The Reading List

by Sara Nisha Adams

Sometimes, books just take us away for a little while, and return us to our place with a new perspective.

She noticed how this book was allowing her to step into two worlds: the world she was in right now, beside her mum, in her house, the air muggy from the heat of the day, and another world, the world of two children, Scout and her older brother, Jem, who lived somewhere called Maycomb, a small town in Alabama, where they’d play outside, being foolish, being . . . children.

It was strange how, once childhood left, your parents became simply human, with fears and worries just like your own.

There was something magical in that—in sharing a world you have loved; allowing someone to see it through the same pair of spectacles you saw it through yourself.

“I think you can read whatever you want to into anything. That is the point of books,”

“Aleisha,” Mukesh said softly. “Please try to remember that books aren’t always an escape; sometimes books teach us things. They show us the world; they don’t hide it.”