A Conspiracy in Calcutta is the third book I've read from the Songs of Freedom series, and it's my favourite so far! For one, Calcutta is a city that is close to my heart. I spent just a couple of years there, but they were important, full years.More than the setting, though (unlike with That Year at Manikoil), I loved the story. The protagonist Bithi is a child after my own heart. When I studied about the struggle for independence, I often dreamt of having lived in the 1940s, marching with Gandhi, doing something meaningful, and making it to History textbooks. And that's what drives Bithi. Her father says that she will make history. Bithi is fired by the idea; she just needs to figure out how to go about getting her name in History books.I also loved the weaving together of plots and subplots in A Conspiracy in Calcutta. Each character has a unique arc. Bithi's Ma surprised … [Read more...]
Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells
For the first time ever, we're going to read one of my books at my book club! I am in equal parts nervous and excited. Yes, Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award. Yes, it's been published both by Scholastic Asia and Scholastic India. Yes, it was shortlisted for the Singapore Book Award. That doesn't make me any less nervous!I chose this book of mine because reading Dungeon Tales II convinced me that short stories are perfect for Read, Write, Explore. We will read excerpts from three stories in class and do activities based on the stories, concluding the edition by writing something of our own. Jigsaw Puzzles A book club is all about having fun, so we'll begin with an online jigsaw puzzle. I wrote the story "Jigsaw Puzzles" because I loved jigsaws as a child. Like Aniket in the story, I would make … [Read more...]
The Adventures of Mooli and the Bully on Wheels
We're rereading The Adventures of Mooli and the Bully on Wheels at my book club! The book features characters some of my book clubbers have read about before. We've read both The Adventures of Mooli and the Sticker Trickster and The Adventures of Mooli and the Blue-Legged Alien. It's time to meet Mooli again!Mooli and his friend Soups are fun, enterprising characters, itching to try something new. After all, they want to win a prize on WAYOUTS - World’s As Yet Original Untried Tricks and Stunts. Toothpaste art sounds like a good idea--or not. Funny, silly and full of wacky ideas, Mooli is a character with whom book clubs are fun! Art Explorations Mooli tries to create art using a tube of toothpaste. We're not going to waste toothpaste, but we are going to have fun with art! Can the children draw with their eyes closed? Or with their … [Read more...]
Yikes! Bikes!
We had so much fun with The Reading Race a few months ago that I was sure I wanted to do another book from the Ready, Freddy! series sooner or later. Yikes! Bikes! is perfect.The animal shelter in Freddy's town has organised a fundraiser, one that involves a Bike-a-thon. Max Sellars goads Freddy into making a bet with him, and the young protagonist rashly bets that he can ride more laps than the class bully. The problem? Freddy can't ride without training wheels yet and he has just two weeks to figure it out!Lighthearted and humorous, Yikes! Bikes!, like The Reading Race, allows us to do a lot as we read it together at my book club. The Hidden Fin As we read The Reading Race, everyone took part in a different sort of race - seeing who could find the word "fin" hidden in the pictures first! The protagonist Freddy loves sharks, so the word is hidden in … [Read more...]
I Survived the California Wildfires, 2018
During my first two writing programmes in 2020-21, one participant (who wrote this poem) recommended the I Survived series. She spoke about it time and again, and somehow, I never ended up picking up a copy. In June this year, when I travelled to Nagpur for a set of workshops, I ran out of books to read, so I visited Crossword. There, I came across the I Survived series and decided it was high time I read at least one of the books. It's perfect for my reading programme, Read, Write, Explore!The I Survived series tells the stories of young people caught in disasters and turmoil out of their control. I wanted a book that is set in the lifetime of my participants, which is why I chose I Survived the California Wildfires, 2018.Many of us read about the deadliest fire season in a hundred years, and the story of a pair of cousins escaping a forest fire is a compelling one, perfect for a book … [Read more...]
