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Varsha Seshan

 

My Favourite Picture Books and Early Chapter Books from 2023

January 9, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It’s only as I was looking back at all the wonderful books I read in 2023 that I realised that five of my favourite picture books and early chapter books were Hook Books! I love the series, and I’m always excited to read new additions to it. A usual, I begin my list with a […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Boy Bear, Chapter Books, Cyrus the Whyrus, Passepartout Is That You?, Picture Book, reading, review, The Big Bad Fight, The Grand Chapati Contest, What Feelings Do When No Ones Looking

Gobi Goes Viral

January 8, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Gobi Goes Viral by Vibha Batra is funny, heart-warming, and altogether believable. We’ve read and loved Kolam Kanna and Pinkoo Shergill at my book club, and I’m happy to introduce yet another book by the same writer to the children I meet. Here’s what we’ll do as we read this story! Talent Show How can we read […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Gobi Goes Viral, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading, Vibha Batra

The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop

January 7, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

We’ve read The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop before and I can’t wait to read it again! I know it’s longer than the books I usually choose, plus every batch of children is different, with mixed reading levels. Once more, I find myself asking, will it be too ambitious to read it in three classes […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading, reading workshop, Stuti Agarwal, The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop

The Canary Caper

January 6, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It’s been 25 years since The Canary Caper was published, and it’s still such a joy to read! We read the first of the A to Z Mysteries, The Absent Author, in April 2021. When I met the some of the same children again in June, several of them were devouring the rest of the series. I’m now […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: A to Z Mysteries, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading, Ron Roy, The Canary Caper

An Alien in the Jam Factory

January 5, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

An Alien in the Jam Factory is such a fun read! A book that celebrates ideas is the best kind of book to read with children. The very first page is filled with doodles and ideas–like a jam slice, which is like a cheese slice that you can put straight into a sandwich. What else can […]

Filed Under: Books, Workshops Tagged With: An Alien in the Jam Factory, book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, Chrissie Sains, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading

Trunk Call for Ajju

January 4, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Even when I read and reviewed Trunk Call for Ajju in June 2023, I knew it would be one of my book club reads soon enough. A book about children and animals always holds a special place in my heart, and elephants are extra special. Here’s what we’ll do as we read the book. Money-Making Ideas […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Anjana Nagabhushana, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading, Trunk Call for Ajju

When the World Went Dark

January 3, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I read When the World Went Dark one year after our first lockdown.  And I wondered about including it at my book club. Grief is deeply personal. No one feels the way you feel. It almost feels unfair when people do. Even so, we do want to talk about our grief. Additionally, with any book, we […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, books for ages nine and ten, creative writing, Jane de Suza, online reading programme, reading, When the World Went Dark

A Pinch of Magic

January 2, 2024 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

We’ve read Trouble with Magic at my book club; it’s time to read the sequel! A Pinch of Magic is a fun read, full of surprises. I read and reviewed the book some time ago, and I’m excited to be introducing it to my book clubbers. Here’s what we’ll do with it. Innovative Address One of the […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: A Pinch of Magic, Asha Nehemiah, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, hOle books, online reading programme

The Diary as Story

December 6, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

In just a few weeks, yet another writing programme will come to an end! Yesterday was the third and last guest session of the season–a creative writing workshop with children’s book author Sowmya Rajendran. I love it when guests reinforce something I’ve been talking about for a while. During yesterday’s session, it was ‘write what […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing, creative writing with children, epistolary, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children, Sowmya Rajendran

Sad Animal Facts

November 23, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Did you know that frogs can close their ears? Or that anything a duckling meets within ten minutes of being born becomes its parent? (That reminds me of The Wild Robot, though the bird in the story is a gosling, not a duckling. Even so.) Those two aren’t sad animal facts, though, are they? In […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Brooke Barker, comic, Nonfiction, reading, review, Sad Animal Facts

An Alien in the Jam Factory

November 21, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

There’s something about book titles that can just grab your attention right away. An Alien in the Jam Factory is one of those. I often pick up books when I travel and when I was in Goa last month, I visited Literati for the first time. I browsed for quite a while before this book […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: An Alien in the Jam Factory, books for ages nine and ten, books for ages seven and eight, Chrissie Sains, early middle grade, Jenny Taylor, reading, review

Stories: Comic-Page Style

November 19, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What a rewarding session we had with Nandita Basu! At workshops like this one, I think I learn as much as the young writers who sign up. Step by step, Nandita led us through the creation of one page of narrative that brings together text and illustration in the style of a graphic novel. We […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: creative writing with children, graphic novel, Nandita Basu, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children

What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking

November 9, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking is such a gorgeous, whimsical book! Do our feelings live inside us, or do they go on journeys of their own? Or do they do both? Each page of this endearing picture book is beautifully written and beautifully illustrated. As I read about curiosity, joy, gratitude, anxiety, shame […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Aleksandra Zajac, Picture Book, reading, review, Tina Oziewicz, What Feelings Do When No Ones Looking

Heartstopper

November 6, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I rarely write about books that are so popular, but I loved the Heartstopper series and I can’t wait to see what happens next! Unlike most other books I’ve read, I came to the series through Netflix. I watched both seasons and was so drawn to the characters that I had to read the books. […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Alice Oseman, graphic novel, Heartstopper, reading, review, Young Adult

Crackers

November 3, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Some writers stun me with the range of stories they write. Elizabeth Laird, for instance. Look at just the stories I’ve read by her: And now, Crackers, which is completely different from anything else I’ve read by her. The strangest part for me as I read it was how similar it is to something I’ve […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, Crackers, Elizabeth Laird, reading, review

The Losers Club

November 2, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

We’ve loved books by Andrew Clements at my book club. Of course, Frindle is a favourite, but About Average was fun too. The Losers Club, which I read about a month ago, came as a recommendation from a parent, and it was quite a lovely choice. A book about books–what’s not to love about it? […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Andrew Clements, books for ages nine and ten, Middle Grade, reading, review, The Losers Club

Hour of the Bees

October 30, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The six months of the year when my writing programmes are on are almost impossibly busy. Add book launches, travel and literature fests to a busy season, and I’ve had barely any time to read! But in the midst of it all, I snatched snippets of time to read the gorgeous Hour of the Bees […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Hour of the Bees, Lindsay Eagar, Middle-Grade Fiction, reading, review

Green Stuff and Nonsense

October 27, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What a fun session we had on green writing with Bijal Vachharajani! In a single hour, we spoke of a million creatures from elephants to frogs, ferrets to spiders, lion-tailed macaques to slugs that aren’t slugs. Bijal’s workshop was a guest session at my writing programme. We’ve just reached the end of our poetry module, […]

Filed Under: Workshops Tagged With: Bijal Vachharajani, creative writing with children, guest session, online creative writing programme, online workshops for children

Mahalaxmi Will Go to Mysore

September 20, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading so many books that deal with RTE in one way or another! As a teacher trainer, I find that RTE is a conversation topic that some schools want to sweep under the carpet. Others test waters to find out where I stand. Still others are belligerent and self-righteous, even as they talk […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Books, hOle books, Mahalaxmi Will Go to Mysore, Niyatee Sharma, reading, review

Schooled

September 19, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I stumbled upon Schooled by Gordon Korman by chance and read it in one sitting. What a lovely, fun book, full of unexpected twists and turns! Capricorn Andersen (Cap for short) has spent all his life at Garland Farm, homeschooled by his hippie grandmother, Rain. When Rain falls off a tree, Cap is launched into […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Gordon Korman, Middle Grade, reading, review, Schooled

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