Suitabook
No Smiles Today
Cheryl Rao
Credits & Licence
Originally published by Pratham Books.
Brought to you by Let’s Read is a program of The Asia Foundation that supports early reading skills and habits to develop our next generation of critical thinkers and creative innovators in Asia and the Pacific. To read more books like this and get further information about this book, visit: letsreadasia.org. 8 Original Story No Smiles Today. Author: Cheryl Rao. Illustrator: Saurabh Pandey. Published by Pratham Books, © Pratham Books . Released under CC-BY-4.0. This work is a modified version of the original story. © The Asia Foundation, 2021. Some rights reserved. Released under CC-BY-4.0. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
author: Cheryl Rao. illustrator: Saurabh Pandey. publisher: Pratham Books.
Cover resized and converted to WebP; story unchanged. Suitabook’s guidance is a separate analysis.
Original Book on Let’s Read: No Smiles Today (opens in a new tab)- Reading
- Pause at the classroom scenes to look at faces and gestures, then revisit the ending together and discuss which clues made the reveal surprising.
- Themes
- Friends responding to a change: Arun and the other children notice that Shanti is unusually quiet and try to understand what is wrong; Arun attempts to make her smile. The story depicts friends paying attention and trying to connect, but does not establish a broader judgement about the best way to respond.
- Worth knowing
- Shanti appears sad and withdrawn, and her classmates wonder if she or someone close to her is unwell; the mood later shifts to laughter.