I love this exercise – of looking back at all the books I read and loved in the year that went by. This year, I found it even more difficult […]
Gulgul in Jungalu
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 […]
I Want a Pet
I’ve never met a child who has never in their life wanted a pet. Have you? But what if … the pet isn’t a cat or a dog or even […]
Secret Friends
I love Elizabeth Laird. And Secret Friends was another beautiful read, a heartbreaking story about wanting to fit in, but never quite managing it. Lucy is the first to tease […]
The Boy Who Loved Birds
There’s something special about Lavanya Karthik’s Dreamers series. With so little, each book does so much! The Boy Who Loved Birds is about Salim Ali as a boy. What questions […]
Yikes! Bikes!
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 […]
The Shy Supergirl
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 […]
Petu Pumpkin – Tiffin Thief
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 […]
Dreamers – Lavanya Karthik
I finally read the next two books in Lavanya Karthik’s series, Dreamers. I read the first two nearly a year ago! Once more, the visuals are gorgeous. And the stories? Simple and […]
Koobandhee
Koobandhee is such a fun book! We read Bookasura a few months ago at my book club, and we enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed doing all the activities based […]
A Big Splash
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 […]
Malhar in the Middle
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 […]
Adventure on Wheels
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 […]
My Year in Writing: 2021
The year 2020 was such a boost to me as a writer! With a poem published by OUP, a picture book, a chapter book, a middle-grade book and a collection […]
My Father’s Dragon
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 […]
The School is Alive!
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 […]
Paati Goes Viral
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 […]
Peanut vs the Piano
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 […]
A Very Naughty Dragon
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 […]
Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom
Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom opens with the oracle at Delphi predicting the fall of the Titans. The future is misty and the oracle’s glasses are foggy, so she […]