Another edition of my book club, and we're reading another delightful hOle book!Sandy, aka Sandip when his mother is angry, makes a new friend, Aftab, who needs rescuing from Mrs Gupta, the witch next door. The problem is that he needs to sneak Aftab into his house, feed him and give him a place to stay. And of course, Sandy has got to be braver than Aftab when it comes to an adventure of this sort. After all, Sandy is a whole year older.We've read this hOle book before, and I'm looking forward to reading it again--five years later! Here are some bookish activities we're going to do. Making Up Words 'It's greeny blue, not bluey green. It's, um, grue!''You need spectacles,' Aftab scoffed. 'It's not grue, it's breen!'What words can you make up by combining two words? What do these new words mean? Hiding Places Aftab hides under the … [Read more...]
Daddy Come Lately
Priya knows that her father is dead. She is a 'post-humorous' child, as she calls herself until her mother gently corrects her, saying that it is 'posthumous', not post-humorous - and that she isn't posthumous anyway. Her father is alive, and has just found out that he has a daughter. Worse, he wants not only to meet her, but also to get to know her. And Priya, man-hating as she is convinced she is, knows that this spells bad news. Characters leap out of the pages of Daddy Come Lately, and so many of them are wonderful! Priya is (mostly) a fun character. There is one bit towards the end of the book where she behaves a little more melodramatically than I would like, but that takes little away from how real she is. Mr Sarkar, aka Dad the Bad, is a wonderful character, and that makes me wish I had written this post in time for Father's Day. An independent, no-nonsense dad, he … [Read more...]