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© Copyright 2013 - 2025
Varsha Seshan

What Feelings Like Best

September 18, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What a stunning sequel to What Feelings Do When No One Is Looking! What Feelings Like Best takes us on a whimsical journey with our feelings. Who does Curiosity hang out with? Why does Courage think her elder brother is actually the braver one? Where must Gratitude search for beautiful little bits and bobs to […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Aleksandra Zajac, Picture Book, reading, review, Tina Oziewicz, What Feelings Like Best

And Yet You Shine

July 30, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

I’ve read two books by Supriya Kelkar, and I’ve enjoyed them both—Strong as Fire, Fierce as Flame more than Ahimsa. In some ways, And Yet You Shine is even more ambitious because it’s a picture book, while also being a work of historical fiction. And Yet You Shine tells the story of the Kohinoor, beginning […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: And Yet You Shine, books for ages seven and eight, Picture Book, reading, review, Supriya Kelkar

1 2 3 Idlis in a Sambar Sea

July 25, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

A picture book that brings together numbers, food and places all over India? Yes, please! Although I’m usually a stickler and don’t like near rhymes like fry and style or sea and puris, I found myself enjoying 1 2 3 Idlis in a Sambar Sea. Books that appeal to all our senses are always a […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: 1 2 3 Idlis in a Sambar Sea, Ashwitha Jayakumar, board book, Picture Book, reading, review, Tanya Sharma

The Trickster

July 10, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

When Katha asked me whether I would be willing to review their upcoming release, The Trickster, I thought about it. I am not usually a fan of retellings. Additionally, I don’t post negative reviews; I review only books I enjoy. I decided I would take the chance, though, and I am glad I did! The […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Charbak Dipta, Meenakshi Bharadwaj, Picture Book, reading, review, The Trickster

I Am Quiet: A Story for the Introvert in All of Us

May 27, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

How could I not read a book with a title like this? Anyone who knows me knows that I’m happiest in my own company. If I spend time with people, I need to unwind; I need my quiet time. Yet, as a child, I was noisy and talkative, unlike Emile, the protagonist of I Am […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Andie Powers, Betsy Petersen, books for ages five and six, I Am Quiet: A Story for the Introvert in All of Us, Picture Book, reading, review

Manvinder’s Medu Vada

May 23, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Manvinder’s Medu Vada by Riddhi Maniar Doda and Vinayak Varma had me chuckling at each page! I could completely identify with Manvinder, who refuses to eat something that doesn’t look like it’s supposed to look! As a child, I had a problem with the same food–vadas. How could it be a real vada if it […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Hook Book, Manvinder's Medu Vada, Picture Book, reading, review, Riddhi Maniar Doda, Vinayak Varma

Everything Changes And That’s Ok

May 22, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

How do you read picture books? Do you pause as you turn each page, just to admire the pictures? Or do you race through the story and then come back to the pictures to take them in slowly? For me, it depends on the book, but with Everything Changes And That’s Ok, I found myself […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, books for ages seven and eight, Erin Huybrechts, Everything Changes and That's Ok, Picture Book, reading, review

Roop and the River Crossing

April 8, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What was the Partition? What ripples do we see today, and how do people in power continue to exploit communal politics? These are difficult questions that one often wonders about whether to discuss with children. In some ways, books that talk about our history help, books like Roop and the River Crossing. Roop and the […]

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

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

The Girl Who Played with Numbers – Shakuntala Devi

March 10, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

The Girl Who Played with Numbers by Lavanya Karthik is a lovely addition to her series of biographies for very young readers. A little note tells us that the illustrations in this book about Shakuntala Devi are inspired by the Mysore school of painting. While this isn’t my favourite style, I love the fact that […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Biography, books for ages five and six, Dreamers, Lavanya Karthik, Picture Book, reading, review, Shakuntala Devi, The Girl Who Played with Numbers

The Wish Fish

January 22, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Would you believe in a fish that could grant wishes? Namita wants to, but … The Wish Fish by Lesley D. Biswas and Aratrika Choudhury is a charming story set in a small village in the middle of a big mangrove forest. Namita’s father is a fisherman, and Namita loves to help her father pick […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Aratrika Choudhury, books for ages five and six, Hook Book, Lesley D Biswas, Picture Book, reading, review, The Wish Fish

Gawa’s Bag of Good Regards

January 21, 2025 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Lots of adults I know hated the question What do you want to be when you grow up? I know I loved it as a child. I had so many dreams, and I loved talking about them. Sometimes, I delude myself into believing I always wanted to be a writer, but an old, old diary […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Anushka Ravishankar, books for ages five and six, Canato Jimo, Gawa's Bag of Good Regards, Hook Book, Picture Book, reading, review

What Happened to Grandpa

April 11, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

Books spark discussion. As a book club facilitator, I know only too well how a story can lead to conversations about fear, wonder, belonging and so much more. And that is why it’s delightful to see an increasing number of books touch upon themes that help with difficult conversations. Several years ago, I read Where’s […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Aditi Anand, books for ages five and six, books for ages seven and eight, Nandini Nayar, Picture Book, reading, review, What Happened to Grandpa

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

My Favourite Picture Books and Early Chapter Books from 2023

January 9, 2024 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

It’s only as I was looking back at all the wonderful books I read in 2023 that I realised that five of my favourite picture books and early chapter books were Hook Books! I love the series, and I’m always excited to read new additions to it. A usual, I begin my list with a […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: books for ages five and six, Boy Bear, Chapter Books, Cyrus the Whyrus, Passepartout Is That You?, Picture Book, reading, review, The Big Bad Fight, The Grand Chapati Contest, What Feelings Do When No Ones Looking

What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking

November 9, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking is such a gorgeous, whimsical book! Do our feelings live inside us, or do they go on journeys of their own? Or do they do both? Each page of this endearing picture book is beautifully written and beautifully illustrated. As I read about curiosity, joy, gratitude, anxiety, shame […]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Aleksandra Zajac, Picture Book, reading, review, Tina Oziewicz, What Feelings Do When No Ones Looking

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

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 Picture Books and Early Chapter Books from 2022

January 2, 2023 by Varsha Seshan Leave a Comment

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 to distinguish between various age-groups. Longer picture books are like early chapter books; late middle-grade books are like early young adult books. And so, this […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Chapter Book, Goal, I Want a Pet, Picture Book, reading, review, Ritu Weds Chandni, The Boy Who Loved Birds, The Manic Panic

The Manic Panic

December 8, 2022 by Varsha Seshan 2 Comments

I love Richa Jha’s books. I don’t know how many I’ve read, but each one has been special – Love Like That, Boo! When My Sister Died, Machher Jhol … I didn’t know Richa would be at Neev Literature Festival, or I would have carried my copy of Giggi and Daddy for her to sign […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Mithila Ananth, Picture Book, reading, review, Richa Jha, The Manic Panic

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