Under the magnifying glass

Peer, Ponder, Play is an exploratory book that guides children from age three and young adults on a journey of observation as the key to understanding the world. A collaboration between Sphere Art Education and Chennai Photo Biennale’s (CPB) initiative CPB Prism, the book moves at a gentle pace, nudging young users with fun and peculiar activities to steadily open their minds to wider ideas. Such activities include Waste Vihar that asks children to build their dream city using waste material, or Who Nose?! where one must seek descriptions of noses. Gayatri Nair, director of education, CPB Foundation explains, that the fairly simple activities are layered with higher ideas such as questions around the imagined city’s green cover, space for stray animals, and water bodies. Unlike an activity book completed within a day, these questions are designed to allow different responses as children go about introspecting the world.

Gayatri Nair; Sananda Mukhopadhyaya and Shruti Sridharan