A Cello on the Wall
War is a difficult subject to introduce to children, and I'm often unsure of whether it should be introduced at all. Yet, most children are exposed to so much media and are aware of so much that is happening around them that I think stories of hope are important. Yes, history is full of war. But in the darkest of times, love and kindness do triumph.A Cello on the Wall is part of the One Day Elsewhere series I read nearly a year ago. The series explores important events in history through the eyes of a child, and A Cello on the Wall is about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Young Charlie - named after Checkpoint Charlie - cannot imagine a time when the wall did not exist. But he is part of the momentous fall of the wall, the day when east and west Berlin come together again.At my book club, as we read Charlie's story, here's what we will … [Read more...]
The Shy Supergirl
When I launched my book club in December 2020, I began with a hOle book, Trouble with Magic by Asha Nehemiah, and somehow, that became a tradition. During each edition of my book club, the first book we read is a hOle book. This time, it's Shabnam Minwalla's The Shy Supergirl.The Shy Supergirl is such a lovely, lovely book! It captured my heart from the very first paragraph. Nina Merchant is a supergirl. She isn't strange; she's special. What's her superpower? That she can look at a person and tell what kind of person they actually are - nice or nasty, evil or kind. That's why she shrieks when she sees her father's boss, but loves the schoolbus driver, Singhji, who seems to be rather scary looking.This superpower comes in handy when there's a theft at Venus Towers! Who stole Mrs Khanna's priceless silver owl? Was it Nina's best friend Buggy's cunning cousins? Or Mrs Khanna's nephew … [Read more...]
Two Hook Books
Somewhere between picture books and chapter books are the Hook Books, and books for this age-group are so important! One step up from the 'Read It Yourself' series, they are slightly more complex than picture books, but still have full-colour illustrations right through.I remember reading hundreds--well, dozens--of Noddy books at an age when I could have read books like this. I loved Noddy because of the familiarity of a series. Characters I know, settings I love - these appealed to me, like they appeal to most children.The Hook Books aren't a series in quite the same way. Like the hOle books, they're clubbed together in terms of readership, rather than characters and setting. I finally got around to reading a couple of them - The Sweet Shop Wars and A Birthday Present for Aaji. I LOVED the illustrations in both books! I've always enjoyed Rajiv Eipe's work - Ammachi is one of my … [Read more...]
Ritu Weds Chandni
I've been wanting to read Ritu Weds Chandni ever since I saw posts by Yali Books two years ago. It seemed like such an important book - a picture book about two women getting married!When I started reading it, however, I did so without reading the blurb. The book opens with little Ayesha getting ready to dance at her cousin's baraat. She seems so happy; her family seems so happy. I wondered ... Would this be a simplistic story glossing over homophobia? Would Ayesha just be a bystander enjoying a wedding?But I was not disappointed. I loved the book, and I smiled as little Ayesha learns what it is to be an ally, saving her Ritu Didi's wedding.There were so many little things that I could not help noticing about the book. Lots of writers spend ages thinking of names for their characters--I know I do! Names have so many connotations, and I love that the characters here have … [Read more...]
The Best At It
Rahul Kapoor wants to be the best at it. The best at what? Honestly, anything. Football, acting ... anything except Maths. He doesn't want to fit into the stereotype of the nerdy American Indian. In fact, he wants as little to do with his Indianness as possible. For instance, he doesn't want to be part of the International Bazaar that his mother's friends, the Auntie Squad, are organising. And he'd like to be a little less brown. Oh, and he finds his father's Bollywood music more than a little embarrassing.The Best At It was a gentle, lovely book. Yes, I did cringe more than once, but isn't adolescence full of cringeworthy moments? Unerringly, The Best At It goes to the heart of each moment, embarrassing or sad, wildly happy or confusing. And that - the authenticity of tone on each page - is what drew me to the story. Who are we? Who do we want to be? How can we fit in? Even when … [Read more...]