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© Copyright 2013 - 2025
Varsha Seshan

The Trickster

July 10, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

When Katha asked me whether I would be willing to review their upcoming release, The Trickster, I thought about it. I am not usually a fan of retellings. Additionally, I don’t post negative reviews; I review only books I enjoy. I decided I would take the chance, though, and I am glad I did! The […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Charbak Dipta, Meenakshi Bharadwaj, Picture Book, reading, review, The Trickster

I Am Quiet: A Story for the Introvert in All of Us

May 27, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

How could I not read a book with a title like this? Anyone who knows me knows that I’m happiest in my own company. If I spend time with people, I need to unwind; I need my quiet time. Yet, as a child, I was noisy and talkative, unlike Emile, the protagonist of I Am […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Andie Powers, Betsy Petersen, books for ages five and six, I Am Quiet: A Story for the Introvert in All of Us, Picture Book, reading, review

Manvinder’s Medu Vada

May 23, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Manvinder’s Medu Vada by Riddhi Maniar Doda and Vinayak Varma had me chuckling at each page! I could completely identify with Manvinder, who refuses to eat something that doesn’t look like it’s supposed to look! As a child, I had a problem with the same food–vadas. How could it be a real vada if it […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Hook Book, Manvinder's Medu Vada, Picture Book, reading, review, Riddhi Maniar Doda, Vinayak Varma

Everything Changes And That’s Ok

May 22, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

How do you read picture books? Do you pause as you turn each page, just to admire the pictures? Or do you race through the story and then come back to the pictures to take them in slowly? For me, it depends on the book, but with Everything Changes And That’s Ok, I found myself […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, books for ages seven and eight, Erin Huybrechts, Everything Changes and That's Ok, Picture Book, reading, review

Wrestling Day

April 7, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

When I went for the White Owl Literature Festival in Nagaland a few months ago, I attended part of an event that the author Theyiesinuo Keditsu conducted on her book, Wrestling Day. She spoke about how traffic piles up on Wrestling Day. People park everywhere, and that’s something that’s perfectly acceptable on that one day […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Hook Books, Picture Book, reading, review, T Keditsu, Wrestling Day

The Girl Who Played with Numbers – Shakuntala Devi

March 10, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The Girl Who Played with Numbers by Lavanya Karthik is a lovely addition to her series of biographies for very young readers. A little note tells us that the illustrations in this book about Shakuntala Devi are inspired by the Mysore school of painting. While this isn’t my favourite style, I love the fact that […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Biography, books for ages five and six, Dreamers, Lavanya Karthik, Picture Book, reading, review, Shakuntala Devi, The Girl Who Played with Numbers

The Wish Fish

January 22, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Would you believe in a fish that could grant wishes? Namita wants to, but … The Wish Fish by Lesley D. Biswas and Aratrika Choudhury is a charming story set in a small village in the middle of a big mangrove forest. Namita’s father is a fisherman, and Namita loves to help her father pick […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Aratrika Choudhury, books for ages five and six, Hook Book, Lesley D Biswas, Picture Book, reading, review, The Wish Fish

Gawa’s Bag of Good Regards

January 21, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Lots of adults I know hated the question What do you want to be when you grow up? I know I loved it as a child. I had so many dreams, and I loved talking about them. Sometimes, I delude myself into believing I always wanted to be a writer, but an old, old diary […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Anushka Ravishankar, books for ages five and six, Canato Jimo, Gawa's Bag of Good Regards, Hook Book, Picture Book, reading, review

Mini’s Questions

January 3, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

We read Mini’s Books a while ago, and it was fun! As a couple of book clubbers who read it with me have already signed up for the February 2025 edition, I decided to read another book from the series. The familiarity of characters always makes for a fun reading experience! Children have more questions […]

Filed Under: Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages five and six, books for ages seven and eight, Mini's Questions, Nandini Nayar, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading

Where Does It Hurt?

