Book 1 · Coming this winter

Bring the lessons of the Gita to where your child is.

Frozen in the Middle is the first book in the Little Shakti series, a hand-illustrated picture book for children aged 3 to 6, based on chapter 1 of the Bhagavad Gita. It arrives this winter, and you can be the first to read it.

The cover of Frozen in the Middle by Vera Lakhwani: a boy and a girl in a watercolour park while a mum watches from a bench
Ages 3 to 6
A watercolour illustration from Frozen in the Middle: a boy on a playground, a girl waving at him, and a mum on a park bench
Why I wrote it

Lessons she could actually relate to.

The children's Gita books I found were full of battlefields and bright, busy pictures, and my daughter couldn't see herself in any of them. For a child of three to six, that's just too abstract. So I set the first chapter somewhere she actually spends her days.

When she read an early draft, she connected it to a time she'd been left out by her friends, and that's when I knew the lesson had landed.

The lesson comes home with the book.

Why share these lessons

Values that come from where we come from.

01

Their roots, wherever you live

Our children are growing up far from where we grew up, often without grandparents nearby to tell them the stories. Culture really begins at home, and a story read together is one of the easiest places to start.

02

Values from our own scriptures

Kindness, courage and doing what's right are taught everywhere. These lessons come from the Gita, so your child learns them as part of who they are and where they come from, not as a generic set of rules.

03

Something they can actually understand

Children aged 3 to 6 learn through what's real and concrete. A playground they recognise turns the lesson into something they can see, not just a name they recite.

04

Room for it to sit with them

The story doesn't end with a lecture. It's left open, so your child can carry it around for a while, and when they meet the same feeling in their own day, that's when the conversation happens.

The author

Vera Lakhwani

I'm a mum of two, trained in AMI Montessori for ages 3 to 6, and before we moved to Dubai I spent several years in London helping families bring Montessori into their homes.

I'm raising third culture kids, and I really want them to know our culture through stories that fit their own lives.

Find me on Instagram at @east2westmama.

Be the first to read it.

Frozen in the Middle arrives this winter. Join the list and I'll let you know the day it's out.