The Flourish books aim to inculcate values, teach life skills, and impart social-emotional learning. Therefore, due focus has been given to making the content as inclusive as possible. Further, we’ve created an Inclusivity Index to map and gauge the inclusive nature of the books. The Inclusivity Index for Book 1 has been given below. For more details about the framework, click here.
Analysis of the Stories
Story Name | Minority Religion | Characters with Disability | Class Diversity | Gender Diversity | Breaking Stereotypes | Values Covered |
Rani’s First Day At School | NA | No | Yes | ★★★★ | ★★★★ | Understanding Feelings and Emotions |
Malar’s Big House | NA | No | Yes | ★★★★ | ★★★★ | Creativity, Innovation, Resilience |
Busy Ants | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | Understanding and Respecting Animals |
Anand | Yes | No | Yes | ★★★★ | ★★★★ | Understanding and Respecting Different Professions |
Is There Anyone Like Me? | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | Self-identity, Uniqueness |
Lorax – The Movie (2012) | NA | No | Yes | ★★★★ | ★★★★ | Understanding the Environment, Courage |
Sniffles | Yes | No | NA | ★★★★ | ★★★★ | Health, Self-management |
Wangari Mathai | Yes | No | Yes | ★★★★ | ★★★★ | Collective Action, Courage, Motivation, Inspiration, Leadership |
Did You Hear? | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | Understanding the Environment |
The Royal Toothache | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | Health, Self-management |
Timmy and Pepe | Yes | No | NA | NA | NA | Understanding Self |
Who Ate All That Up? | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | Understanding the Environment |
Analysis of the Exercises
The exercises in this book primarily focus on building the vocabulary and improving awareness towards the self, surroundings and the environment. The exercises manage to do this through small individual and group activities and fact snippets. A lot of them also encourage the children to connect the dots themselves and think creatively and critically to arrive at conclusions and encourage teamwork. Some of the values highlighted in the exercises are kindness towards animals, helping others, respecting all occupations, mindfulness about the environment, etc.
Overview of the Book
Out of the 11 stories in the book, 6 are written by females and 5 by males. 5 protagonists are females, 3 are males and all the animals are neutral. None of the protagonists or supporting characters has a disability. Stories such as ‘Malar’s Big House’ in which Appa is shown cooking, and ‘Sniffles’ in which the girl is the captain of the football team try to actively break gender stereotypes. The book overall promotes peace and equality for males and females, regardless of their race, class, disability, religion, sexual preference, or ethnic background. According to the WHO Gender Responsive Assessment Scale, the book is gender-specific.