I finally read the next two books in Lavanya Karthik’s series, Dreamers. I read the first two nearly a year ago! Once more, the visuals are gorgeous. And the stories? Simple and delightful. Janaki wants to be like the birds her father loves so much. They lurk in his eyes and make his eyes shine. But her […]
Fish in a Tree
Just like with Counting in 7s, I ended up reading Fish in a Tree because of the Neev Literature Festival Reading Challenge. I loved listening to Lynda Mullaly Hunt speak. She left me with so much to think about, both as a writer and as a reader. I’d read nothing she’d written, so I made […]
Counting by 7s
As part of the Neev Literature Festival’s reading challenge, I’ve been attending as many author interactions as I can. I love them! One session I attended last month was with Holly Goldberg Sloan, who spoke about her book The Elephant in the Room. I haven’t read that one, but I have read To Night Owl […]
My Grandmother’s Masterpiece
So often, we think of our grandparents simply as grandparents. We are the centre of the universe after all, aren’t we? But Nini discovers that there is more to her grandmother than just being a grandmother. A stray conversation leads her to ask her mother to buy a box of paints for her grandmother, her […]
The Chowpatty Cooking Club
Who didn’t want to be a freedom fighter while studying about the independence movement? I know I dreamt of being a heroine – just like Sakina in The Chowpatty Cooking Club. I would do something meaningful and brave. I would do whatever it took! But like Sakina, the question was what? Bursting with humour, innocence […]
Dungeon Tales II
Munni finds an old book in her Mamaji’s shop. What does it say? ungeon ales? What could that possibly be? There’s only one way to find out – Munni must learn how to read, and properly. There’s a tiny problem – girls are forbidden to read in her village. But can that little detail stop […]
The Nameless God
Often, when I read a book written for children, I wonder if I would have liked it as a child. I was quite conservative in my reading tastes right through school. I wasn’t very willing to experiment, and I was drawn to just a few books. Yet, I think I would have enjoyed The Nameless […]
Ghosts Don’t Eat
Ghosts Don’t Eat is the third of Anushka Ravishankar’s books that we’re reading at my online reading programme, and it promises to be just as much fun! We read Moin and the Monster at my book club for slightly older readers and the first of the Zain and Ana books, At Least a Fish, at an earlier edition of […]
Nimmi’s Dreadtastic Detective Days
It’s been a year since I read Nimmi’s Dreadtastic Detective Days, and I’ve been mulling over whether to read it at my reading programme. It’s a little longer than the books we usually read, but there’s so much we can do with the book that I’ve been tempted to choose it. Finally, I decided I would […]
The Reading Race
Books about books are always fun to read at my reading programmes. At an earlier edition, we read a book with a few elements that didn’t appeal to me. For instance, I don’t like the idea of reading quickly, or a competition based on how many books you can read. I also don’t like the […]
A Big Splash
I read the entire PARI series a few months ago, and I’ve been mulling over them ever since. I’m not usually a big fan of nonfiction, and I haven’t yet worked with it at my online reading programme, but A Big Splash stayed with me. And then, there were stray conversations that made me think […]
Malhar in the Middle
I LOVE Shruthi Rao’s books. We read Manya Learns to Roar at my first reading programme, and even before that, I read and loved Susie Will Not Speak. If anything, I liked Malhar in the Middle even more. Malhar loves playing the tabla. But why does tradition demand that he should sit on the side? Why is he is the ‘accompanying […]
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
How does one even begin to talk about a book like The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise? Coyote – why is she called Coyote? Why does the cover image show her sitting on top of a school bus? Coyote’s mother and sisters die in a road accident and for her father, the only way to […]
Unfair
Three years ago, when I read No. 9 on the Shade Card, I came across the concept of a shade card for the first time. As a child, conversations about skin colour bounced off me. People spoke of how one person was lighter or darker than another; they talked of having tanned too much after […]
Rain Must Fall
Rain Must Fall by Nandita Basu is such a beautiful read! I devoured it in one sitting, and I loved it. Anya, Rumi’s best friend, asks whom Rumi would like to go on a date with. Rumi makes the mistake of being honest and saying ‘you’. After all, you can be truthful with your best […]
January Reads
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 […]
Adventure on Wheels
Adventure on Wheels is such a rollicking read! The book opens with two thieves stealing a van that belongs to an orphanage. The theft itself is simple enough, but when they discover three children hiding in the van, they’re up against more than they’d bargained for. At once heart-warming and hilarious, Adventure on Wheels is a fun […]
About Average
I read Frindle some time ago and loved it. I considered using it for my online reading programme, but it’s so well known that I figured that many children would have read it, or at least heard of it, already. How about something by the same author, but less known? And that’s how I stumbled upon About Average by […]
My Favourite Young Adult Books from 2021
I didn’t read very many young adult books in 2021, and several that I did read proved to be disappointing. With some, I know I was probably being unfair because I have high expectations of authors I’ve read and loved. I left a number of books unfinished; when there are so many books out there […]
The School is Alive!
This is the first time I will be reading a spooky book with my book club for ages seven and eight! One of the British Council reading challenge themes was Creepy House, so I’ve worked extensively with slightly scary stories for all age-groups, but because it was never one of my go-to genres as a […]