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© Copyright 2013 - 2025
Varsha Seshan

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

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

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

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

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

Passepartout, Is That You?

January 23, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I attended part of Menaka Raman’s session on Passepartout, Is That You? at Bookaroo Vadodara, and I was curious. I knew Passepartout was a tortoise, but that was all. What would the story be about? I finally read this delightful Hook Book just now, and I loved it! When repetition in picture books is well […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Hook Books, Menaka Raman, Passepartout Is That You?, Picture Book, reading, review

I Want a Pet

October 19, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 a rabbit, but a buffalo? I absolutely loved Arundhati Venkatesh‘s brand-new Hook Book, I Want a Pet. Without any drama or explanation, we are sucked […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Arundhati Venkatesh, Chapter Book, Hook Books, I Want a Pet, reading, Reshu Singh, review

Two Hook Books

August 30, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Somewhere between picture books and chapter books are the Hook Books, and books for this age-group are so important! One step up from the ‘Read It Yourself’ series, they are slightly more complex than picture books, but still have full-colour illustrations right through. I remember reading hundreds–well, dozens–of Noddy books at an age when I […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: A Birthday Present for Aaji, Aindri C, Chatura Rao, Hook Books, Parinita Shetty, Rajiv Eipe, reading, review, The Sweet Shop Wars