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 fiction set in ten different places, and if I had to rewrite the piece, I would add Number the Stars to the list.Annemarie, who lives with her family in Copenhagen, knows stories about courage, but she is sure that if her bravery is ever tested, she will fall short of the mark. Other people are brave, not she. In tales about the Resistance and stories about their beloved king, people are brave. Not she.However, just before the Jewish New Year, the rabbi announces that Jewish homes will be raided. Annemarie's neighbours, the Rosens, must flee. Young Ellen comes to stay with … [Read more...]
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 Cecile. Cecile is unwelcoming--she does not want them there, she never asked them to come, and she makes it clear that they must stay out of her way. Delphine, the eleven-year-old narrator, is shocked that she does not even call herself Cecile anymore. She is a poet, Nzila, actively involved with the Black Panthers, and she sends them off for a summer camp where they can get free breakfast and stay occupied all day.It is a turbulent time and Delphine is more than a little nervous. She is supposed to take care of her sisters, but how is she supposed to do that when her mother sends them away … [Read more...]
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 Hà, with the diacritical mark. How can she stop them from teasing her by saying 'Ha Ha, Ha Ha'?In the notes at the end of Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhhà Lai explains why she chose to write the book in verse. When the ten-year-old protagonist Hà is going through such a turbulent time, she would not think or talk in beautiful, formed prose. Her thoughts would be stark, simple, also bringing alive the sense that she is thinking in a language other than English.It was this simplicity that made the telling so sensitive. Hà is not the perfect protagonist. She pinches her partner in … [Read more...]
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 I didn't even bother to share them. But for the rest, over the last nine days, I have been sharing a poem a day on my social media handles.Here they are, all together. Which one(s) do you like most?Edited to add: I deleted one! I don't like it anymore.If sweetness is something you look for in poetry ...Once Upon a More Enlightened Time At the Back of the North Wind In An Antique Land A Song BeginsHere is a slightly dark one.Night-Time is My Time I, Lucifer Incognito Knock Down The Innocent ManThis one was just fun. I saw the first and third books … [Read more...]
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 beautiful friendship bands and their chosen friends wore those bands like badges of honour, hiding them in their pockets whenever teachers were around.Today, Friendship Day makes me smile. Yes, friendship is something I treasure, and I try hard to write about. I try to give it the warmth and passion that infuses the friendship of childhood. Not long ago, a child wrote a book review of The Prophecy of Rasphora, featuring three friends - Tara, Vandana and Afreen. It warmed my heart that the review referred to the three as sisters.Friendship in … [Read more...]
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 that 1976, the year when the book is set, was not so long ago. The Immorality Act astounded me, for I read about it with a clear understanding of how recently it was a reality. It made me think of posts I've seen on social media recently talking about pamphlets discouraging inter-racial marriage. It made me realise, again, how long the journey ahead is.I remember learning about Mandela being the first president of South Africa, and about him fighting apartheid. I was much older when I realised that what I studied was not history--he was the first president of South Africa as I was … [Read more...]
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 doesn't feel like reading at all. It feels like I'm working, even though I do so much that is not work when I'm at my laptop. I love to lounge and read and my laptop isn't really conducive to that.But Flyaway Boy was a delight. I took a while to read it, much longer than I would have over a physical book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.I chuckled at the audacity of the book, revelling in how it surprised a laugh out of me at the oddest of places. The protagonist Kabir is a joy. He's a child after my own heart, a dreamer, an imaginer, a starry-eyed free spirit. But more, I love the storytelling, … [Read more...]
The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling
I met author Wai Chim at the Asian Festival of Children's Content in 2017. I didn't just meet her, we were part of the same panel, called Writing About Us. She came for my book launch, a poorly attended event because I knew very few people there in Singapore, and the launch was tucked away in the basement. Don't get me wrong. The basement was beautiful. It was the children's library and the most stunning one I've seen. The problem was there was no way of getting people's attention and having random passers-by attend.Wai Chim came for the event, though, I remember, and I was touched. That year, another book of hers was available at the festival bookstore, Closetful of Books - Freedom Swimmer. I was struck by the idea of the story, but somehow, though it's been on my list of books to read for a while, I never got around to reading it.A couple of weeks ago, I finally bought The … [Read more...]
The Misfits
The story of how I got my hands on The Misfits is a tale in itself. I ordered it during the Zubaan Women's Day sale, and it was dispatched about a week later. With the lockdown and then Nisarga, it never came. There was no way to track it and quite honestly, I didn't try very much. It was too tiny a problem to worry about when it felt like the world was collapsing around us. I just gave up, figuring that I would order the book again some other time.And then, out of the blue, on the 14th of June, a little over 3 months after I placed my order, I got a call from a courier company saying my parcel was at the gate. The cardboard cover was slightly worse for wear, but my books were intact!And I loved The Misfits. It was perfect in so many ways. It's the story of very real children in a very real school. We see two misfits in particular: one who tries to belong and one who realises that … [Read more...]
The Ammuchi Puchi
I've been looking at books from Lantana Publishing for a while, and I want to read so many of them! The books look gorgeous and for the most part, receive glowing reviews too. When I discovered that The Ammuchi Puchi is being offered as a free ebook in times of Corona, I sank my teeth in.Stories about grief are important. I wrote about Boo! When My Sister Died, a book that deals with death and love. The Ammuchi Puchi is another beautiful book that addresses the difficult topic of death in a book for children.Aditya and Anjali used to be slightly scared of their grandmother, their Ammuchi. Her teeth were stained with red betelnut juice and she told them frightening stories about ghosts.Soon, though, the children began to enjoy the stories, and contribute to them too. Ammuchi, they realised, was special. On Anjali's birthday, Ammuchi gives her a beautiful butterfly-shaped … [Read more...]