Atticus, Atticus … How I love you! Who says that you are not a good parent? To Kill a Mockingbird is moving, painful and joyful. It fills my heart with the goodness and stupidity of humanity. When I read a story like To Kill a Mockingbird, I feel the power of literature. Literature can echo in your […]
The Macmillan Book Review Contest on Rivokids
Why are there no reviews of Indian books for the Macmillan Book Review Contest yet? This is true for all the age-groups! Do invite children in the age-group 10-15 to review The Story-Catcher; the carrot dangling at the end of the stick is a Macmillan book hamper! Last date for entries is the 30th of […]
Olivia’s First Term
When I picked up Olivia’s First Term, I was more than a little sceptical. The book was light purple, with splashes of silver on it. It did not promise to be the kind of book I would like. I don’t like books that run on crushes and fantasies and lipstick and shoes and make-up. And lavender, purple and […]
The Court Painter’s Apprentice
I love novels that read like short stories. I don’t like it when the plot is so complex that my excitement reaches its peak too early. When I read a book like that, I’m just waiting to find out what happens in the end, not enjoying the journey. The book I read before this, The Boy Who Fell Down […]
Skellig
Skellig by David Almond is a human story, and like so many human stories, contains a little miracle. A scientific miracle, perhaps. Or maybe a spiritual miracle. Sometimes the two go together, along with angelic intervention, scientific study and William Blake. Skellig is not a story that wants to be believed. Yet it is not fantasy. It is not […]
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
“How about watching The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?” a friend’s mother suggested when I was about eleven. I giggled. “What a funny name! What is that?” “You mean you haven’t read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?” Eyes wide open in amazement. And that is how I came to watch the old BBC movie […]
The Red Dress
As a child, I did not like anything about anything awkward. I did not like dirt (even though I asked my father where the Famous Five went to the loo and how they had baths when they went camping). I did not find ‘dirty’ humour funny, even humour aimed at children. I liked politeness and […]
Hello? Is Anybody There?
If you go to the moon, you would go up. But when you reach the moon, you land. You go down. And if you are on the moon and you look up, you will see the earth. That means that somewhere between here and the moon, up becomes down and down becomes up. I started […]
Shadow Web
Everybody in the internet age does it at least once in a while. Type in ‘Varsha Seshan’, just to see what pops up. Don’t tell me you haven’t searched for yourself on Google. Jessica Allendon did just that. And the consequences were totally out of control. Shadow Web is not about time-travel. Time-travel is easy. […]
Avameru
I began to read the book and licked my lips, wondering what I could say about it. A book by a dear friend can be a dangerous thing because you must have an opinion about it. With Avameru, the opinion was easy. I enjoyed it. Yes, in the beginning, I had thoughts in my head […]
Women of Pride
Women of Pride unravelled a lot of questions before proceeding to respond to them, at least in part . There was so much about the devadasis that I did not know. Often in books I read, the history of these temple dancers was cheerfully summed up in a couple of sentences. The devadasis were nityasumangali […]
Toro! Toro!
Is it true that the most moving books must be placed during wartime? How strange that the moments of greatest human kindness come during the cruelest of times! Toro! Toro! is not like the other Morpurgos that I have read, insomuch that it is not about the second world war at all. Yet, it is about […]
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
The best stories are the simplest ones of all. And who better than Michael Morpurgo to write simple stories so simply that they charm you? Boowie receives a letter from his grandmother, not very long after the death of his grandfather. It is undoubtedly the most remarkable letter of his life. As part of the […]
The Great Escape
The story of two dogs and a cat during the second world war brought to mind an aspect of war that I had never considered. What happened to all the animals, particularly pets, during the war? Startling statistics that Megan Rix has included after the novel reveal that there were far more animals killed during […]
Luck
Why are publishers so diffident about revealing the fact that a collection of short stories is just that – a collection of short stories and not a novel? I started reading Luck by Dhruba Hazarika with the distinct impression that it was a novel. I finished the first ‘chapter’ feeling deeply disturbed. I finished the […]
Twelve Minutes to Midnight
I’m still chuckling as I think about Twelve Minutes to Midnight. It’s been a while since my mind was so absorbed in a book that I kept waiting to get back to it. I even took it with me to the Writers’ Club at St. Mary’s School and pored over it. I felt a little […]
Waterslain Angels
When I was about ten, I read British Folk-Tales (not linking this to a place where you can buy it because Amazon is selling it at an incredible price of 11,000 rupees) by Kevin Crossley-Holland and enjoyed it. I had my favourite stories in the collection and I read them over and over again.A few […]
Ace
I always link my book reviews to amazon.in for people to buy the book there, but when I searched for Dick King-Smith’s Ace, the first thing I found was a hardcover priced at ₹12,527.41 + ₹99 delivery charge! I did find a copy that’s cheaper, though, and that’s a mercy; however much I enjoyed the […]
Fantastic Mr Dahl
Yes, Mr Dahl is fantastic. What I find interesting about Fantastic Mr Dahl, though, is the way in which Michael Rosen examines what makes him fantastic. Is it the fact that he used a special yellow pencil and special yellow paper (because his favourite colour was yellow)? Or because he loathed Christmas and loved Easter? […]
Avameru
Since I know that this author will barely publicize his book, if at all … This is what I’m reading. There’s nothing like reading something (published) that is written by a real and very dear friend. Buy it now on Amazon!