I wrote not so long ago about the first prints of The Duronto Adventure and Bholu at the Level Crossing. The next two books for young readers are here! A little about these two books ... Kevin has lost his lucky coin! Bholu volunteers to help him look for it, and Deven, Priya, Rohit and Ruth come along. Would you like to explore the train with them? Forty-two children go on a school excursion to the railway station. What happens when one child gets lost? … [Read more...]
Shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award!
My work, Dragonflies, Jigsaws and a Rainbow, has been shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award! The award winner will be revealed at the opening ceremony of the Asian Festival of Children's Content (AFCC) in May this year. The objectives of the award are: To recognise excellence in fiction in Asian stories for children To showcase the diversity of literary talent within Asian To encourage and inspire more Asian-themed books and stories The five titles were elected by a panel of experts in the field of children’s books. These works are in the running for the grand prize of $10,000 SGD, and the winning manuscript may be published by Scholastic Asia. Between 2011 and 2014, the world's largest children books publishing and distribution company had published six SABA winners’ and finalists’ works, with another three to be launched at the AFCC 2016. … [Read more...]
Flickering Flames – Now Available!
During the last academic year, a group of girls from St. Mary's School worked with me at the Writers' Club. They imagined, wrote and rewrote. Now, their work is available in the form of an anthology of poems and short stories! Flickering Flames, written by girls from classes VI and VII of St. Mary's School, is now available online. The proud authors are Advaya Venbakkam, Advika Dhar, Ananya Banerjee, Anika Garg, Anushka Shinde, Ashna Bhavnagarwalla, Jayde MacFarland,Lavanya Dua, Pareesa Irani, Rashmin Kaur Juneja, Riva Verma, Samiksha Deshpande and Tejasee Khurjekar. The illustrators (also girls from the school) are Advaya Venbakkam, Ananya Banerjee, Anika Garg, Ashna Bhavnagarwalla, Chahat Agarwal, Nandini Ghosh, Pareesa Irani, Paridhi Kumar, Riva Verma, Samiksha Deshpande, Shanaya … [Read more...]
Duronto and Level Crossing Resource Packs!
I wrote about first prints and the joy of having the resource packs in hand. But how could I cut up the one electric loco kit I had? Now, armed with a spare set, I'm ready to make my own electric loco model. As a child, I loved jigsaw puzzles. I loved them so much that I used to compete with myself as I tried to make my puzzles faster and faster. And I had enough puzzles to make a mat of puzzles on the drawing room floor. Do you see the whizzing hands? Old habits die hard! And then, we have stage one of the electric loco for The Duronto Adventure. We're cutting the sheets, slowly but surely. I cut badly, rarely in a straight line. But does that stop me from enjoying it? Never! The process is slow ... Working on it a little every day, and loving it! … [Read more...]
Our Performance on Sunday
Performing for three minutes is often more trouble than it's worth ... not this time, though. People often assume that a three-minute performance is no big deal. Let's look at it this way, though. Leaving aside the time we take to choreograph, learn, coordinate and practise, we could just look at the day we perform. On Sunday, we performed at Empress Garden for Basant Utsav. The programme started at 9 in the morning. Wind back the clock. You need to factor in make-up, hair, costume and travel. We met at 6 to start. We got ready, made our way to Empress Garden, hung around until we performed ... And before we knew it, we were off stage again. But it was worth it simply because Empress Garden is such a lovely place to perform! Surrounded by trees, leaves crunching under our feet, a grey hornbill above us ... We were dressed and ready, well in time to take many, many … [Read more...]
Writers’ Club – The Last Session
A whole year with my first batch of the Writers' Club at St. Mary's School is over! We've written all kinds of things. I've put a few pieces up on my blog; I've made the girls write and rewrite, write and rewrite ... We did poetry, prose and drama. We worked with back stories, plot and setting. We played all kinds of games and we did all kinds of activities. And it was fun. During my first session, 60 children showed up. I knew many of them would not keep at it. I reminded them, several times, that if their compositions improved, or they began to write answers better, these would be side benefits. I warned them that I expected assignments to be submitted on time. And finally, about 15 stuck with it. They continued to attend sessions, even though writing regularly was tough, and I kept making them rework their pieces. During the orientation for the next batch, the girls kept … [Read more...]
Launch at National Rail Museum
I wrote about the launch of The Duronto Adventure and Bholu at the Level Crossing about three weeks ago. Finally, here are some pictures! The National Rail Museum was set up on the 1st of February, 1977. So, on the 1st of February this year, we were keen on launching at least the first book for each age-group. The Duronto Adventure, the first book for older readers, explores the electric locomotive, so here's a model that you can make for yourself if you have the kit! Bholu at the Level Crossing, the first book for younger readers, shows you a goods train. The goods train has (as one of my characters puts it) a 'big iron face'. The kit has a jigsaw puzzle of the big iron face! These books are not yet available at your local store, but they've officially been launched! And I'll keep you updated ... … [Read more...]
Reading Challenge at Dr Kalmadi Shamrao High School
Today was the closing ceremony of the Reading Challenge Programme at Dr Kalmadi Shamrao High School. Look at all the proud faces! I conducted two workshops for the children: one on idioms, the other on myths from different parts of the world. During the first one, we solved a crossword puzzle, played team games differentiating between idioms and proverbs, and attempted to guess the meanings of several idioms. I was very impressed by the number of idioms the children were able to explain! The second workshop I conduct as part of the Mythical Maze Reading Challenge is always more fun for the children. I divide them into groups and give each group a myth from some part of the world. All five groups work with myths explaining the same phenomenon - rain. They perform a skit, make a chart, explain the major ideas ... It was such fun, as always! This is just the beginning of a … [Read more...]
The Duronto Adventure Resource Pack
Of course I'm delighted with the books, but each book is also part of a complete resource pack! Each pack contains: A story A CD (with the ebook and lots of animation) A kit to build your own model of an electric locomotive! … [Read more...]
Two new books by Varsha Seshan!
It's been nearly four years since The Story-Catcher was published. Finally, here are two new books! Launched at the National Rail Museum yesterday, these books are currently available only at the Souvenir Shop of the museum. They are part of a kit that also contains a CD and an activity! Pictures of those will come soon ... The Duronto Adventure Chitra, Rohit, Priya and Deven are travelling by themselves for the first time. They are excited about their newfound independence, but little do they know that their journey is going to be even more adventurous than they imagine! When the train stops at Igatpuri and Rohit goes missing, Priya panics. Yet, this is only the beginning of a crazy ride ... Title The Duronto Adventure Author Varsha Seshan Illustrator Rishi Bhardwaj Genre Adventure Age-group 10+ Bholu at the Level Crossing Welcome to the … [Read more...]
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