Neha Sinha

This beautiful book grips one at the cover, and the title. Having just returned from a workshop that engaged with ecology—cultural, political, and conventionally ecological—and exploring its location in spaces of interiority, the blurb by Sumana Roy, author of the lyrically meditative How I Became a Tree, resonated: ‘Neha Sinha’s language is one of addiction, of enthusiasm, of trust—for life and in the living. This book reminds us that only a vocabulary of intimacy with the living will save us, and them.’


Reviewed by: Maya Joshi
By Maulik Pancholy

Our teenage years are truly formative. They shape us in ways we do not realize and the experiences of that time stick with us for the rest of our lives. The Best at It brings one such beautiful teenage tale to light. As it is, growing up is not easy; every single child constantly feels excluded and conscious of her own self. And if a child visibly looks different from classmates and friends, another layer of consciousness gets added.


Reviewed by: Ilika Trivedi
L. Somi Roy.

Manipur means the Land of Gems. Indeed, an appropriate name, when you talk of a State with moderate climate, blue-green hills crisscrossed by streams, joining to form river basins rich in alluvial soil. Rivers draining into the fresh water Loktak Lake. A lake with many floating weed islands, some of which house people, the only floating school in the world, the only floating national park in the world! Teeming with flora and fauna.


Reviewed by: Anju Virmani
Shweta Taneja

Here’s a welcome addition to popular-science writing for children in India. Shweta Taneja, the author, is passionate about familiarizing children with scientific ideas and has been doing so effectively. She has won several awards for her books and this one has been much appreciated too.The title on the cover says: They Found What? Stories of Daring Discoveries by Indian Scientists.


Reviewed by: Neera Jain
Bijal Vachharajani

Savi is fortunate to have her story authored by Bijal Vachharajani. While the former is a teenager chronologically, mentally and emotionally the writer is an amazing teenager at heart. She has breathed life into an ever bubbling, often bold, endearingly charming and off and on quirky Savi.The storyline branches into three zones, one of personal grief, another of saving trees that bond astonishingly with one another, the third of school life, friends and foes


Reviewed by: Indira Ananthakrishnan
Samina Mishra

‘It is day 7 of the lockdown and everyone says the skies are blue again.’This is the first sentence of Jamlo Walks, spread over two pages against a blue backdrop, a calendar with the dates from the 24th to the 30th of March crossed out, and a few leaves of an indoor plant beside a window looking out into a blue sky with some wispy clouds.


Reviewed by: Bharati Jagannathan