Though a class in value education at school has been an experience for many, it does take a while to think about how it might have benefited you. But last year, when city-based Amit Suri had his seven-year-old talking about what he learnt in that class every day, he embarked on a collaborative project with 26 professionals from diverse fields of the arts — be it illustration, photography or poetry. It is this venture that has resulted in Words of Wonder – A to Z, a book published by Delhi-based Wonder House Books.

Amit Suri

"When you have a seven-year-old talking to you about compassion, it can be very tricky and you've to probe further. So, I asked my son to tell me a story that describes it," Suri tells us. This instance germinated in a simple idea: for each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet, there would be a virtue that corresponds to it (M for modesty or W for wisdom, for example) and each virtue would be accompanied by a quotation, artwork and short story that represents it. The book started to take shape when Suri decided to contact artists — most of whose works he knew via Instagram — and got a positive response to kick start the collaboration pro-bono.