Rain Must Fall by Nandita Basu is such a beautiful read! I devoured it in one sitting, and I loved it. Anya, Rumi's best friend, asks whom Rumi would like to go on a date with. Rumi makes the mistake of being honest and saying 'you'. After all, you can be truthful with your best friend, can't you? And it isn't really as if Rumi has a romantic interest in Anya; it was just a game. Wasn't it? Maybe not. Because gossip and cruel jokes begin on the school group. Soon, Rumi discovers that neither parents nor schoolmates can accept the idea of a non-binary individual. Schoolmates think it's a joke, and Rumi's parents think therapy is the "solution". Away from it all, in a small town, Rumi discovers and befriends a ghost, Rain. Both Rain and Rumi are trapped, alone and misunderstood. As human and ghost get to know each other better, Rain begins to remember snippets of his life, and … [Read more...]
January Reads
In December, I visited a books by weight sale, and I couldn't resist picking up seven books that were in near-mint condition! I couldn't finish one, but I read the other six, some of which I quite enjoyed, and others that I loved. Here they are, listed in an unusual way for me - from the one I enjoyed least to the one I enjoyed most. 3.5/5 Fan Fiction, Feminist, Ages 10+I enjoy reading spin-offs of classics. Off the top of my head, the ones that come to mind are Wide Sargasso Sea, Wishing for Tomorrow and Lilliput, though I'm sure there are many more that I've read and loved.Hook's Daughter was the first Peter Pan spin-off I've read! After I finished reading it, I learned that it is the first of a series of revenge stories by Heidi Schulz, but it works well as a standalone story too. Captain Hook doesn't … [Read more...]
Green Reads – Part 2
The Golden Eagle. With its gorgeous pictures and gripping storyline, it drew us in. "I think I'm going to like this even more than The Butterfly Lion," said one child. Just by chance, all three books we read during this edition of my book club featured animals. Manolita has seals; the title The Butterfly Lion says it all - butterflies and lions; The Golden Eagle has a profusion of birds. Many of the children have never seen storks, ospreys, harriers, green pigeons and thrushes, and the book brought these alive to us. It was time for a follow-up activity, one that we threw our hearts into. What birds would you like to talk to us about? That was the only question I asked the children at my book club. "I hope to go to Zimbabwe someday and see the African Fish Eagle," said Amritayu. Eagles fascinate him, and even more so because of the book we read on the golden eagle. "The … [Read more...]
Green Reads – Part 1
On social media, I've been seeing posts about book club facilitators introducing green reads to children. "What a lovely idea," I found myself thinking. I've always loved stories about the environment. I read post after post, and then I stopped. Wait a minute! I'm reading green reads with my book clubbers too - A Very Naughty Dragon with two bunches of seven and eight-year-olds, and The Golden Eagle with the slightly older ones! So, I reached out to Archana, who runs AA's Book Nerds, asking if she'd like me to jump on the bandwagon. I had no idea how structured her Green Reads mission was, but ... We're trying to draw attention to our role as book club hosts and indies and our contributions in the kidlit space.Archana Atri, AA's Book Nerds Perfect! And so, here's where one of our explorations of A Very Naughty Dragon led us. As planned, we started reading this book with the last … [Read more...]
Adventure on Wheels
Adventure on Wheels is such a rollicking read! The book opens with two thieves stealing a van that belongs to an orphanage. The theft itself is simple enough, but when they discover three children hiding in the van, they're up against more than they'd bargained for. At once heart-warming and hilarious, Adventure on Wheels is a fun book that I can't wait to share with my book club! Unlikely Heroes When we think about the main character in a story, what kind of character do we usually have in mind? Subbu and Golu are thieves! Can they be the heroes of the story? Or is there another story that helps us understand why these two are off to rob a toy store?At my book club, to begin an exploration of the idea of a back story, I will ask the children to come up with characters that seem negative, and then work on what makes them the way they … [Read more...]
My Father’s Dragon
I rarely choose to read classics at my book club, and My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett is, without doubt, a classic. I'm waiting for those wide-eyed comments about it having been published in NINETEEN FORTY-EIGHT!But this is one of those classics that I'm convinced will be good fun to read with my book club. It's quirky, imaginative, and full of unexpected twists and turns from the very first page. A talking cat, tigers that love chewing gum, a rhinoceros that wants a white horn ... each chapter is full of marvels! Best of all is that the story is not about rescuing someone from a dragon; it is about rescuing the dragon itself. I love it!Here's what we will do with the book at my reading programme. Wild Island Like all lovely works of fantasy, My Father's Dragon begins with a map. The map of Wild Island says 'my father doesn't know … [Read more...]
About Average
I read Frindle some time ago and loved it. I considered using it for my online reading programme, but it's so well known that I figured that many children would have read it, or at least heard of it, already. How about something by the same author, but less known? And that's how I stumbled upon About Average by Andrew Clements.Jordan is about average in every way, or so it seems to her. She isn't short or tall. She isn't pretty or ugly. Her grades are average too. Soon, she will graduate from elementary school, but she still hasn't discovered what she is good at. It seems, somehow, that she isn't good at anything! She's average, and that's all there is to that.But then, with her orderliness, her niceness and her simple attention to detail, she discovers during a crisis that maybe, just maybe, she isn't about average. In fact, simply because of her ordinary, … [Read more...]
My Favourite Young Adult Books from 2021
I didn't read very many young adult books in 2021, and several that I did read proved to be disappointing. With some, I know I was probably being unfair because I have high expectations of authors I've read and loved. I left a number of books unfinished; when there are so many books out there waiting to be read, why plough through books I have to push myself to read? Five YA books stood out to me, though, and I can't help seeing both how similar they are and how very different. Postbox Kashmir This is probably the first time a work of nonfiction features on a list of my top reads! Postbox Kashmir was not a quick read, no. However, for all readers, I think some books are just worth reading, however slowly you need to read them. With Postbox Kashmir, there was so much for me to process that I wanted to take my time over it. A balanced, objective story … [Read more...]
The School is Alive!
This is the first time I will be reading a spooky book with my book club for ages seven and eight! One of the British Council reading challenge themes was Creepy House, so I've worked extensively with slightly scary stories for all age-groups, but because it was never one of my go-to genres as a child, I took a while to bring myself around to the idea of introducing a scary book to the children I meet.Yet, The School is Alive is the perfect mixture of thrilling and comforting. When Sam Graves becomes the hall monitor at Eerie Elementary, he has no idea that the school is hungry to eat its students! Sam finds an unlikely ally in the caretaker Mr Nekobi, and together with his other friends, he's more than a match for his school!Here's what we'll do with the book at my reading programme. Creepy Alphabet This is an activity I never tire of … [Read more...]
My Favourite Middle-Grade Books from 2021
I didn't read as many middle-grade books as usual in 2021, something I hope to remedy in 2022. Of those that I read, however, these six stood out. The first two are early middle-grade books, while the other four are for more advanced readers. Roughly, I would set the age-group for all six as 9-12. As with my favourite chapter books, I've included only those that I read for the first time last year, not well-loved rereads! The Golden Eagle The Golden Eagle by Deepak Dalal is a gorgeous book, with stunning illustrations by Krishna Bala Shenoi and a thrilling story to keep us hooked. One of the children at my book club told me it is his favourite read so far! The white-headed squirrel Shikar wants to know about his parents, about where he came from and how he came to make friends with the birds. And so, Lovey and Dovey set out to tell him a story, the story of the golden … [Read more...]
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