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Journalism of Courage
Wall-E is catching on as a craze among kids and parents alike with its unique way of sending the right message to children
He is a robot 8212; dented, dirty and rusted. And he has been programmed to clean the mess left by humankind on Earth. For 700 years he has been shoving, While Popeye helped popularise spinach among the kids, the new robot hero Wall-E Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth class may be given credit of making children feel more concerned about the environment.
The book has also been adapted into a film, making it more interesting for kids.
Overwhelmed by the response, Manish Purohit, chief executive officer of Popular Prakashan, says, 8220;We have always been conscious of publishing books that are relevant and give out a message. We will be covering energy conservation, air and water pollution and climate change among others. We are currently working on a series on environmental issues facing the world today.8221;
8220;The main character is wonderful. Despite being a robot, Wall-E is portrayed with all good qualities that we expect humans should have. He is cleaning other8217;s mess. He collects small toys or anything that interests him, like any other child does. He is sincere and faithful friend, who goes to any limit to save his friend. He is also seen respecting the vegetation. All this sends a good message across and also leaves parents with a tool to mould their children into a better human as a whole,8221; feels Gauri Kale, housewife and mother of a four-year-old.
The film and the book revolve around the friendship of Wall-E and Eve, who lovingly address each other as Walleee and Eee-vah. However, the story also teaches how important greenery is, and how we should keep the environment clean so that we would never have to leave it and go.
Vineeta Arora, teacher, Vatsalya School, feels that audio-visual media has a better impact on children than books and considering this, using cartoons movies for lessons is a good idea. 8220;Cartoon movies are better ways than books and we should have more of them in our curriculum. As it not only helps us teach kids but also helps kids unwind. It makes education interesting. Children tend to idolise character if they like it and we may use this for teaching them good things. Watching movie will also be less stressful for children. Such movies offer a lot in a small packages as they teach many things in a entertaining fashion,8221; observes Arora.
Highlighting their previous message-oriented publications, Purohit says that they had in past published 12 titles of Discovery Channel books and covered topics like mammals, reptiles, volcanoes, weather and climate among others. They also had recently released 12 titles from National Geographic School Publishing. And they are currently working on a series on environmental issues facing the world today. We had recently released eight titles of sticker storybooks. The books inform children about animals in different habitat in a very interactive manner.
