It's always a joy to read my books with my book clubs! I've read The Prophecy of Rasphora and Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells, in addition to my story in Flipped: Mystery Stories and Sci-Fi Stories.I can't wait to read Dhara's Revolution, a book that has received much love from readers, in addition to having been shortlisted for the AG BLF Prize for Children's Fiction! Revolutionary Ideas If you want to create change, what would you do? Some of you may want to have the right to choose what uniform they wear. Others may want more screentime. What do you want? What is something that you want to do that you aren’t allowed to do? A book discussion is a great way to delve into a story! Let’s Vote! Election fever has gripped Dhara’s school, Sarvaloka Public School. Let’s read an excerpt from the book and then cast our votes. What team do you … [Read more...]
The Prophecy of Rasphora
It is always a little daunting to introduce a book of my own to my book club. But I've done so many events based on The Prophecy of Rasphora, and so many of them have gone so well, that I feel (hope) this will be fun too!Tara, Afreen and Vandana discover a land behind a waterfall, the land of Rasphora. Vandana, ever practical, knows that they must get out of Rasphora as soon as they can. Life is not easy for them, and they cannot afford to miss a day's work, even though they are just children. But when she learns that she is part of a prophecy of this beautiful, mysterious land, she can't help but pause. She should, at least, listen to the prophecy before returning to her home in the hills. Shouldn't she? Language Games What is the first problem you would face if you found yourself a new land? This question always leads to the problem of communication. … [Read more...]
Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells
For the first time ever, we're going to read one of my books at my book club! I am in equal parts nervous and excited. Yes, Dragonflies, Jigsaws and Seashells was shortlisted for the Scholastic Asian Book Award. Yes, it's been published both by Scholastic Asia and Scholastic India. Yes, it was shortlisted for the Singapore Book Award. That doesn't make me any less nervous!I chose this book of mine because reading Dungeon Tales II convinced me that short stories are perfect for Read, Write, Explore. We will read excerpts from three stories in class and do activities based on the stories, concluding the edition by writing something of our own. Jigsaw Puzzles A book club is all about having fun, so we'll begin with an online jigsaw puzzle. I wrote the story "Jigsaw Puzzles" because I loved jigsaws as a child. Like Aniket in the story, I would make … [Read more...]
Happy Birthday, Shakespeare!
An achievement I sometimes hide is that I won two medals for having topped a course on Shakespeare. I hide it because despite the medals, I can't quite say that I know much about Shakespeare. It was a course where we studied about Shakespeare without studying texts. The thing about Shakespeare is that he's such a grand and mysterious character that there are so many things we are unsure about. With his multiple signatures and the fact that he even changed his name to Shakeshaft once, we really don't know much about him. Maybe that's why I topped the course. Because writing about him uses imagination and knowledge in equal proportions.I received a letter from my university inviting me for the convocation. None of my friends received a letter. I thought that was normal, considering I was the only one who had to make my way from across the country.I went there, collected my orange robe … [Read more...]