2025 was a spectacular year as a writer! The highlight was, of course, winning the Crossword Book Award 2025. Everyone knows how slow the publishing industry is, so it was also such a joy to have three books published this year, by three different publishers! The Crossword Book Award ceremony was a grand, celebratory affair, and the fact that Denise Antao and I won the award for the best children's fiction was a dream come true. Jury members Deepak Dalal, Deepa Agarwal and Anita Roy had the kindest things to say about our book The Wall Friends Club. 'Wall Friends Club' stands out for its entirely unexpected and imaginative storyline and structure. It is a story of friendship, a most unusual one, that originates from pieces of paper stuck in the nooks and crannies of a wall. Although the protagonists have never met each other, the author, in a … [Read more...]
The Wall Friends Club
The Wall Friends Club won the Crossword Book Award 2025! I'm so excited to be introducing this book of mine to young readers!In this book, Anandi, a soon-to-be 10-year-old leaves a letter in a gap in the wall for someone else to find. When Sriya finds the letter, they begin to write to each other regularly. Old-fashioned letter-writing will be fun to explore with my book clubbers! Clubs Have you read books about clubs? What do the clubs do? If you set up a club, what would you call it? Who would be part of it? What would you do together? Writing Letters Anandi and Sriya are becoming the best of friends, but they have never met! What would you write to a stranger? Let’s write a letter together! Code-Making and Code-Breaking Sriya is a master code-maker! What about you? Can you solve a cryptogram? Write and decipher … [Read more...]