This is an amazing story to introduce the mystery and suspense genre to young readers. Nisha Small: The Knot of Gold is about Madurai’s finest detective cracking her latest case. Nisha Small, formerly Nisha Kutty, is tasked with finding a missing thaali (gold chain). The missing chain has led to her best friend, Jamie Karthik’s […]
Our family recently holidayed in a beautiful wildlife reserve, and when it was time to leave, I asked the kids what they loved seeing and what they did not enjoy. They loved the waterfalls, different kinds of ferns, and little insect critters. They hated the mindless littering and the wilderness-unworthy behaviour. They were most unhappy watching […]
Rocket Boy Girl Champs Arjun loves Science and science experiments, but his mother has had enough of his experiments exploding and messing up her perfect home. Arjun doesn’t care about any other subject, and when his teacher announces a school-wide science competition, he knows he needs to win the top prize! The problem is, his […]
If your child is interested and excited about all things space and space missions, then you absolutely must have Menaka Raman’s books on your radar. Reaching for the Moon: Lessons from the Chandrayaan Mission is her third book on space, after Topi Rockets from Thumba and How to Reach Mars and Other Impossible Things. We […]
A few years ago, while quasi-homeschooling the kids during the COVID-19 pandemic, it struck me that the boys could name and identify European countries (due to football) and states of the USA (due to a game they watched on a sitcom), but were clueless about the states of India. Sure, they could identify a couple […]
There are many things characteristic of a Shabnam Minwalla YA book. 1. A mad scramble to see who gets to read it first. I lucked out this time, because the kids had their exams. 2. Blocking off a chunk of time so you can finish the hefty tome. Not unlike people blocking 6 hours of […]
Rarely does a YA novel come along that makes even an adult eager to research and curious to know more about the central theme. Children of the Hidden Land, written by Mandira Shah, had me spellbound, then sent me into a dizzying abyss about how little I knew of my own country. Fifteen-year-old April lives […]
There is a tree I pass daily on my morning walk with Clou that houses sunbirds, crows, pigeons, mynahs, sparrows, and a brown kite or two on its branches. I’d like to think it is a microcosm of our large society with different kinds of people living in it. Ever so often, I will spot a […]
The Pink Dress by Shabnam Minwalla is about an eight-year-old girl, Kanmani, who wants a frilly, lacy, pink dress for her birthday. Now, if you thought the plot of the book was so simple, you haven’t read very many Shabnam Minwalla books! Yes, Kanmani wants a pink dress for her birthday, but how she plans […]
Paati vs UNCLE, by Meera Ganapathi, is a book that was popular as soon as it was released. Everyone I followed on Instagram followed author Meera Ganapathi and had read SoupGram. That should tell you how popular she is! Talking to Meera on Tell Me a Story was easy, breezy. We had a no-fuss conversation filled with fun […]