The name itself makes my eyes sparkle. Trouble with magic? That sounds promising! And it is. I giggled my way through the book, chuckling at the hapless Aunt Malu and charmed by the enterprising Veena. Aunt Malu should have known better, but … therein lies the tale! Why is this book part of my reading […]
To Night Owl From Dogfish
I love epistolary novels. I think I’ve always loved them; they intrigue me. Off the top of my head, I think about Dear Mrs Naidu, Ketchup Clouds, Daddy Long-Legs and The Night Diary, though I’m sure I’ll think of several more by the time I finish writing this blog post. To Night Owl from Dogfish […]
The Sheep-Pig
A few months ago, one of my publishers, Mango Books, began a series of posts on social media about books authors read when they were young. The book I chose was The Sheep-Pig, a delightful chapter book by a favourite writer, Dick King-Smith. Dick King-Smith’s stories are a treat. I loved The Sheep-Pig, the sequel […]
Shrinking Vanita
Shrinking Vanita is a delightful read, full of laughter, madness and the unshakeable belief that children can and will save the world! With a little help, of course. From a puppy called Giggles and a bag full of fridge magnets. Three days to go before a gigantic killer asteroid will end life on Earth! Everyone […]
Nomad’s Land
Last evening, I spoke to the friend who gave me Nomad’s Land for my birthday.“Are you okay?” she asked. “You sound like you have a cold.”I promised her I was fine. “But I just sobbed over Nomad’s Land.” How does one review a book as beautiful as Nomad’s Land? It’s one of those books that […]
Welcome to Nowhere
When I read books like Welcome to Nowhere, part of me reads with a sinking heart for I realise that I don’t have the courage to tell stories like this. Yes, I do know that every story matters and each one has a role to play, but powerful books like this are in a class […]
Online Reading Programme
I’ve been working with the British Library’s reading challenge for a long time. I’ve worked with a range of themes – Circus Stars, Mythical Maze, Record Breakers, The Big Friendly Read, Animal Agents … And I’ve enjoyed each one. I love the range of books the British Library has, and the reading challenge collection is […]
Out of My Mind
Why had I never heard of this book? Published in 2010, Out of My Mind was on the New York Times bestseller list for two years, and I just read it! When I wrote about Moonrise a few weeks ago, I mentioned how children often ask me which the first book that made me cry […]
How to Be a Writer
My online creative writing programme served as the perfect excuse to get a copy of How to Be a Writer. And as I read it, every few lines, I found myself thinking, “This, exactly this!” For the first time, I highlighted sections all over the book (ebook, not physical book, just saying) simply because so […]
Giggi and Daddy and Four Others
Yes, this post is about five picture books I read last week, but Giggi and Daddy is special, so special that I think it’s probably one of my favourite picture books of all time! I bought a bunch of books at Pickle Yolk Books’ birthday sale and ah! I could read all of them over and over […]
Queen of Earth
In the author’s note at the end of Queen of Earth, author Devika Rangachari talks of Queen Prithvimahadevi’s story having been ignored by gendered historiography. That gave me pause. I’ve barely thought about that. I’ve barely thought about all the women who, most certainly, made significant changes to the course of history, but have been […]
Moonrise
I’ve been so busy working with my online creative writing programme that I simply haven’t had the time to write about all the books I’ve been reading. Two of them stand out, and one of those is Sarah Crossan’s Moonrise. This is the fourth book that I’m reading by this wonderful writer, and it seems […]
A Week of Reviews
As a writer, receiving (nice) reader reviews is always delightful. This week has been special! One child read How I Feel as part of his weekly library activity and enjoyed it thoroughly. When he found out that I was the author, he was thrilled because he’s read Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells too! And that was just […]
Number the Stars
What does it mean to be brave? And how can we help one another to be brave? Number the Stars is a beautiful work of historical fiction set in Denmark during the second world war. I love historical fiction that comes alive to me. Some time ago, I wrote about ten works of middle-grade historical […]
One Crazy Summer
I took a while to get sucked into One Crazy Summer. I was intrigued, yes, both by the setting and by the characters. Yet, I needed more. I wanted to like the characters, which I could not really do–also because you’re not meant to. Delphine, Vonetta and Fern go to Oakland to visit their mother […]
Inside Out and Back Again
When a ten-year-old is forced to leave Saigon and immigrate, what would she go through? After having been one of the smartest students in class back home in Saigon, she is at the bottom of the class in Alabama. What would that be like? Her new classmates can’t understand that her name isn’t Ha, but […]
Nine Days of Spine Poetry
I’ve been fascinated by spine poetry for a while, but I’ve just been too lazy to try it out. A couple of weeks ago, I shed the laziness and began. Like all kinds of writing, I liked some poems more than others. Some of the poems were so unappealing after a couple of days, that […]
5 Times Fictional Friendship Won My Heart
When I was at school, Friendship Day was associated with all kinds of secrecy. We would hide writing boards under our desks, and make friendship bands while pretending to listen to the teacher. Friendship bands would get confiscated, much to our indignation. They came under the category of ‘ornaments’, which were prohibited. Some girls made […]
When Morning Comes
I haven’t read or studied much about South Africa, though I do remember studying about apartheid and Nelson Mandela in school. Yet, when we’re children, it’s easy to think of things as ‘long ago’. Even a year is a long time in a child’s life. Reading When Morning Comes, I realised with quite a shock […]
Flyaway Boy
What an unexpected book! I’ve been meaning to read Flyaway Boy for a while, but technological problems came in the way. I bought a Kindle edition only to learn that the ebook is not compatible with my Kindle, which meant that I had to read it on my laptop. Sitting at my laptop and reading […]