Varsha Seshan's Official Website

  • Home
  • Published Work
    • Books for Ages <5
    • Books for Ages 7-10
    • Books for Ages 10+
    • Reviews
    • Learning Resources
  • Workshops
    • Book Clubs
    • Creative Writing Programmes
    • School Visits
    • Workshops for Adults
  • About
    • About Me
    • Recognition
  • Blog
  • Contact

© Copyright 2013 - 2025
Varsha Seshan

Nida Finds a Way

June 23, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I stare at my laptop screen, wondering how to write about Nida Finds a Way. It’s such an important book. A book that makes me oh-so-curious about how a child would respond. What would children say that this story is about? Would they giggle and keep reading on and on to see how Nida balances […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, hOle books, reading, review

Book Uncle and Me

March 23, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I discovered verse novels quite recently. I began by reading a few for young adults and then I slowly went down the age ladder. I love them. I love how much they say with such few words. Would I have enjoyed verse novels as a child? I have no way of telling, for I was […]

Filed Under: Books, Workshops Tagged With: Book Uncle and Me, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, online reading programme, reading, Uma Krishnaswami

The Absent Author

March 17, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The Absent Author. The Bald Bandit. The Haunted Hotel. The Zombie Zone. Isn’t this the kind of series you could see any child longing to collect? Book series are special and that’s why, for each reading programme, I try to introduce at least one. They’re sure shot ways of getting children hooked to reading! During […]

Filed Under: Books, Workshops Tagged With: A to Z Mysteries, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, online reading programme, reading, reading workshop, Ron Roy, The Absent Author

The Clockwala’s Clues – The Story Behind the Story

March 14, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

When I wrote of how Sisters at New Dawn and Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells came into being, I had every intention of documenting the journey of each published book. So much for that. It’s been three months since The Clockwala’s Clues was published, and I kept postponing writing the story behind the story. Yesterday, however, I visited […]

Filed Under: Books, Writing Tagged With: Chapter Book, hOle books, The Clockwalas Clues

Mini’s Money

February 13, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Sometimes, when I pick up a book for children, I wonder, “What would I have thought of this as a child?” Mini’s Money would probably have appealed to me, but what really made me stop and think was the idea of colouring the story. Colouring in a book was a strict no for me, but […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Chapter Book, Minis Money, Nandini Nayar, reading, review

Happy Book News

February 8, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

On Saturday afternoon, the doorbell rang. It was a courier. For me. From Penguin Random House. When you receive an unexpected package, do you try to guess what it could be? I do. It was a slim package, so the easiest guess would be that it contained one book.But why would Penguin send me one […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Writing Tagged With: Chapter Book, hOle books, reprint, The Clockwalas Clues

My Year in Writing – 2020

January 9, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I’m beginning to write this post on a day when I received a miserable royalty report for one of my books for the year 2019-20. Yet, the year 2020 has been all kinds of wonderful in terms of publishing for me. So many of my projects have seen light of day, though they have suffered […]

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: Chapter Book, Dragonflies Jigsaws and Seashells, Duckbill, How I Feel, Middle-Grade Fiction, Oxford University Press, Penguin Random House, poetry, Pratham Books, Scholastic, Sisters at New Dawn, The Clockwalas Clues, Young Zubaan

Trouble with Magic

December 1, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Book cover Text: Trouble with Magic Asha Nehemiah Image: Illustration of a child and a woman, both with jaws dropped, staring in shock.

The name itself makes my eyes sparkle. Trouble with magic? That sounds promising! And it is. I giggled my way through the book, chuckling at the hapless Aunt Malu and charmed by the enterprising Veena. Aunt Malu should have known better, but … therein lies the tale! Why is this book part of my reading […]

Filed Under: Books, Workshops Tagged With: Asha Nehemiah, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, hOle books, online reading programme, reading, reading workshop, review, Trouble with Magic

Flyaway Boy

July 5, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Book cover Text: Flyaway Boy Jane De Suza Image: Grainy picture of a boy, with scraps of brown paper covering parts of it, making the whole cover look torn and stuck together.

What an unexpected book! I’ve been meaning to read Flyaway Boy for a while, but technological problems came in the way. I bought a Kindle edition only to learn that the ebook is not compatible with my Kindle, which meant that I had to read it on my laptop. Sitting at my laptop and reading […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Chapter Book, Flyaway Boy, Jane de Suza, reading, review

Crenshaw

June 12, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Book cover Text: Katherine Applegate Crenshaw From the Newbery Medal-Winning author of The One and Only Ivan Image: Illustration of a boy and a giant cat sitting on a bench looking away from us into the purple woods

Look at that gorgeous cover. It invited me in with all its charm, its wonder, its mystery. And the book was just as heart-warming. Jackson likes facts. He’s the kid who runs backstage and then reveals to everyone just how the magician pulled a rabbit out of his hat. He knows facts about bats and […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Chapter Book, Crenshaw, Katherine Applegate, reading, review

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4