Manya badly, badly wants to be Shere Khan in her school play. The Jungle Book is her favorite film and she knows all the lines. She's sure she'll be a superb Shere Khan. But not everyone thinks so. Her classmate Rajat is always making fun of her stammer. Her English teacher thinks its risky to let her get on stage and her principal seems to agree. The more anxious Manya gets, the worse her stammer becomes. Will Manya lose her dream role? Can she overcome her fears and learn to roar?

Avani drops a pea one evening while helping Amma make dinner. What happens next leads to a curious mystery. Readers will follow the pea's trail with glea and revel in knowing something Amma and Avani do not. Story Attribution:”Avani and the Pea Plant” is written by Shruthi Rao. © Pratham Books, 2016. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/) Other Credits: “Avani and the Pea Plant” has been published on StoryWeaver by Pratham Books. The development of this book has been supported by P.A.N.I. Foundation. www.prathambooks.org

Malhar wants to be a famous tabla player. But why do tabla players always sit to one side of the stage? Are they not important enough? Malhar wants answers--and he wants to sit in the middle!

Adapted from Sushant Singh's Operation Cactus: mission impossible in the Maldives.

Why did pirates covet maps more than gold? Does Mars sometimes slip into reverse gear? Can trees reveal secrets of the past? There are millions of facts that we know about the world-that the earth is round, that birds migrate and that dinosaurs once roamed the planet. But how do we know what we know? Regaling us with tales of remarkable men and women who didn't rest until they got the answers they sought, Shruthi Rao chronicles the stories behind the discoveries and inventions we take for granted today. This book, in fifty marvellous accounts, tells us of the sense of mystery and wonder that propel scientists to find solutions to the puzzling problems of the world around us.

When Terry Fox embarked on his famous attempt to run across Canada with one leg having been amputated in 1980, he inspired awe. Young readers will delight in reading about Fox and athletes like him in Real Heroes of Sport: Against All Odds.