I’ve been looking at books from Lantana Publishing for a while, and I want to read so many of them! The books look gorgeous and for the most part, receive glowing reviews too. When I discovered that The Ammuchi Puchi is being offered as a free ebook in times of Corona, I sank my teeth […]
Across the Line
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 […]
What to Read on StoryWeaver
At this moment, StoryWeaver has 22,487 stories. 22,487. Let’s do some maths. If I read a story a day every day of my life, I will need over 61 years to read all those stories. That’s not even taking into account the fact that there will be many, many more stories by then. So, here’s […]
Crenshaw
Look at that gorgeous cover. It invited me in with all its charm, its wonder, its mystery. And the book was just as heart-warming. Jackson likes facts. He’s the kid who runs backstage and then reveals to everyone just how the magician pulled a rabbit out of his hat. He knows facts about bats and […]
The Good Thieves
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 […]
All of Me
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 […]
The Peril Trilogy
In the time of lockdown, Kindle Unlimited books are such a boon! I’ve been devouring books by Julia Golding for a while now, and when I discovered the Peril trilogy by Joss Stirling (same writer, different name), I was thrilled. Three books to read! Except that they’re so fast paced that I didn’t spend very […]
Ragged Wolf
I’m home. Coronavirus. Twisted ankle.My instinct is to sit with my laptop and work all day, but I know I will be exhausted if I do that. So, what can I do? I’m afraid of running out of books (yes, really) and I ration them, until I remember that I have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. […]
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
What a truly delightful story! In the shadow of Fruitless Mountain live Minli and her family. Everything in her village seems grey and dull, except Minli, who sparkles with life. That sparkle is, perhaps, the result of Ba’s stories. Night after night, he tells her stories about dragons, the Never-Ending Mountain and the Old Man […]
Annexed
I was not planning to write a review of Annexed because of all the questions it raised in me about historical fiction. The Diary of a Young Girl, with its optimism and intimacy, made the Annexe come alive to all of us. I read it years ago and was left feeling hollow because vivacious Anne Frank, who died perhaps equally […]
Broken Soup
Unlike most other books that I pick up, the cover of Broken Soup did not attract me. But I’ve read and loved two other books by Jenny Valentine (The Ant Colony and Fire Colour One), so I borrowed this one – and, once more, I loved how the story was told. Rowan’s family falls apart when her brother Jack dies. […]
Listen to the Moon
I keep saying that with Michael Morpurgo, you can’t go wrong. Once more, with Listen to the Moon, I realised the truth of that. Had it been almost any other writer, I would have been daunted by the thickness of the book and the idea of beginning to read it when I know I’m busy. But Michael Morpurgo? […]
Ink
More often than not, fantasy serves as an allegory of the world we live in. Sometimes, the allegory is clearer than at other times, and I suppose part of that is cultural. For instance, when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time, I didn’t know enough to make the obvious connections. With Ink, it was different. […]
Secrets of a Sun King
The first book I read by Emma Carroll was The Girl Who Walked on Air, and I loved it enough for it to have been one of the top ten middle-grade books I read in 2018. As a child, I devoured Galliano’s Circus and I picked up the book with nothing in mind other than the fun of exploring another, different […]
Books I Read in January 2020
I wrote already about the three hOle books I read, as well as about The Lilliputians. But there’s so much more, as always, especially as I was travelling! Instead of doing one post per book, here’s a list of books I read and loved. Neel on Wheels Neel on Wheels is a lovely picture book written by Lavanya […]
The Lilliputians
Street-smart Tilly ropes Poesy in to audition for the Lilliputians, a children’s theatre group that is to travel to America. Poesy qualifies, only to discover that the world of acting and singing is rather different from everything she had dreamed it would be. For one, it seems that everyone cannot be friends with everyone else. […]
Three hOle Books
Who doesn’t love a hole in a book? I love the idea of the hole, and I do wish it were possible to make the holes part of every illustration! I’m sure the illustrator would probably find that rather restrictive, but even so, I delighted in each picture that used the hole in some way. […]
The Racehorse Who Wouldn’t Gallop
Ooh! That’s Polly! Let me wave out to her!Oops. I’m at an auction and I just ended up buying a horse for a thousand pounds. No, I’m not quoting, but this is the lovely premise of a heart-warming story of a racehorse who refuses to gallop. Ten-year-old Charlie Bass loves horses, but she has only […]
After Tomorrow
Flawed narrators make me squirm. When I read a story from the point of view of a character who does not make the right decisions, I often don’t know whether to read on. Fictional friends are important to me as a reader. I read to befriend the characters. What if the protagonist doesn’t seem like […]
The Island at the End of Everything
Amihan lives with her nanay on Culion, the island at the end of everything. Unlike most of the others – who came by boat to this beautiful, lush green island with blue skies – Ami was born on the island, an island of lepers. Except that they don’t use the word ‘leper’ on Culion; instead, […]