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Varsha Seshan

Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen!

January 18, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What a lovely, lovely book! I don’t know anything about baseball. I’ve seen what the bat looks like, and I’ve heard random terms like ‘home run’ and ‘strike’, but that’s the extent of my knowledge. And yet, I loved Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen!, a book that’s all about baseball! Vivy Cohen is fed up […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, Get a Grip Vivy Cohen, Middle Grade, reading, review, Sarah Kapit

Top 5 Young Adult Books – 2024

January 11, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I finally read a few more young adult books last year, so I don’t have to combine my late middle-grade and young adult books! I loved all these books, three of which are by writers I’ve read before. I highly recommend these books for ages 13+! Spin I am not usually a fan of mythological […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, reading, review, Spin, The Lucky List, The Poet X, The School for Bad Girls, Where the Heart Should Be, Young Adult

Top 10 Middle Grade Books – 2024

January 10, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I read many, many middle grade books last year, but somehow just one Indian book stands out this time! Here are my top ten, in no particular order. I highly recommend these books to readers ten and above! The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them) Last year, I read many books in verse, […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, How to Win an Election, In the Beautiful Country, Middle Grade, Mirror to Mirror, Odder, Pax Journey Home, reading, Red White and Whole, Restart, review, Starfish, The Stories Grandma Forgot, Twitch

The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle

November 27, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Diaphoresis and dyslexia. Mason Buttle has both, and both trouble him. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of his troubles. His best friend Benny Kilmartin is dead. His parents are dead. And his uncle has sold off parts of their apple orchard to make ends meet. The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for tweens, Leslie Connor, Middle Grade, reading, review, The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle

The One and Only Ruby

November 20, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Is there any child who doesn’t love elephants? Magnificent African elephants with their enormous tusks, the gentler-looking Asian elephants with their smaller ears—I loved them all. So, of course I wanted to read The One and Only Ruby, the story of the little elephant in the gorilla Ivan’s life. And just like when I read […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages nine and ten, books for tweens, Katherine Applegate, Middle Grade, reading, review, The One and Only Ruby

The One and Only Bob

November 18, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Katherine Applegate’s books are a treasure. Recently, I reread The One and Only Bob, a lovely book featuring an unforgettable character. About a month ago, I reviewed Odder, and I wrote about how authentic the voice is. And with The One and Only Bob, that’s the first thing that comes to mind. It is a […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages nine and ten, books for tweens, Katherine Applegate, Middle Grade, reading, review, The One and Only Bob

Rick

November 17, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading about Melissa and Rick on so many book lists that I’ve had Alex Gino’s books on my (endless) TBR forever. I finally read Rick, and I realise why it pops up so often. It’s such an important middle-grade book, one that I would have loved to read when I was twelve or […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Alex Gino, books for tweens, Middle Grade, reading, review, Rick

When You Trap a Tiger

November 10, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What an unexpected book! Often, I don’t know much about books before I read them. Some books keep showing up on my social media. Others are recommended to me multiple times by children I teach. Usually, it takes me a while to get around to reading them, and based on who recommends a book to […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, Middle Grade, reading, review, Tae Keller, When You Trap a Tiger

Amil and the After

November 8, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Five years ago, I read The Night Diary. It’s a story that brings alive the bewilderment of children forced to move out of their homes during the Partition. But just like the “happily ever after” at the end of fairytales glosses over the beginning of a new, complicated phase of life, safely reaching a new […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Amil and the After, books for tweens, Middle Grade, reading, review, Veera Hiranandani

You Go First

October 11, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to read Erin Entrada Kelly’s books for a while. As a writer of middle-grade, hers is a name that keeps popping up. I finally read You Go First, and what an unusual, charming book it is! You Go First tells two stories, stories that barely meet. One is the story of Charlotte […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for tweens, Erin Entrada Kelly, Middle Grade, reading, review, You Go First

The Last Windwitch

September 19, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since I read fantasy! I often find it hard to get into fantasy because of the detailed world-building that it demands. I think that’s one of the reasons writing Uncontrollable in verse worked so well for me. In the same way that I don’t get sucked into a fantastical world easily, […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for tweens, fantasy, Jennifer Adam, Middle Grade, reading, review, The Last Windwitch

Pax, Journey Home

September 16, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I haven’t read Pax, but I picked up Pax, Journey Home from Kahaani Box. It’s a lovely book, but I have a warning – don’t read the blurb! I don’t often read the blurb before I read a book, and so often when I do, I regret it! A huge chunk of what is mentioned […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages nine and ten, books for tweens, Middle Grade, Pax Journey Home, reading, review, Sara Pennypacker

Other Words for Home

August 23, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Search for ‘verse novels for middle-grade readers’, and Other Words for Home is bound to come up. It’s a Newbery Honor Book and a New York Times bestseller. However, just like I said when I reviewed Red, White and Whole, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read yet another immigration story. And perhaps that […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, Jasmine Warga, Middle Grade, novel in verse, Other Words for Home, reading, review

Mascot

August 19, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell is the third and last book I read because it’s on the required reading list for an online workshop on revising your verse novel that I will be attending later this year thanks to my Highlights Foundation scholarship. A nuanced story in verse exploring multiple perspectives, Mascot reminds us that activism must […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, Charles Waters, Mascot, Middle Grade, novel in verse, reading, review, Traci Sorell

A Melody in Mysore

August 13, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

With Independence Day just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to read A Melody in Mysore by Shruthi Rao, a new addition to the Songs of Freedom series. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most of the books in the series, some more than others. Set in different parts of the country in the first half of […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: A Melody in Mysore, books for tweens, historical fiction, Middle Grade, reading, review, Shruthi Rao, Songs of Freedom

Restart

July 29, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What if you got the chance to start your life all over again? Would you make any changes? Restart by Gordon Korman is a powerful story about getting a second chance. The story opens with Chase Ambrose in hospital. He’s fallen off his roof and forgotten everything about who he used to be. And when […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, Gordon Korman, Middle Grade, reading, Restart, review

Living with Adi

June 25, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

As one of the judges of the Scholastic Asian Book Award 2023, I was delighted to see Living with Adi on Duckbill’s list! Even when I was reading the draft, I enjoyed the story and the pace, as well as the way it tackles difficult themes. A sensitively told story about a neurodivergent boy, Living […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, Living with Adi, Middle-Grade Fiction, reading, review, Zarin Virji

Starfish

May 14, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

On nearly any list of “must-read” verse novels for middle-graders, I come across Starfish. I finally read it, and I completely understand why it’s on so many lists. There are so many things — some small, some big — that make this book special. Twelve-year-old Ellie has Fat Girl Rules to protect herself. She must […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, Lisa Fipps, Middle Grade, novel in verse, reading, review, Starfish

Where the Heart Should Be

May 10, 2024 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

I love historical fiction, and I love novels in verse. And I love Sarah Crossan’s books. When all three come together, the chances of my not liking the book are very low! I’ve read two books (that I remember) about the potato famine in Ireland – Esty’s Gold and Twist of Gold. They were both […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, novel in verse, reading, review, Sarah Crossan, Where the Heart Should Be, Young Adult

In the Beautiful Country

May 9, 2024 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

Verse novels are beautiful. I love how sparse and hard-hitting they are, and I’ve been reading them all the more because I’ve been writing verse too. Uncontrollable came out last year, and Fishbowl will be out later this year. But I read In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo because it’s on the required reading […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books for tweens, In the Beautiful Country, Jane Kuo, Middle Grade, novel in verse, reading, review

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