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 […]
How to Win an Election: A Most Unreliable Guide
It’s voting season, the best time to read How to Win an Election: A Most Unreliable Guide! I would argue, however, that any time is a good time to read […]
Sky Hawk
Even as a child, I loved stories about the environment, especially stories where children make difficult decisions to save an animal. So many books I’ve recently read fit the bill […]
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
Recently, I reread The Girl Who Drank the Moon and then looked through my blog to see what I’d written about it the first time I read it. That’s when […]
Uncontrollable – The Story Behind the Story
I love to read about how a book that I’m reading came into being. What made the writer write this particular book? What are some of those little stories the […]
Twitch
Often, I read books like Twitch with a very clear agenda in mind–to decide whether to read it with my book club. One chapter in, and I was sure I […]
Journey to the River Sea
I read Journey to the River Sea years ago, probably over a decade ago. I loved it so much that it featured on my list of all-time favourite books for […]
When Fairyland Lost Its Magic
We need more illustrated middle-grade books! I read When Fairyland Lots Its Magic on my way to Kolkata for the Junior Kolkata Literary Meet, and there was so much to […]
My Year in Writing: 2023
The year 2023 was remarkably kind to me as an author. It was a year full of lit fests, school visits, and, most importantly, new stories! Uncontrollable What can I […]
My Favourite Late Middle-Grade and Young Adult Books from 2023
As usual, I begin my list of favourite young adult books wishing I had read more YA last year. Yes, I loved these books, but once more, I hope to […]
My Favourite Middle-Grade Books from 2023
It’s only when I began writing this post that I noticed that most (six out of seven) of my favourite middle-grade reads from 2023 have blue covers! How odd! I […]
The Losers Club
We’ve loved books by Andrew Clements at my book club. Of course, Frindle is a favourite, but About Average was fun too. The Losers Club, which I read about a […]
Schooled
I stumbled upon Schooled by Gordon Korman by chance and read it in one sitting. What a lovely, fun book, full of unexpected twists and turns! Capricorn Andersen (Cap for […]
Gathering Blue
Gathering Blue opens with an unknown character in an unknown world. Sure, it is a dystopian world, but I found myself wondering, isn’t this the second book in The Giver […]
The Giver
Teaching creative writing is always eye-opening. Over time, we’ve worked with mythopoeia, dystopia, fantasy, adventure, and mystery, requiring us to come up with all kinds of mentor texts and examples. […]
The Wild Robot
Reading The Wild Robot with one of my book clubbers was quite the experience. ‘Do you think a robot can experience emotions?’ I asked.‘Yes,’ came the confident reply, which took […]
Postcard from the Lushai Brigade
What a beautiful addition to the Songs of Freedom series! Reminiscent of Private Peaceful although for a younger audience, Postcard from the Lushai Brigade is the story of a pair […]
Who’s Afraid of a Giant Wheel?
I remember reading and enjoying Simply Nanju some five years ago. Who’s Afraid of a Giant Wheel?, also by Zainab Sulaiman, is even better. It’s the kind of story that […]
Ramanujan
What did I like most about Ramanujan?The chapter numbers! Each one is a mathematical problem that uses the chapter number and mathematical operators in such a way that the solution […]
A Chera Adventure
I’ve been intrigued by the Girls of India series for a while, but I hadn’t read any of the books in the series until Penguin sent me A Chera Adventure […]