Especially when I’m struggling with my writing, I find myself wondering all kinds of things. What makes a good book? What keeps me reading? When do I roll my eyes at melodrama, and when do I have to swallow a gulp in my throat? Where are all these boundaries? Also, I’m a picky reader. I […]
History Mysteries: The Last Tiger
The Last Tiger broke my heart. The thylacine – what a wonderful, curious animal. A pouched dog with a wolf’s face. A dog with stripes. The Tasmanian tiger. At the Asian Festival of Children’s Content last month, I attended a talk by the history hunter, Mark Greenwood. It was a talk that filled me up. His […]
Boy 87
Boy 87 came frighteningly close to becoming too much for me as a reader. As I read on, there was one stage where I was filled with a sickening sense of dread. I remembered Chalkline, which I could not finish reading because it was so well told that the story was overwhelmingly traumatic for me – more […]
Back from AFCC 2018
Four years ago, I had not heard of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. I did not know that Singapore’s National Library had 16 floors of books. And then, I was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award 2016, which was momentous enough for me to buy a festival pass and attend my first AFCC. […]
Today I Am … A Writer!
The worst thing about being a writer is not writer’s block. Not by a long stretch. The worst thing is all the waiting. Waiting for people to respond. Waiting for a book to be ready. Waiting for a book to hit the market. Every time I get an email – even a rejection – there […]
Memory Challenge!
I sometimes happen upon random blogs and I loved this one, so I decided to do it myself! The idea is to try to answer these questions without sneakily checking online or peeking over your shoulder at the bookshelf behind you. I’m taking the challenge I got from The Book Blogger memory challenge and then […]
Kittu’s Very Mad Day
Packed with more characters than I could count, reading Kittu’s Terrible Horrible No Good Very Mad Day is a crazy experience. Kittu’s family is the most chaotic one in the world – and the description of the entire family ordering a meal made me chuckle because it is absolutely en pointe. I remember being embarrassed, nearly mortified, […]
A Library of Lemons
The cover of A Library of Lemons caught me with one line – ‘The bittersweet story of a family lost in books’. A family lost in books. Like mine? A Library of Lemons was nothing like anything I imagined. Young Calypso lives with just her father; her mother died of ovarian cancer when Calypso was just five. Half-remembered […]
The Bone Sparrow
‘I wish this book had never needed to be written. I wish that the circumstances that led me to write this story had never occurred.’ I close my eyes at the end of The Bone Sparrow, and I echo Zana Fraillon’s words. I wish she had never needed to write the book. What do we […]
When She Went Away
I was a little sceptical about reading a book called When She Went Away. A book with a name like that could well be a melodramatic romance novel, which really is not my type. I typically don’t even finish reading stories that are too melodramatic for me; enjoying them is a long way away. And I […]
The Not-a-Pig
I’m still chuckling over Mango and Bambang #1 – The Not-a-Pig. It was just such a crazy, sweet book! Another story about an unlikely friendship, The Not-a-Pig is about a girl called Mango and a tapir! And I don’t know about you, but I’ve never read a book about a tapir before. There is a huge traffic […]
The A-Z Djinn Detective Agency
Ashwin Kamath is determined to earn enough money to sponsor his own school trip. Unfortunately, his determination translates into one disastrous idea after another. On the surface, each idea seems perfectly harmless. When the idea turns into action, the madness begins. Things take a delightful turn when Ashwin finds a book on summoning a djinni. […]
Daddy Come Lately
Priya knows that her father is dead. She is a ‘post-humorous’ child, as she calls herself until her mother gently corrects her, saying that it is ‘posthumous’, not post-humorous – and that she isn’t posthumous anyway. Her father is alive, and has just found out that he has a daughter. Worse, he wants not only […]
Dear Mrs. Naidu
Dear Mrs. Naidu has been on my list of books to read for a long time now. I finally read it today, and it came at the perfect time. Sure, the book is important. It is an eye-opener. But to talk about just those things to the exclusion of all else is to take away […]
The Elephant Thief
The Elephant Thief was one of those books that I would have loved to read as a child, and thoroughly enjoyed as an adult. At the back of the book, there are three words that describe it – animal, adventure and thrilling. I think the first two sum up the book perfectly. I wouldn’t go as […]
Just Henry
Have you read Goodnight Mister Tom? If you haven’t, you must. I can’t quite believe that I never wrote about the book. It’s a classic, one that touched something deep inside me, the way only classics can. I remember the first time I read the book – I borrowed it from the library, and read and read […]
How Not to Disappear
Wow. What a wonderful book. It kept me reading and reading and reading. I had to wipe away tears more than once, and I kept shaking my head at the power the story had over me. For me, How Not to Disappear is not a Young Adult book, and I cannot understand how it is classified […]
The Lie Tree
The Lie Tree looked fascinating, but I wondered if it was my kind of book. Everyone who was quoted on the cover said it was ‘dark’ and compelling, and I cannot say that I am a fan of dark literature. I get scared too easily, and I don’t enjoy getting scared. I decided to borrow it […]
Books that I must write about!
I couldn’t wait any longer. I just had to write about at least some of the books I’ve been reading. Last night, I sat and reread Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It’s not my favourite, but then, it’s Harry Potter, probably the only series of books I’ve ever stayed up reading. I even took part […]
My Name’s not Friday
My Name’s Not Friday. I love the title. My name is not Friday. It says so much to me. In the afterword, Jon Walter talks about markers in the book like the embargo on cotton, which happened in the first year of the American Civil War. Yet, he warns the reader that if you try too […]