With Flipped - Mystery Stories and Sci-Fi Stories, we have another first at my book club - an anthology! Full disclosure - I have a story in Flipped too, but we won't be reading that one.I love the idea of the Flipped books. You read a few stories, then decide you want another kind of story, so you just flip the book over and discover another genre. Short stories work well at my book club too, so there's a lot we can do as we read this anthology. Sci-Fi Stories A couple of years ago, I invited a friend and NASA scientist, Dr Sreeja Nag, to conduct a session for my writing programme on science stories. Like every other guest session I've organised, I learned a lot from the session. What is science fiction anyway? What kinds of stories make for believable science fiction? Taking an idea from another session Sreeja conducted, we'll explore a few writing … [Read more...]
Crenshaw
I read Crenshaw over two years ago. In fact, it was one of my top reads of 2020, and it's a story that has stayed with me since then, a story I think about often because of its portrayal of friendship, loneliness and vulnerability.Crenshaw is the story of a boy, Jackson, and a giant cat. What role can a giant cat have in the life of a boy who loves facts? How can Jackson reconcile his need for truth with the ... fact ... that he has an imaginary friend? I'm waiting to share this beautiful story with my book club! Book Discussion - Imaginary Friends Do you have an imaginary friend? Have you ever had an imaginary friend? Children make up all kinds of companions; after all, that's what dolls and toys are for. I'd love to know what characteristics they give either temporary or more permanent imaginary creatures in their lives. Words, Books, and … [Read more...]
Gulgul in Jungalu
It's time to introduce another series to my book club - the Gulgul series! I wonder if the book is targeted at slightly younger readers than my book clubbers, but the number of things we can do with Gulgul in Jungalu prompted me to select it.Gulgul is mischievous, resourceful and friendly, the perfect protagonist of an adventure story. She must befriend not just elephant-like creatures, but also flippots, bluglugs and longfellows in order to help her mother Megha build a zingjuck that will shoot them into space where they will have phone coverage to call a spacecab!Full of wacky words and even wackier animals, Gulgul in Jungalu promises to keep my book clubbers giggling as we read. Space Travel Imagine you're travelling through space. What planet are you from? How do you travel? How old do you have to be to drive a space vehicle? What are your … [Read more...]
Demystifying Publishing
One of the best things about my creative writing programmes is how much I learn on the way. For one, before each class, I research for hours. One hour of class time typically requires at least four hours of research.And for another, I invite guests to talk about a variety of subjects from science fiction to cyber crime, historical fiction to comics.Our latest guest was Andaleeb Wajid, a hybrid author who has published 37 novels in the last twelve years! Since so many parents and children have questions about Kindle Direct Publishing and whether they should publish their children's work at all, Andaleeb was the ideal guest. Step by step, she took us through the process of publishing, comparing traditional publishing with KDP, with complete frankness when it came to costs, timelines and control.For the most part, we followed a Q and A pattern for the session. Here are two answers … [Read more...]
Roshan’s Road to Music
Recently, while reading A Cello on the Wall with my book club, we did a quiz on musical instruments. The piano, the cello (of course), the guitar, and the tabla were easy to identify. The violin was easy for some, confusing for others. But the sarod, sitar, veena and mridangam were difficult for nearly all the children. And this made me realise how rarely we see these instruments in picture books. Yes, many children know that Saraswati plays the veena, but in so many depictions, it looks like she's playing the sitar. I played the sitar myself, and I still got confused!It was with all this at the back of my mind that I started reading Roshan's Road to Music, the story of how Annapurna Devi began her musical journey. What I loved immediately about the book was the use of the name Roshan, rather than the better known name Annapurna Devi. Little Roshan finds music everywhere. Don't we … [Read more...]
I Want a Pet
I've never met a child who has never in their life wanted a pet. Have you? But what if ... the pet isn't a cat or a dog or even a rabbit, but a buffalo?I absolutely loved Arundhati Venkatesh's brand-new Hook Book, I Want a Pet. Without any drama or explanation, we are sucked right into the tale. Jasbir wants a pet, he wants a pet, he wants a pet! And on cue, a talking buffalo storms into Jasbir's house, making his wish come true ... sort of.I chuckled and wondered at the hilarious story as I read page after page. Can a child really hide a buffalo in a house? The answer - a child can do anything, especially when it comes to keeping secrets from the adults of the house. And Jasbir is no different. As the his adventures proceed, though, I love how Jasbir discovers that siblings may not be better than pets, but they are certainly useful!Also, like every other Hook Book I've … [Read more...]
Secret Friends
I love Elizabeth Laird. And Secret Friends was another beautiful read, a heartbreaking story about wanting to fit in, but never quite managing it.Lucy is the first to tease Rafaella, and this is something she regrets right through her life. Rafaella has enormous ears, and Lucy, unthinkingly, coins the name 'Earwig', a name that sticks. When the coolest kids in school adopt the name, part of Lucy knows she should stop them. Why doesn't she? Why doesn't she stand up for Rafaella, who, she realises, is as fun and full of ideas as she is? Those are questions that Lucy finds she does not quite want to answer.So, the two girls remain secret friends. Lucy wants to fit in with the most popular girls, but she secretly likes Rafaella more. It's to Rafaella's house that she goes for tea, and with Rafaella that she does the most fun things. It's only when it's far too late that she … [Read more...]
The Train to Tanjore
It's 1942 in Tanjore, and Thambi wants to know more about the Quit India movement. Encouraged by his father, he visits the library regularly to scour the newspapers. But there's precious little in the papers about anything except the war raging in Europe. Thambi wants to know about Gandhiji and the other freedom fighters! Not Hitler and the Japanese!Yet, he knows that the war is frightening too. In fact, his new friend Sumit has moved to Tanjore from faraway Bengal because of the threat of a Japanese attack. Is Sumit right? Are the Japanese all set to attack Thanjavur too?Even with everything happening all around Thambi, Hitler, the British and the Japanese are only one small part of his world. Like all the other books in the Songs of Freedom series, The Train to Tanjore beautifully balances Thambi's individual struggles with the larger socio-political picture. More often than … [Read more...]
Learning to Be
Learning to Be is an interesting series of nonfiction board books, each of which tells the story of an inspiring woman who made a difference. Stories about women are important because so many have been written out of history. Presenting their stories in the form of board books is a unique concept and a striking one. We don't usually find words like 'commitment' and 'perseverance' in a board book! Yet, when these books with their vivid illustrations are read aloud to young children, I'm sure they will be impactful. I wonder, however, if these stories would have been easier to understand in simple prose, considering the target age-group. Rhyme allowed these stories to be brief and quick-paced, but I also found that rhyme restricted the word choice in several places. Women in … [Read more...]
Misfit Madhu
I wish I'd known that author Divya Anand would be at the Neev Literature Festival; I would have taken my copy of Misfit Madhu along for her to sign!Misfit Madhu is a lovely book - an easy, engaging read that kept me hooked. Madhu is usually invisible. If anyone notices her, it's only to give her a moniker like Misfit Madhu, or No Name, or something else equally annoying. But when she makes an app called School Santhe, she suddenly finds herself in the limelight because her app goes viral. She's earned herself a new name - Maker Madhu!The problem, however, is that when the app begins to be misused, she needs to decide what to do. Should she let go of her hard-earned popularity and reset her app? Or just try to fix things that might not really be fixable?Noor is the perfect best friend, Madhu's moral compass. She pushes Madhu to do what is right, and I love the way she does … [Read more...]