Eight reading books from Katha, for children between six and seventeen. Each one is a collection of stories and poems, chosen and arranged to be read closely, talked about, and returned to.
"Children learn from the story itself." — a line Katha uses to describe its approach
The same approach runs through all eight. The set divides in two because a six-year-old and a fifteen-year-old need different things from a story, and the books change as the reader does.
Ages 6–11 · Primary & Upper Primary
Ages 11–17 · Secondary
"Child first, joy first, story first."
The 11 Sutras of StoryPedagogy® · read all elevenKatha started this work in the late 1980s, using stories to teach reading in classrooms and low-income neighbourhoods in Delhi. The method that grew out of it, StoryPedagogy, treats the story as the thing children learn from directly. When the NEP 2020 and NCF 2023 later described competency-based, inquiry-led, art-integrated learning, much of it matched what these books had been doing for years.
Each book covers about a year. Tap one to see its stories and download the companion material.
The Supplement, "From the Page to the Room," takes each story in books 6–8 and shows how to use it in a group discussion, a written test, or an interview. Tell us the reader's age and we'll send the right one.
If you're not sure which book to start with, the form suggests one.