As a booklover, whenever I am given any sort of book of my preference, my face lights up with joy. So, when Mom returned from her office and handed me a file, I was surprised. She smiled at me mysteriously as I asked her what was in the file. As I opened it, I gasped in excitement. Thin books with colourful illustrations!

The books were about our courageous fighters of 1971, but with an exception _ concise, informative and the best part, with lovely pictures, which is going to lure disinterested readers to read them. Without any hesitation, I started reading. Seven books in total; consisting of approximately 11 pages. Not a big deal. Each of them depicted the courageous journey of a fighter. I got to know about really small, but significant facts about them.

Who knew that Noor Mohammad had such a passion for singing that he unhesitatingly sold his father’s property; Jahangir was a math genius; Hamidur had to attend evening (classes) due to financial problem; Mohammad Mostofa was an awesome boxer; Munsi Abdur Rauf’s threat to his parents to jump in the Madhumoti River if pressured to study; and many more such tales that are not mentioned in school textbooks.

Honestly, most of us feel bored reading those monotonous textbooks. Thanks to Lt Col Kazi Sazzad Ali Zahir for turning me into such a voracious reader. I sincerely hope more steps like this would be taken to attract child readers and let them know about our history in a friendly and effective way.

I am so much into reading and learning about our Liberation War and the freedom fighters that when I was asked by a reporter at Ekushey Boimela (book fair) whether I read history books or not, I answered with an obvious and beaming smile: “Yes, I do read history. History of Liberation War. My book list for 2018 consists mostly of those.”

The writer is a student of class-9 at Mastermind School, Dhaka.