Around the world with a chilli contains lots of fun facts for children about chilies and the places they come from. A young boy in India meets Ajar Uchu, the spirit of the chillies. The spirit tells the young boy all about the countries chillies come from and the travelers who traded with them and brought chillies to the world. Great fun facts about history, early explorers, trade routes, and early empires.
Another great free children’s story for older children by Story Weaver and Pratham.
Author: Nayan Chanda Illustrator: Priya Kuriyan
Sample Text and Images from Around the World with a Chilli
The sun had just dipped behind the coconut, mango and chiku trees that ring Appu’s house. The sky was still tinged with pink. The kitchen garden where the family grew brinjals, tomatoes and bottle gourd was still bathed in a soft light. Flocks of birds flew across the sky on their way home.
Appu’s mother was making fish curry for dinner and wanted some fresh green chillies. Twelve year old Appu had gone to the garden to pick some fully grown, shiny green chillies when he was startled to hear a deep voice, “I am 
so glad your family likes my offerings.”
Appu’s hair stood on end. He turned around to see who had sneaked up on him. The heavy but soothing voice seemed to come out of the knee-high, leafy chilli plant. “Don’t be frightened, I am Ajar Uchu, known as the Spirit of Chillies,” it said.
“You water the plants every evening and take care of them. I am so happy to be loved and admired. I am tens of
thousands of miles away from home, and so your care means a lot to me.”
Appu took a few moments to recover from the shock of hearing a voice from the plant. Appu asked, “Where do you come from?”
Sample Text and Images from Page 7
Aztec and Inca Empire
In what is now Mexico there was an older civilization created by the Aztecs. They spoke a common language – Nahuatl. Some 700 years ago they organized themselves into an empire. They had developed a rich agriculture growing corn, chilli pepper, avocado and other fruits. They also grew fine cotton to weave beautiful clothes and had plentiful gold to make jewelry. In the middle of a lake they built Tenochtitlan, their capital city.
End of Sample
About Pratham Books
Pratham Books goes digital, FKB is helping with their aim to get a book in every child’s hand!
Storyweaver, their digital platform is provided to weave a whole new chapter in the realm of multilingual children’s stories. Knitting together children, authors, illustrators and publishers. Folding in teachers, and translators. Creating a rich fabric of openly licensed multilingual stories for the children of India and the world. Their unique online platform, StoryWeaver, is a playground where children, parents, teachers and librarians can get creative, using the resources to make your own unique books online.
About Creative Commons
Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ‐ provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following.
Similar Books you may enjoy:
Walk with Gandhi - An enlightening text on the life of Gandhi, containing enlightening snapshots of Gandhi’s life, with lots of questions for reflection, making it very suitable for school use – social studies, history, art, or English. The Haiku, images, and text reflect the remarkable life of Mahatma (‘great soul’) who brought freedom to India through non-violent protest. ...
The Middle Ages – CKF Reader - The Middle Ages is a reader designed for Grade 4 from the Core Knowledge Foundation. The reader has complex vocabulary designed to prepare students for the increased demands of later grades, focusses on Western Europe in the middle ages, or medieval times. This resource is available with a teacher guide and activity book, at the ...
The Grass Seeker – A Himalaya Shepherd - The Grass Seeker – As the weather turns warm, shepherd Room Singh takes his flock of goats and sheep and scales the Himalayas for fresh grass. With global warming a reality, this photo book traces the journey that a Gaddi shepherd has been making for the last 40 years, how many more will it be? ...
The Industrial Revolution – Grade 6 History CKF - The Industrial Revolution from Core Knowledge Foundation for Grade 6 is a comprehensive study of the period of advancement caused by the development of machinery from the 1700s to the 1800s in Britain and America and includes such topics as working conditions, economic effects, capitalism and communism. This book also has a teaching guide and ...
Chipko Takes Root – Saving trees of the Himalayas - Here is a story set in the hills that shows what bravery and grit can accomplish. Dichi, a brave Bhotiya girl takes part in the Chipko movement to save her beloved trees. Everybody in her village knows that trees give them all the important things in their life. Rapid deforestation in the Himalayan region of ...
CKF Civil Rights Movement Grade 2 Student Book - This CKF Civil Rights Movement Grade 2 book provides facts and history behind 7 different civil rights leaders and some other extraordinary people involved in the civil rights movement and is aimed at content for Grade 2. Contents Chapter 1 Susan B. Anthony . . . . . . . . . . . . ...
The Time-Travelling River – History, geography, and environmentalism in a story - The Time-Traveling River tells a tale of rivers and how important they are in history and for our future, and how we need to protect them. An important look at environmentalism from a river’s perspective. Written by Parinita Shetty, Illustrated by Sunaina Coelho Sample Text from The Time-Travelling River Rivers are like time machines. If people jump ...