October 29, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Where does it hurt? It’s such a simple question. If I read it aloud, I find my voice getting softer, kinder, more patient. And that’s what this Hook Book by Samina Mishra and Allen Shaw is about – softness, kindness and patience. Sometimes, pain is easy to explain, like when you eat something that makes […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Allen Shaw, books for ages five and six, Chapter Books, Hook Books, picture books, reading, review, Samina Mishra, Where Does It Hurt

Mini’s Books

July 7, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Books about books are always a joy to read at my book club! We’re reading In the Woof of Time at my reading programme for ages nine and ten and Mini’s Books at the one for ages seven and eight. Anyone who grew up on Enid Blyton wanted to eat scones, crumpets and treacle. I was one of […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages five and six, books for ages seven and eight, Mini's Books, Nandini Nayar, online book club, online reading programme, online workshops for children, reading

Puppy Trouble

June 4, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Amit wants a puppy. He wants a puppy. He wants a puppy. He wants a puppy. But his parents refuse. For me, that was the hook. And thanks to my book clubs and the number of conversations we’ve had about wanting pets but not being allowed to get them, I know that this is practically […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Bijal Vachharajani, books for ages five and six, Hook Books, Puppy Trouble, Rajiv Eipe, reading, review

What Happened to Grandpa

April 11, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Books spark discussion. As a book club facilitator, I know only too well how a story can lead to conversations about fear, wonder, belonging and so much more. And that is why it’s delightful to see an increasing number of books touch upon themes that help with difficult conversations. Several years ago, I read Where’s […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Aditi Anand, books for ages five and six, books for ages seven and eight, Nandini Nayar, Picture Book, reading, review, What Happened to Grandpa

I Won’t Wash My Hair

April 4, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What an utterly delightful book! I love books that make my jaw drop on the very last page, and I Won’t Wash My Hair by Aparna Kapur and Ogin Nayam does it perfectly. Like all the other Hook Books I’ve read, this one puts text and pictures together in the best way possible. Did you […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Aparna Kapur, books for ages five and six, Chapter Book, Hook Books, I Won't Wash My Hair, Ogin Nayam, Picture Book, reading, review

My Favourite Picture Books and Early Chapter Books from 2023

January 9, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It’s only as I was looking back at all the wonderful books I read in 2023 that I realised that five of my favourite picture books and early chapter books were Hook Books! I love the series, and I’m always excited to read new additions to it. A usual, I begin my list with a […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Boy Bear, Chapter Books, Cyrus the Whyrus, Passepartout Is That You?, Picture Book, reading, review, The Big Bad Fight, The Grand Chapati Contest, What Feelings Do When No Ones Looking

The Big Bad Fight

September 18, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I just finished reading The Big Bad Fight written by Yamini Vijayan and illustrated by Kruttika Susarla, and what a lovely book it is! We all know what it is like to be an angry child. The injustice of a game like Snakes and Ladders! The unfairness of a sore loser! We get upset, angry […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Chapter Book, Hook Books, Kruttika Susarla, reading, review, The Big Bad Fight, Yamini Vijayan

The Paper Plane Flew

June 29, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Don’t you love stories that come full circle? As an adult reader, I was waiting to see how the paper plane that flew would come all the way back to Mithi because it had to, didn’t it? Even so, the last line of the story delighted me. Yes, I expected the last line to be […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Bharti Singh, books for ages five and six, Chapter Book, Hook Books, reading, review, The Paper Plane Flew

Four Hook Books

March 21, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

At a workshop recently, I showed participants a few hOle books and Hook Books. I had Malhar in the Middle (one of my favourites), The Clockwala’s Clues (because how could I not?), Cyrus the Whyrus (a delightful new Hook Book) and Passepartout, Is That You? (because I love how readers are active participants in the hunt for Passepartout). And not one of […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Aaryama Somayaji, Adithi Rao, Asha Nehemiah, books for ages five and six, Boy Bear, Chetan Sharma, Cyrus the Whyrus, Hook Books, Lavanya Karthik, Priya Kuriyan, reading, review, Wet Paint