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Varsha Seshan

My Favourite Middle-Grade Books from 2022

posted on January 4, 2023

I read and loved so many middle-grade books in 2022! While some of these are early middle-grade books (I’ve read four of them with my book club for ages nine and ten), others are for ages ten and above. When I review a book, I usually indicate what age-group I think it is suited to, […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: A Conspiracy in Calcutta, Dear Mr Henshaw, Dungeon Tales II, Fish in a Tree, Frindle, middle-grade, Misfit Madhu, Nadya, reading, review, Secret Friends, The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

My Favourite Chapter Books from 2022

posted on January 3, 2023

Each year, I read dozens of chapter books for my book clubs. Despite that–or perhaps because of that–there were just three that I fell in love with in 2022. That is not to say I didn’t like the books I read; I did. I enjoyed most of them thoroughly. Yet, as I looked back at […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Chapter Book, Chris Riddell, Malhar in the Middle, Meera Ganapathi, Ottoline Goes to School, Paati vs UNCLE, reading, review, Shruthi Rao

My Favourite Picture Books and Early Chapter Books from 2022

posted on January 2, 2023

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

Ramanujan

posted on December 16, 2022

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 to the problem is, again, the chapter number. That sounds much more complicated than it is, but take a look: Do you see what I […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Arundhati Venkatesh, Great Minds At Work, historical fiction, Middle Grade, Ramanujan, reading, review

The Manic Panic

posted on December 8, 2022

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

A Chera Adventure

posted on December 7, 2022

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 to review. I enjoy historical fiction. And middle-grade historical fiction set in south India? I can’t think of a single example of a book that […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: A Chera Adventure, historical fiction, Middle Grade, Preetha Leela Chockalingam, reading, review

Crenshaw

posted on November 5, 2022

I read Crenshaw over two years ago. In fact, it was one of my top reads of 2020, and it’s a story that has stayed with me since then, a story I think about often because of its portrayal of friendship, loneliness and vulnerability. Crenshaw is the story of a boy, Jackson, and a giant cat. What […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: book club, bookish activities, books for ages nine and ten, Crenshaw, Katherine Applegate, online reading programme, reading, review

Gulgul in Jungalu

posted on November 4, 2022

It’s time to introduce another series to my book club – the Gulgul series! I wonder if the book is targeted at slightly younger readers than my book clubbers, but the number of things we can do with Gulgul in Jungalu prompted me to select it. Gulgul is mischievous, resourceful and friendly, the perfect protagonist of an adventure […]

Filed Under: Books, Children, Workshops Tagged With: Ashok Rajagopalan, book club, bookish activities, books for ages seven and eight, Chapter Book, Gulgul in Jungalu, online reading programme, reading, review

Roshan’s Road to Music

posted on October 23, 2022

Recently, while reading A Cello on the Wall with my book club, we did a quiz on musical instruments. The piano, the cello (of course), the guitar, and the tabla were easy to identify. The violin was easy for some, confusing for others. But the sarod, sitar, veena and mridangam were difficult for nearly all […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Mamta Nainy, Picture Book, Priyanka Tampi, reading, review, Roshans Road to Music

I Want a Pet

posted on October 19, 2022

I’ve never met a child who has never in their life wanted a pet. Have you? But what if … the pet isn’t a cat or a dog or even a rabbit, but a buffalo? I absolutely loved Arundhati Venkatesh‘s brand-new Hook Book, I Want a Pet. Without any drama or explanation, we are sucked […]

Filed Under: Books, Children Tagged With: Arundhati Venkatesh, Chapter Book, Hook Books, I Want a Pet, reading, Reshu Singh, review

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