Karma Tandin is a monster hunter, and he is determined to capitalise on it. With his friend Chimmi’s help, he makes posters advertising his services. Among other things, he hopes to impress pretty Dawa, who, for whatever reason, continually seems disappointed in him. Unfortunately, the poster does not turn out very well; the photograph of […]
Catching Up – Reading
Picture books The thing about picture books is that I read so many delightful ones one after the other, particularly thanks to Storyweaver. I finish one, another is recommended to me and I read it … And so, I don’t end up writing about any of them! Here are a few that stayed with me. […]
The Mighty Miss Malone
Deza Malone’s teeth are rotting, but her family cannot afford the luxury of a dentist. Her elder brother Jimmie has achieved the grand height of a twelve-year-old and does not seem to be growing any further. Eating welfare food – sometimes filled with bugs – is normal for the Malones. Set in the years of […]
A Tigress Called Machhli
A Tigress Called Machhli has added at least three places to my neverending list of places I want to visit: Kokkare Bellur, the village of storks, Kalo Dungar in the Rann of Kutch and Jawai for the leopards. A collection of true animal stories promised to be delightful, and A Tigress Called Machhli did not let me down. I loved the lighthearted […]
Al Capone Does My Shirts
Doesn’t the title just grab your attention? The edition of Al Capone Does My Shirts that I picked up begins with a letter from the author Gennifer Choldenko, where she talks about having set out to write a book for boys. And somehow, Natalie, an autistic sixteen-year-old, slipped into the story, making it far more steeped in emotion than […]
One
Every so often, you come across a book that brings life around you to a standstill. It makes you stop and feel more than you think you are capable of feeling. It makes you hug yourself and breathe, so that you don’t get lost in the raw beauty of human emotion. And as I live […]
Hell and High Water
Recently, I wrote about rereading The Goldsmith’s Daughter by Tanya Landman and looking out for more books by her. I almost didn’t pick up Hell and High Water because the cover did not catch my eye. Only when I noticed the name of the writer did I pick up the book–and I’m so glad I did. Hell and High Water was just as […]
The Extraordinary Colours of Auden Dare
I took a while to sink my teeth into The Extraordinary Colours of Auden Dare. I went slowly through the first few chapters: I found the narrative voice a little puzzling, and I could not figure out whether I liked the protagonist, Auden Dare. Once I got sucked into the book, though, it was a different story. The cover asks […]
The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day
As I read The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day, I realised yet again that Christopher Edge is a writer I want to look out for. The first book I read of his was probably Twelve Minutes to Midnight. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up buying two copies of it – one to keep and one to gift. Somehow, the sequel, […]
The Bubble Boy
I had just started reading The Bubble Boy, when I came across an article on ‘sick-lit’, which made me think. There really are a lot of books about children who are ill, but I’d never thought about it in that way. And yes, the idea of the dying girl redeeming a broken man would irritate me. As […]
On Rereading
As a child, I thought rereading books was a H*U*G*E waste of time. I devoured books, especially Enid Blytons, and later, Roald Dahls. I read the odd Richmal Crompton, went on to the classics – loved Five Children and It, pushed myself through others, left still others incomplete. But one thing I rarely did was reread. I did […]
Wildwitch Wildfire
Wildwitch Wildfire. The name seems to hark back to an earlier time, a time when magic was different, ancient, unknown. Yet, the cover, with its bright red, and a cat staring a girl down gave me the idea of something almost modern. I picked it up, curious about what it would offer–and put it down when […]
Septopus: Trouble on the High Cs
Question 1: How many books have you read about octopuses?Question 2: How many books have you read about an octopus with seven and a half tentacles?Question 3: How many books have you read about an octopus band – an oct-estra – playing Mozart? The answers to those questions will show you how unusual, unexpected and […]
No. 9 on the Shade Card
When I started reading No. 9 on the Shade Card, I was not sure if I would enjoy it. I liked the idea, and I was fascinated by the fact that we never seemed to learn the narrator’s name. We know her so well, but we don’t know her name – unless I just missed it because I got too […]
The Night Diary
Recently, I revisited a review of a book I loved – My Name is Rose. The book made a particularly powerful impression on me because the lead character cannot speak, not because she is mute, but because of the weight of the world on her shoulders. Nisha from The Night Diary is a character just like that. Already overcome by […]
The Diamond of Drury Lane
I love Julia Golding. There were a couple that I didn’t end up writing about – The Glass Swallow and Ringmaster (Darcie Lock Book 1), but there were others that I devoured and simply had to gush about. Here are four that come to mind: Empty Quarter (Girl on the Run Book 2) Dragonfly Cat’s Cradle The Middle Passage And now, […]
Dead Man’s Cove
The cover of Dead Man’s Cove, the first of the Laura Marlin Mysteries, has a snippet from a review, proclaiming that the book will delight Enid Blyton fans. And so, even though I read the second book, Kidnap in the Caribbean, some time ago, I began this one with different expectations. The most wonderful part was that those expectations were […]
Me and Mister P
There are times when only a polar bear will do …” Arthur and Liam’s Mum I’m still smiling as I write this review, even though I finished reading Me and Mister P yesterday. It’s such a charming read, one that reminded me of Nurse Matilda and Mary Poppins. Except that there’s no nanny here – because there are times when […]
The Little Rainmaker
It is the year 2028, and it hasn’t rained for ten years. The last time it rained, Anoushqa was in her mother’s womb. She kicked when it rained. That’s her only experience of rain, an experience that she does not even remember. Sometimes, she wonders if rain is even real, or just part of one […]
The Lies We Tell
I finished reading The Lies We Tell last night. I woke up this morning, still disturbed. For a moment, I just had a vague sense of unease that I could not place, but a few seconds later, I knew I was still in another place, in another character. I was still Irfan Ahmed. I read Talking of Muskaan two years […]