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

The Space We’re In

June 23, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Have you ever read a review that describes a book as being “full of heart”? Katya Balen’s The Space We’re In is exactly that–a book full of heart. It bursts with love and emotion, raw and authentic. And the voice? Perfect. Ten-year-old Frank sometimes resents his brother Max. Max has changed everything with his humming […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for tweens, Katya Balen, middle-grade, reading, review, The Space We're In

My Year in Writing: 2022

January 7, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What can I say about a year when I FINALLY managed to take my books to audiences? At lit fests in Gurugram, Vadodara, Jaipur and Pune, I shared my books, interacted with children, and did school visits once more. Almost all through 2022, I was on a high! And yet, the true highlight of the […]

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: Flipped, How Big Is a Whale Shark, middle-grade, Picture Book, Red Eyes, Short Stories

My Favourite Late Middle-Grade and Young Adult Books from 2022

January 5, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I just looked back at the post where I listed my favourite young adult books from 2021. When I wrote that, I resolved to read more YA in 2022. And that didn’t happen. In fact, I read fewer. Just one of the three books on this list is a YA book; the other two would […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Clap When You Land, middle-grade, Rain Must Fall, reading, review, The Best At It, Young Adult

My Favourite Middle-Grade Books from 2022

January 4, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I read and loved so many middle-grade books in 2022! While some of these are early middle-grade books (I’ve read four of them with my book club for ages nine and ten), others are for ages ten and above. When I review a book, I usually indicate what age-group I think it is suited to, […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: A Conspiracy in Calcutta, Dear Mr Henshaw, Dungeon Tales II, Fish in a Tree, Frindle, middle-grade, Misfit Madhu, Nadya, reading, review, Secret Friends, The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

January Reads

January 31, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

In December, I visited a books by weight sale, and I couldn’t resist picking up seven books that were in near-mint condition! I couldn’t finish one, but I read the other six, some of which I quite enjoyed, and others that I loved. Here they are, listed in an unusual way for me – from […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: An Elephant in the Garden, Bubble Wrap Boy, Chris Riddell, Heidi Schulz, Hook's Daughter, Michael Morpurgo, middle-grade, My Friend Walter, Ottoline Goes to School, Phil Earle, reading, review, Twist of Gold

My Favourite Middle-Grade Books from 2021

January 10, 2022 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I didn’t read as many middle-grade books as usual in 2021, something I hope to remedy in 2022. Of those that I read, however, these six stood out. The first two are early middle-grade books, while the other four are for more advanced readers. Roughly, I would set the age-group for all six as 9-12. […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Ahimsa, Deepak Dalal, Jane de Suza, middle-grade, Neha and the Nose, Pinkoo Shergill Pastry Chef, reading, review, Ruchika Chanana, Stuti Agarwal, Supriya Kelkar, The Golden Eagle, The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop, Vibha Batra, When the World Went Dark

Top Nine Middle Grade Books I Read in 2020

January 3, 2021 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I love middle grade reads, so this is my longest list this year. In no particular order, here are the books to which I gave a five-star rating in 2020. This is a book for keeps. More often than not, in India, books that address homosexuality are categorised as young adult or adult books, but […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Across the Line, All of Me, Eva Ibbotson, Holly Goldberg Sloan, Kate Darnton, Katherine Rundell, Listen to the Moon, Lois Lowry, Meg Wolitzer, Michael Morpurgo, middle-grade, Nayanika Mahtani, Number the Stars, Out of My Mind, Sharon M Draper, The Good Thieves, The Misfits, The Star of Kazan, To Night Owl from Dogfish, Venita Coelho

Welcome to Nowhere

November 15, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Book cover Text: Welcome to Nowhere Where do you go when you can't go home? From the prize-winning author Elizabeth Laird Image: Illustration of a man, seen from the back, gazing at a land beyond water

When I read books like Welcome to Nowhere, part of me reads with a sinking heart for I realise that I don’t have the courage to tell stories like this. Yes, I do know that every story matters and each one has a role to play, but powerful books like this are in a class […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Elizabeth Laird, middle-grade, reading, review, Welcome to Nowhere, Young Adult

The Misfits

June 26, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Book cover Text: You find friends in the most unexpected places The Misfits Kate Darnton Image: Illustration of the lower half of two schoolgirls in uniform . One child's legs are white and her uniform and socks are neat. The other is brown her uniform is mended, her socks are crooked.

The story of how I got my hands on The Misfits is a tale in itself. I ordered it during the Zubaan Women’s Day sale, and it was dispatched about a week later. With the lockdown and then Nisarga, it never came. There was no way to track it and quite honestly, I didn’t try […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Kate Darnton, middle-grade, reading, review, The Misfits

Across the Line

June 19, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Book cover Text: 'Compelling and uplifting...lingers long after the last page is turned' Vidya Balan Nayanika Mahtani Across the Line Image: Illustration of a boy and a girl looking in opposite directions. Barbed wire above, pictures like cricket stumps, a ladle, a rolling pin and a bat in the margins.

What a powerful, beautiful book. Across the Line is one of the South Asia Book Award Honor Books 2020. I was intrigued by the title and the cover image, but I didn’t know anything about the book, except that it was South Asian, probably Indian. And the name naturally suggested to me the partition. I […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Across the Line, middle-grade, Nayanika Mahtani, reading, review

The Good Thieves

June 1, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Book cover Text: The Good Thieves Katherine Rundell Award-winning author of 'Rooftoppers' Image: A huge castle rising from a lake, four children in a boat rowing towards it.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – you cannot go wrong with Katherine Rundell. The Girl Savage, Rooftoppers, The Wolf Wilder, The Explorer, and now, The Good Thieves. I’ve loved all of them. I love the poetry in the storytelling, the feisty characters and the power of relationships. Katherine Rundell’s work just […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Katherine Rundell, middle-grade, reading, review, The Good Thieves

All of Me

May 26, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Book cover Text: All of Me Venita Coelho Image: Illustration of a boy's face and in his head, black silhouettes of a family, as if on stage

It’s been a while since I wrote a book review, simply because I haven’t been reading much for the last two months. I wrote about that for The Curious Reader – about reading old favourites, but not really taking the plunge and reading something altogether new. Finally, a few days ago, I settled into a […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: All of Me, middle-grade, reading, review, Venita Coelho

Top Ten: Middle-Grade Books

January 10, 2020 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Narrowing down to my top ten middle-grade books is always the hardest of all! Some of these books are younger than others, as always, because age ranges are hard to define. A few of these would be borderline chapter books; a few would be borderline young adult. The Racehorse Who Wouldn’t Gallop Writer: Clare BaldingIllustrator: […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Gorilla Dawn, Karma Fights a Monster, middle-grade, Mockingbird, The Diamond of Drury Lane, The Explorer, The Extraordinary Colours of Auden Dare, The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day, The Mighty Miss Malone, The One and Only Ivan, The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop, Top Ten