Reading about the unfamiliar can spark imagination. It's an agenda the Hook Book series published by Duckbill Books this month comes with for young readers aged five and above (for being read to) or those aged above six, who can read independently. The four books authored by award-winning writers Paro Anand, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Jerry Pinto and Anushka Ravishankar are set in non-urban settings. They are tied together by an adorable mascot called Havaldar Hook, who always wants answers at the end of each story — testing the reader's knowledge of collective nouns or interjections, for instance. We invited Andheri resident Virginia D'souza to check the series along with her seven-year-old daughter Anayah.

Illustration by Priya Kuriyan for Anushka Ravishankar's Hey Diddle Diddle