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Varsha Seshan

Amelia Bedelia Goes Wild

January 12, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

We read our first Amelia Bedelia (Amelia Bedelia Means Business) at the second edition of my reading programme, and what fun we had with it! Even though there were children who didn’t understand much of the word play, the humour came through, and we enjoyed the book thoroughly. Amelia Bedelia Goes Wild promises to be just as […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Amelia Bedelia Goes Wild, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Herman Parish, online reading programme

The Egghead Detective Agency

January 10, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What child has never dreamed of being a detective? The Egghead Detective Agency is perfect for my book club in so many ways. For one, there are clues to solve within each story. For another, the characters are young children, accompanied by a friendly ghost, making the book fun to read. I enjoyed the cases too […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, online reading programme, Pika Nani, The Egghead Detective Agency

Talon the Falcon

January 9, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

We love the Feather Tales series at my book club! I didn’t choose to read Talon the Falcon earlier because it is much shorter than The Golden Eagle and The Paradise Flycatcher, but when children fall in love with a series, how can we not read the whole lot together? Set in the familiar Rose Garden, Talon the Falcon opens […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, books for ages seven and eight, Deepak Dalal, Feather Tales, online reading programme, Talon the Falcon

Gulgul in Jungalu

November 4, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It’s time to introduce another series to my book club – the Gulgul series! I wonder if the book is targeted at slightly younger readers than my book clubbers, but the number of things we can do with Gulgul in Jungalu prompted me to select it. Gulgul is mischievous, resourceful and friendly, the perfect protagonist of an adventure […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Ashok Rajagopalan, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, Gulgul in Jungalu, online reading programme, reading, review

The Adventures of Mooli and the Bully on Wheels

September 13, 2022 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

Just like the second book we’re reading this time, Yikes! Bikes!, The Adventures of Mooli and the Bully on Wheels features characters some of my book clubbers have read about before. In December 2021, we read the third book in the series, The Adventures of Mooli and the Sticker Trickster. It’s time to meet Mooli again! Mooli and his […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Asha Nehemiah, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, online reading programme, reading, review, The Adventures of Mooli and the Bully on Wheels

Yikes! Bikes!

September 5, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

We had so much fun with The Reading Race a few months ago that I was sure I wanted to do another book from the Ready, Freddy! series sooner or later. Yikes! Bikes! is perfect. The animal shelter in Freddy’s town has organised a fundraiser, one that involves a Bike-a-thon. Max Sellars goads Freddy into making a bet with him, and […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Abby Klein, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, online reading programme, reading, review, Yikes! Bikes!

A Cello on the Wall

September 3, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

War is a difficult subject to introduce to children, and I’m often unsure of whether it should be introduced at all. Yet, most children are exposed to so much media and are aware of so much that is happening around them that I think stories of hope are important. Yes, history is full of war. […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: A Cello on the Wall, Adele Tariel, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, online reading programme, reading, review

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

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

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

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

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

My Favourite Chapter Books from 2021

January 8, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Thanks to my book clubs, I read so many chapter books and early middle grade books in 2021! Of the 30-40 I read, here are nine books that stood out to me. I’ve shared most of them with my enthusiastic young book clubbers, and the review link will take you to activities that you can […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: A Pinch of Magic, Amelia Bedelia Means Business, At Least a Fish, book review, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Books, Friends Behind Walls, Maya in a Mess, Muggie Maggie, reading, review, Sandy to the Rescue, The Absent Author

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