Kieran is one of only two male Reception class teachers on the Isle of Wight.His days mainly consist of singing nursery rhymes, tying shoelaces, trying to locate who has had an ‘accident’ by sense of smell alone, and vast, endless mountains of paperwork. Author profile on GoodreadsAren't you interested already? Writing good author bios is an art. I remember the first one I had to write. I spent a day agonising over it and then asked my father to do it. He was much amused - I never ask for writing help - and he did it in three minutes.The Peculiars intrigued me for many reasons. The cover, of course, is lovely. Secondly, I do like Chicken House as a publisher. I like the fact that at the back of the book, they tell you which page to read to give the book a try. (I never do it, but I like the idea anyway.) And I love the three words they choose to describe the book. Hot Key books … [Read more...]
Paradise End
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 used to beat myself up about not finishing books, but I think somewhere along the line as a literature student, I realised that it was impossible for me to read everything I wanted to read. There were books I actually enjoyed but could not finish. Middlemarch comes to mind, but there were many others.When I started reading Paradise End by Elizabeth Laird, I was overly critical. There were parts where I got thoroughly annoyed with the protagonist Carly, but then, I warmed to her and to her story.And I realised yet again that for me, the greatest stories are stories of … [Read more...]
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 storytelling brought me so close to tears that I ended up impulsively buying a book of his. (I would have liked to buy them all, but my pocket didn't permit it.)Despite all the emotion that prompted me to buy his book, I somehow didn't end up reading The Last Tiger until yesterday. Perhaps that was to eke out the feeling of a special kind of storytelling, but also, perhaps I was frightened of being disappointed.I was not: I loved The Last Tiger. When I was about ten years old, I read an entire Childcraft encyclopedia, Nature in … [Read more...]
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 than I could take. And then I also remembered The Bone Sparrow, a wonderful tale of war and hope.Boy 87 fits somewhere between the two. At the stage when I was not sure if I could read on, I quickly skimmed through a few of the concluding pages. Was Shif going to be betrayed? Was something terrible going to happen?I never do this. But the dread was so sickening that I knew I would not be able to read it if things grew more traumatic.Boy 87 is about 14-year-old Shif, who is put into prison - not for something he does but for something he is going to do. … [Read 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. I didn't win the award, but that was the beginning of a new journey - one that has led to my first Scholastic publication, Dragonflies, Jigsaws, and Seashells (originally Dragonflies, Jigsaws and a Rainbow).Then, in 2017, I answered a call for papers and was invited to speak at the AFCC. I spoke at a panel on writing about us, as Asians, something that I have started coming across much more frequently. At the AFCC 2017, I experienced the energy of the festival once more, as I went from session to session, making the most of an event that brought writers, illustrators, editors and … [Read more...]
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 is a little Varsha inside me that celebrates, simply because the waiting period is over.That's why this week has been particularly incredible. So incredible that I don't know what to write about first. So, not in any order of importance, here goes.I was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award once more. In 2016, a collection of my short stories was shortlisted, and it will be published by Scholastic Asia later this year. This time, a novel titled Red Eyes is on the list!Mango Books published my book, The Prophecy of Rasphora, and you can now buy it easily at the Mango Books e-store or … [Read more...]
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 adding a few questions of my own. If you try the challenge too, let me know!Name a book written by an author called Michael Private Peaceful - Michael Morpurgo Name a book with a dragon on the cover The Dragon Whisperer - Lucinda Hare Name a book about a character called George George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl Name a book written by an author with the surname Smith The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency (okay, that's a series) - Alexander McCall Smith (Actually, is his surname hyphenated? Does this count?) Name a book set in Australia Golden Urchin - … [Read more...]
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, when I was with a huge group of friends and we simply could not make up our minds about what to order!But that's the lightest part of this review. What I liked most about the book requires a little background.Over the last couple of years, I have actively been searching for literature that seeks to be inclusive and diverse. In the beginning, I was impressed by the books I was reading. As I went on, though, I felt that children with disabilities were being included not in the spirit of inclusivity, but as what I found myself calling the … [Read more...]
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 moments fill Calypso up - moments of warmth, hugs and laughter. Moments when her father smiled more and did not work all the time.Above all, Calypso's father values inner strength. Inner strength is what makes it possible for you to live on your own, independent. If you have inner strength, you don't cry. You don't need a shoulder to cry on. And if the people you love die, you still carry on. You survive.These are truths that Calypso knows, even though her inner strength somehow keeps deserting her. Perhaps she is not strong enough.When Mae befriends … [Read more...]
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 know about the Rohingyas? What do we do when we read news about their persecution? We feel bad and we turn to something else. Maybe we share the news we read. Or maybe, if we come across something on Facebook, we put a 'sad' or 'angry' before going on to like someone else's post.The Bone Sparrow is written from the point of view of a young Rohingya boy, Subhi, born in an Australian refugee camp. Subhi knows his ba is coming back. In fact, sometimes, he even find little treasures his father sends to him across the Night Sea. One moment, you're chuckling at his little quirks - for instance, he has … [Read more...]