson: Write the small things down and the week looks brighter