I borrowed Leonora Bolt: The Great Gadget Games from a library recently, and my first thought was that the series would be perfect for my book club! A science-loving protagonist with imaginative, innovative ideas, a secret inventor, an unusual set of friends … it’s full of possibilities! And that’s why we’re going to be reading the first […]
Bookasura
Some books demand to be read at reading programmes. Lucky Girl, with its exploration of poetry. Chitti’s Travelling Book Box with its message of spreading the love for reading. Book Uncle and Me, with the need to save a lending library. And Bookasura, with its book-eating asura. And that’s why we’re rereading this one at my book […]
Birds on the Brain
Uma Krishnaswami’s Birds on the Brain is such a lovely book! I’ve read Book Uncle and Me with my book club, and I just revisited the post I wrote about it. Three years ago, I wrote about having discovered verse novels “quite recently” and now I have two verse novels of my own! In Birds on the Brain, we meet […]
Where Does It Hurt?
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 […]
The Wishkeeper’s Apprentice
What a charming book! Hopeful, whimsical and ever so sweet, The Wishkeeper’s Apprentice is a book I loved as an adult and would have enjoyed as a child. Rupus Beewinkle is an overworked wishkeeper. He needs an apprentice because there are so many wish snags, and he simply isn’t able to keep up. Unfortunately, the […]
You Go First
I’ve been wanting to read Erin Entrada Kelly’s books for a while. As a writer of middle-grade, hers is a name that keeps popping up. I finally read You Go First, and what an unusual, charming book it is! You Go First tells two stories, stories that barely meet. One is the story of Charlotte […]
Odder
I love Katherine Applegate, and I’ve been meaning to read Odder ever since it came out. Finally, I borrowed it from Kahaani Box and devoured it. It’s such a lovely book! Odder is the story of a sea otter, an irrepressible character, who swirls and dances and leaps out of the pages. She is larger […]
Leonora Bolt: The Great Gadget Games
I love it when I come across books that I can read with my book club! I’ve been reading about Leonora Bolt for a while, but The Great Gadget Games is the first one I’ve read in the series. Clearly, earlier in the series, Leonora Bolt was in the clutches of her evil uncle Luther. […]
The Last Windwitch
It’s been a while since I read fantasy! I often find it hard to get into fantasy because of the detailed world-building that it demands. I think that’s one of the reasons writing Uncontrollable in verse worked so well for me. In the same way that I don’t get sucked into a fantastical world easily, […]
Pax, Journey Home
I haven’t read Pax, but I picked up Pax, Journey Home from Kahaani Box. It’s a lovely book, but I have a warning – don’t read the blurb! I don’t often read the blurb before I read a book, and so often when I do, I regret it! A huge chunk of what is mentioned […]
Gooney Bird Greene
Gooney Bird Greene was the second book I read from Kahaani Box, and it’s a fun story by an author whose work I admire. Lois Lowry has written such a range of books! I’ve read Number the Stars (one of my favourite reads from 2020), The Giver and Gathering Blue that I remember, and I […]
Dear Sister
I’ve missed libraries so much ever since the British Library shut down! On a recent visit to Bangalore, I visited Kahaani Box, and I made a decision to join on the spur of the moment. There’s nothing like receiving a parcel of books I’m very unlikely to have read otherwise! Neha from Kahaani Box recommended […]
Dungeon Tales II
We’re going to reread Dungeon Tales II by Venita Coelho at my book club! And thanks to the Neev Literature Festival, I have an autographed copy! Short stories work well with my book clubs, especially as we read just excerpts in class. Both volumes of Dungeon Tales were wonderfully received by the children, so I’m excited to read […]
The Talking T-Rex
We’ve read two books from the A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy; we’re all set to read another! Before picking up The Talking T-Rex, I wondered whether it would be a scary book–that’s what the cover leads us to believe. But it’s not! We know from the very beginning that the T-rex is a machine; in […]
Just Harriet
Harriet isn’t your typical protagonist. She lies, she’s selfish, and she’s often sulky and bad-tempered. Even as I read Just Harriet, I mulled over whether to introduce it to my book club. We’ve read and loved two books by Elana K. Arnold – A Boy Called Bat and Bat and the End of Everything – but this one’s […]
Spellbound
We’re rereading Spellbound by Nalini Sorensen at my book club next month! There are some books that simply must be read at a book club. They’re full of possibility, bursting with ideas and imagination. When author Nalini Sorensen visited my online creative writing programme a few months ago, Spellbound was hot off the press, and the reviews I read […]
Petu Pumpkin: Freedom Fighter
We need more books this length! Petu Pumpkin: Freedom Fighter is perfect for my book club for so many reasons! For one, it’s a book about agency and creating change, while also being a humorous read featuring familiar characters. For another, since it’s just about a hundred pages long, we have enough time to read as […]
Susie Will Not Speak
Susie Will Not Speak by Shruthi Rao was one of the first hOle books I read, and it remains one of my favourites. Jahan and Susie leap out of the pages – sparkling characters that make the story what it is. Susie has a lisp. How can she say even her own name without proclaiming […]
Other Words for Home
Search for ‘verse novels for middle-grade readers’, and Other Words for Home is bound to come up. It’s a Newbery Honor Book and a New York Times bestseller. However, just like I said when I reviewed Red, White and Whole, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read yet another immigration story. And perhaps that […]
Mirror to Mirror
Stories about sisters are incredibly special. And sisters who would do anything to win each other’s heart? You have me with the premise itself. I read Mirror to Mirror only because I attended an author talk that Rajani LaRocca gave for the Neev Literature Festival Reading Challenge. Listening to her read from the book and […]