Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells

Read about a magical creature collecting seashells, a boy befriending a bird, a colour-blind girl triumphing in art Class and many more… Heartwarming and sweet, this delightful collection of short stories explores the joy and wonder hidden in ordinary things.

This book was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award 2016. The award honours the best of Asian writing in English.

Read about my journey with this book here, and explore activities you can do based on this book here.

Reviews

Book review by Sunandini (Amazon)

The book- Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells is a collection of short stories written by Varsha Seshan. She has woven them all together beautifully. When I first read this book, I was so engrossed in it that I took no notice as I kept turning the page. I was gobbling the stories up quickly, much like I gobble up food. Now I will speak about one of my favourite stories from this book.
The Glass-blower’s Daughter:This story is about a young girl who loves the jaltaranga even though she dislikes practicing it. She has always been surrounded by glass and she thinks that it is beautiful. The way Varsha Seshan has written this story brings it to life immediately.

Book review by Anika (Goodreads)

Charming, Heartwarming and Wonderful.
If I had to describe this collection of stories in 3 words, these would be the words I would choose. As a reader and aspiring writer, I tend to gravitate towards young adult and fantasy novels; I like getting lost and escaping into a make believe world full of adventure and magic. This collection reminded me of the most mundane scenes of life; scenes which we often tend to take for granted. I love the easy and simple to read writing style, and the way even the smallest of incidents can be so important for the characters. Reading about little children reminded me of moments from my childhood that I seemed to have forgotten. My favorite stories were Moonstone’s Seashells and A Drawing Lesson.

Book review by Samiksha (Amazon)

This book is very well written. All the stories are very heart-warming and the best part about them is the simplicity and the tone of hope and happiness. I would recommend this book to people of all ages.

Book review by Sophie (Goodreads)

I loved all the stories in this book. I love how the stories give us just a glimpse of the lives of the characters, letting us see the world through their eyes, for just a minute, leaving an impression of sunlight and beauty. I loved how diverse the characters were; a boy with a stammer, a glassblower’s daughter, a colour blind girl, a village boy, teachers; all of them with their unique dreams and desires. I think my two favourite stories were ‘The glassblower’s daughter’ and ‘Yash’s friend’. I love the style of writing, so subtle, with no unnecessary words, but sp grounded in the senses. I knew exactly what the children sounded like and I was transported back to a school bus, a window overlooking a tree full of birds, or a classroom. These stories remind me of the simplicity and beauty of everyday life.

Book review by Arundhati Nath (Amazon)

This is a collection of charming children’s short stories of different hues authored by Varsha Seshan and published by Scholastic Asia. I think this would be a good read for slightly older children, say 9+. I have completed reading it yesterday and really liked the stories about Aniket, Yash, Gokul and Jyoti Srinivas.

 

Excerpt

Tanaya stood on tiptoe, trying to peer into the school library. She could just about see the librarian, Mr Kaushik Natraj, sitting at his desk and scribbling furiously in a notebook.

‘What?’ asked Tanishq, who was too short to look for himself. He was bouncing with impatience. ‘What can you see? What can you see?’ He held a pretend walkie-talkie and spoke into it, ‘Detective Tanishq to Detective Tanaya. Calling Detective Tanaya.’

‘Nothing,’ said Tanaya with a sigh. ‘He’s still writing.’

Tanishq’s shoulders drooped and he let go of his mock walkie-talkie. ‘Wha-at? Still? I mean … Why do you need to write so much if you’re just planning a treasure-hunt?’

Tanaya clicked her tongue. ‘And it’s not as if he’s organising one for the first time. He does it each year! How can it require so much planning?’

For the past week, Mr Natraj had kept the library shut for hours on end, locked up inside with his books. All library visits for prep school and middle school had been cancelled. And every afternoon, when school was over, the library dustbin was full of bits of chart-paper and ribbon. Perseverant spies like Tanaya felt that Mr Natraj was deliberately pretending to be plotting and scheming, just to build the anticipation. Whenever she peeked, if he was not writing, she would see him pacing up and down, rubbing his hands and muttering to himself. His eyes had a strange glint to them, as if he was more excited than the children.

Listen to a story!

Here is a video of me reading one of the stories in the collection, “Treasure Hunt” (excerpt above). The cover in the video is different because that is the Scholastic Asia (not Scholastic India) version, published in 2018.