Free At Last – The US Civil Rights Movement - A comprehensive textbook on Civil Rights in America, documenting the US civil rights movement from the introduction of slavery through to the enforcement of the Civil Rights Act and eradication of all discriminatory practices. This textbook was created by the US Bureau of International Information Programs and is available in Public Domain. Principal text written ...
Ancient Egypt – CKF reference book for elementary - Ancient Egypt is a reference book suitable for early to mid-elementary school students, grades 1-4. This is suitable for use as a reference for projects and as a learning tool, designed to be read aloud to early grades or to be read by older grades. More resources associated with this module, including a teachers guide ...
Cracking the Code: Women Who Have Changed the Way We Look at Computers - Cracking the Code: Women Who Have Changed the Way We Look at Computers tells the true story of the many women who have made significant contributions to the world of code and technology. We hear about the women who are behind the development or use of the sophisticated technology we have today, including Vandana ‘Vandi’ ...See more books by Pratham’s Storyweaver below
Bulli and the Tiger - Bulli is a little girl growing up in a bamboo-weavers’ community. Bulli finds her father troubled and discovers the bamboo suppliers threatened to raise the rates and put their whole village in jeopardy. Bulli looks for other ways of finding bamboo, and ends up facing the legendary tiger! Will the villagers find another way? Shalini ...
Elephant, Naughty Elephant - What is Elephant doing? And is he really naughty? Find out in this cute, beautifully illustrated text for young children. Repetition and simple language can also be useful for learn to read age. Sample Text from Elephant, Naughty Elephant What is Elephant doing, can you guess? Elephant, naughty Elephant, what are you doing? Why, I’m ...
I Feel… – understanding emotions - I Feel... is a book for young children to explore their emotions. Explore each emotion with your little one and ask your child when they felt the same and what could they do. Early steps to emotional intelligence!
Every Minute Counts - Adil is always late to school. This makes his teachers very angry. But why is he always late? His friend Paro helps him work out where the extra minutes go. Does he need to wake up one hour earlier or maybe a little more? This book was brought to us by Pratham’s Storyweaver platform. See ...
Meera and Ameera – Imaginary Friends - Meera and Ameera are best of friends. Strangely Meera is the only one who can see Ameera. That’s probably because she is an imaginary porcupine. Join the two friends in their many adventures real and made up. Sample Text From Meera and Ameera Meera and I are a team. She’s my most favourite person in ...
The Auto That Flew - A tuk tuk daily fights the traffic of Dehli, only to secretly dream of being able to fly. A magic water makes that possibility reailty, but is it all that he dreamed of? Sample Text from The Auto That Flew Arjun had three wheels, one headlight and a coat of green and yellow. He belonged ...
The Mystery of the Cyber Friend – Important lessons about keeping safe online - Shree loves using her computer for all sorts of things. One of the things she does is to chat with friends. When she has a tiff with a group of friends, she receives a new request out of the blue, and decides to accept. But after some time she senses this new friend is not ...
Malar’s Big House - Malar’s building a big house, but will she manage to keep her house standing? Find out in Malar’s Big House. Sample Text from Malar’s Big House Today, Malar is going to build a big house! “I can use these!” “My big house will be this high!” says Malar. “And this wide!” <End of sample from ...
Chiu’s Powers - Chiu sees exciting things that others cannot – flying rockets and fish swimming on the blackboard. Ajji takes Chiu to the eye doctor to find out about her magical powers. Sample Text from Chiu’s Powers Chiu is late for school. But she cannot find her red bottle. Is that her bottle? Or is it a ...
There’s a Hole in my Galaxy - In the year 2563 Maya and her friend Ava borrow the family space ship for a trip to Pluto. Halfway there they have a battle with a black hole where they are almost sucked in. Along the way, we learn lots of facts about black holes. Sample text from There’s a Hole in my Galaxy ...Sponsored Links:
Note – if you sign up through these links, it doesn’t cost you any extra, but FKB receives a small donation, which helps us with our project to buy more FREE Hardcopies for kids who need them
All our posts are checked by Grammarly, the FREE online grammar checker (We still receive a donation even if you only sign up for the free account :-):
Yeah I enjoyed it, ’cause I searched for books for kids and I found this place, its amazing!
A superb history on Chilli and it’s journey. In the same vein an amazing narrative on the voyages…Truly very interesting read..!!
We absolutely loved it because we are thinking if this should be a skin in our game called Fortnite and there are 2 game modes, Fortnite STW and Fortnite BR
It’s open source so you are welcome to use these graphics for a skin
i like it because it had a talking chili in it.
i think this book is way to long to finish i only got up to page 11 because im getting tired ill probably read it later on when i get bored the reason im reading this is because my teacher spoke to my mom and she got mad at my reading grade because right n ow im reading 3.5-4.5 and im in 5th grade so if i dont get to my reading grade i wont get my iphone 5.
Good luck with improving your reading Yesenia, that’s why we are here 🙂 it only takes practice, pick books you enjoy the topic this will help!
Nice
I love your books,