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Varsha Seshan

The Shy Supergirl

September 1, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

When I launched my book club in December 2020, I began with a hOle book, Trouble with Magic by Asha Nehemiah, and somehow, that became a tradition. During each edition of my book club, the first book we read is a hOle book. This time, it’s Shabnam Minwalla’s The Shy Supergirl. The Shy Supergirl is such a lovely, […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, hOle books, online reading programme, reading, review, Shabnam Minwalla, The Shy Supergirl

Help, My Aai Wants to Eat Me!

July 6, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Yes, Help, My Aai Wants to Eat Me! is as mad and fun as it sounds. I know LOTS of people who express affection by saying they want to eat people up. People like Avi’s Aai who thinks Avi is so adorable that she wants to eat him. The problem is that Avi thinks she’s for real. […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Bijal Vachharajani, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Help My Aai Wants to Eat Me, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading, review

Ivy + Bean

July 4, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Every so often, at my book club, I choose a popular, internationally loved book. We’ve read The Rise of the Earth Dragon, The Absent Author, The Sheep-Pig … and now, we’ll read Ivy + Bean. The enemies to friends trope is always fun. Ivy and Bean never meant to like each other. In fact, Bean is quite sure she has enough […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Annie Barrows, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Ivy and Bean, online reading programme, reading, review, Sophie Blackall

Frindle

July 3, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I read Frindle quite a long time ago, and it’s EXACTLY my kind of book. I didn’t end up reviewing it on my blog because I kept waiting for a time when I felt I could read it with my book club. I almost selected it once, but one of my regular book clubbers was reading it […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Andrew Clements, book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, Frindle, online reading programme, reading, review

The Great River Magic

July 2, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The Great River Magic by Nandini Nayar is one of those books with a message, not usually an obvious choice for me to read at my book club. Yet, as I read this book, I was charmed by the premise. I love stories about families, family traditions, and the ways in which people follow or break […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Nandini Nayar, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading, review, The Great River Magic

Petu Pumpkin – Tiffin Thief

June 30, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

We’ve read Bookasura and Koobandhee; we’re all set for yet another book by Arundhati Venkatesh – Petu Pumpkin: Tiffin Thief. Petu Pumpkin. Isn’t it a fun name? And doesn’t it seem apt that he would be a tiffin thief? The question is: what can his friends do about the fact that Pushkin aka Petu Pumpkin eats everyone’s food? They […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Arundhati Venkatesh, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, hOle books, online reading programme, online workshops for children, Petu Pumpkin: Tiffin Thief, reading, review

My Grandmother’s Masterpiece

May 25, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

So often, we think of our grandparents simply as grandparents. We are the centre of the universe after all, aren’t we? But Nini discovers that there is more to her grandmother than just being a grandmother. A stray conversation leads her to ask her mother to buy a box of paints for her grandmother, her […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Madhurima Vidyarthi, My Grandmother's Masterpiece, online reading programme, reading, review

Ghosts Don’t Eat

March 14, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Ghosts Don’t Eat is the third of Anushka Ravishankar’s books that we’re reading at my online reading programme, and it promises to be just as much fun! We read Moin and the Monster at my book club for slightly older readers and the first of the Zain and Ana books, At Least a Fish, at an earlier edition of […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Anushka Ravishankar, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Ghosts Don't Eat, online reading programme, reading, review

Nimmi’s Dreadtastic Detective Days

March 12, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It’s been a year since I read Nimmi’s Dreadtastic Detective Days, and I’ve been mulling over whether to read it at my reading programme. It’s a little longer than the books we usually read, but there’s so much we can do with the book that I’ve been tempted to choose it. Finally, I decided I would […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, Nimmis Dreadtastic Detective Days, online reading programme, reading, review, Shabnam Minwalla

The Reading Race

March 9, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Books about books are always fun to read at my reading programmes. At an earlier edition, we read a book with a few elements that didn’t appeal to me. For instance, I don’t like the idea of reading quickly, or a competition based on how many books you can read. I also don’t like the […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Abby Klein, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, online reading programme, reading, review, The Reading Race

A Big Splash

March 6, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I read the entire PARI series a few months ago, and I’ve been mulling over them ever since. I’m not usually a big fan of nonfiction, and I haven’t yet worked with it at my online reading programme, but A Big Splash stayed with me. And then, there were stray conversations that made me think […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: A Big Splash, book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, Chapter Book, Nivedha Ganesh, online reading programme, PARI, reading, review

Malhar in the Middle

March 5, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I LOVE Shruthi Rao’s books. We read Manya Learns to Roar at my first reading programme, and even before that, I read and loved Susie Will Not Speak. If anything, I liked Malhar in the Middle even more. Malhar loves playing the tabla. But why does tradition demand that he should sit on the side? Why is he is the ‘accompanying […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, hOle books, Malhar in the Middle, online reading programme, reading, review

Adventure on Wheels

January 19, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Adventure on Wheels, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, online reading programme, online workshops for children, Prashant Pinge, reading, review

My Father’s Dragon

January 15, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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. […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, classic, My Father's Dragon, online reading programme, Ruth Stiles Gannett

About Average

January 13, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: About Average, Andrew Clements, book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, online reading programme, reading, reading workshop, review

The School is Alive!

January 11, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, online reading programme, reading, review, The School is Alive

Paati Goes Viral

January 9, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Paati Goes Viral by Prabhu Vishwanathan is such a sweet book! At my reading programme, I like to begin with a short book because it gives us the time to get to know one another and warm up. Also, when the book is short, we have more time for activities! Dhruv’s grandparents are excited about travelling, […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, Chapter Book, Paati Goes Viral

Peanut vs the Piano

January 7, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Peanut is such a lovely character! Peanut thought she enjoyed playing the piano. But with piano exams around the corner, piano practice is just one more thing added to an endless list of things she has to do when she would rather play outdoors. Soon, she begins to think of the piano as a big, […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, hOle books, Peanut vs the Piano

A Very Naughty Dragon

November 23, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I love Paro Anand’s books, and when I learned that she had collaborated with a nine-year-old girl to write a book, I was intrigued. As a teacher and creative writing trainer, I’ve read many stories that children have written. Some are excellent, others not so much. A Very Naughty Dragon? I had to read it to […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: A Very Naughty Dragon, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, online reading programme, online workshops for children, Paro Anand, reading, reading workshops, review, Sarah Rose

The Butterfly Lion

November 6, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I love Michael Morpurgo. And The Butterfly Lion? I’ve had it on my shelf for ever so long, hoping to share it with more readers someday. That day is nearly here! The Butterfly Lion is a classic. In Michael Morpurgo’s signature style, he tells a heartfelt, almost mystical story in the simplest and most magical of […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, creative writing, Michael Morpurgo, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading, reading workshops, The Butterfly Lion

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