Questions · Classes 7 to 10 · ICSE / CBSE / SSLC
Questions, answered rather than marketed.
Everything below is answerable from the printed book or from what Playway Books actually does. Where the honest answer is “no” or “not yet”, it says so — a page of answers that all point one way is a page of advertising.
For parents
The four questions that decide whether this book helps your child or sits on a shelf.
Which class is the Playbook for?
The Language of Chemistry covers the notation taught across Classes 7 to 10 in the ICSE, CBSE and SSLC syllabuses. NCERT’s 2008 letter of appreciation suggested it be introduced as a handbook in Class 7. It teaches what all three boards assume — symbols, valency, formulas and balanced equations — rather than following a particular board’s chapter order.
How is this different from a guide book?
A guide book explains the chapter your child has already been taught. The Playbook teaches the language underneath every chapter: the name, symbol and valency of thirty elements and twenty-five radicals as punch-out tokens, then chemical formulas, then balanced equations. It also gates progress — Chapter I will not open onto Chapter II below 172 of 184, which is 93.5 per cent — and no guide book does that.
What happens if my child scores below the gate?
The whole set of exercises for that chapter is repeated. Chapter I closes at 172 of 184, Chapter II at 37 of 40 and Chapter III at 51 of 55 — 93.5, 92.5 and 92.7 per cent — and a student below the threshold works the exercises again rather than moving on. The answers to all 19 exercises are enclosed and there is an evaluation chart at the back, so the book marks itself; a parent who never studied chemistry can still use it.
Do schools get a sample copy?
Yes. Playway Books sends a sample copy to a school that asks, along with bulk pricing and a syllabus mapping for ICSE, CBSE and SSLC. The request form is on the For Schools page, and the Ernakulam office can be rung on +91 484 2405580.
About the book
What arrives in the post, what it costs, and where to get it.
What is inside The Language of Chemistry, Playbook?
111 pages in 3 chapters, with 2 punch-out token sheets carrying thirty elements and twenty-five radicals. Inside: 2 charts, 6 activities, 19 exercises and 279 questions. The answers to all 19 exercises are enclosed and there is an evaluation chart at the back, so the book marks itself.
How much does the Playbook cost?
The published price is ₹399. Retailers set their own — check Amazon.in and Flipkart and JioMart for what they are charging today. ISBN 978-81-959241-0-3.
Where can I buy the Playbook?
Amazon.in and Flipkart and JioMart carry it online. In Kerala it is on the shelf at H&C Books, Ernakulam, and with other local stockists — ring the Ernakulam office on +91 484 2405580 and we will name the nearest one. Playway Books does not sell from this website; there is no cart here and the order goes through a retailer.
Why is it called a Playbook rather than a workbook?
A workbook is where you write the answers down. A Playbook is where you play a round, and the tokens come punched out of the back of it — because chemistry is something you do with your hands before you do it with a pen. The tokens are the reason the book exists in print rather than as an app.
Does the Playbook replace the school textbook?
No, and it does not follow a board’s chapter order either. It teaches the notation every board assumes a student already has — symbols, valency, chemical formulas and balanced equations — which each board’s own textbook sets in exercises before it explains. The syllabus pages list exactly what each board asks for, chapter by chapter.
For schools
What a head of department has to answer internally before a purchase order exists.
Can a school get a sample copy before ordering?
Yes. Playway Books sends one sample copy per school on request, with no obligation. Use the enquiry form on the For Schools page or ring the Ernakulam office on +91 484 2405580 — a school that would rather talk than fill in a form is not a lesser enquiry.
Does the Playbook map to our board’s syllabus?
The Playbook teaches chemical notation, which ICSE, CBSE and SSLC all assume rather than teach. The mapping table on the For Schools page sets the book’s topics against all three boards by class level, and it is written to print cleanly so a head of department can forward it internally.
What are the CISCE and NCERT letters?
They are letters of appreciation for the method — CISCE on 18 December 2002, and NCERT’s Department of Education in Science and Mathematics on 1 July 2008. They are not accreditation and not an approval of the book as a prescribed text, and Playway Books does not describe them as either. The book’s own back cover credits them to “the ICSE Board” and “the CBSE Board”, which is wrong on both counts and is due to be corrected in the next print run; the preface has it right. Both letters are reproduced in full on the About page.
Can a school photocopy the Playbook for a class?
No — and the first reason is practical rather than legal. The Playbook is consumable: two sheets of tokens are punched out of it and handled, nineteen exercises are written in and marked against the answers enclosed at the back, and the evaluation chart is filled in as a student goes. A photocopy carries none of that, so a class working from photocopied sheets is doing a worse exercise than the one the book sets. A school that cannot buy a copy per student should ring the Ernakulam office on +91 484 2405580 about bulk pricing rather than photocopy — that is a shorter conversation than it sounds. What may be used without asking, what needs permission, and the law it sits under are set out on the copyright and permissions page.
Can you deliver before the academic year starts?
Yes, when the order is placed with enough notice. Bulk orders are printed and dispatched from Ernakulam, so the constraint is the print run rather than a warehouse — tell us your intake date on the enquiry form and we will confirm a date before you raise a purchase order.
If the answer is not here, ring us.
A person answers the phone from the Ernakulam office on weekdays — +91 484 2405580, or WhatsApp +91 99471 23678. A school asking about a sample copy or bulk pricing can use the enquiry form, which reaches the same desk.