House Full of Books

“Nimmi‘s Dreadtastic Detective Days” by Shabnam Minwalla. Published by Talking Cub, the children’s imprint of Speaking Tiger. A hilarious story of Nimmi Daruwala who gets a chance to don the hat of a detective and solve the case of bursting beanbags. This is the second book of the Nimmi series. The first book is “Nimmi’s Spectabulous School Days” which was thoroughly enjoyed by us.

“Sleepytime Tales With Coco Comma” by Sonia Mehta and illustrated by Sunayana Nair. Published by Penguin. A delightful collection of four stories featuring an English ace who cannot tolerate incorrect usage of the language. Coco Comma is the resident English expert of her town. She loves to read books. More often than not, she is found with her nose buried in one. This habit of hers makes her bang into doors or bump into people many a times to their annoyance.

“In the Woof of Time” by Monika Bhatkande. Published by Reado Junior, an imprint of Readomania. A suspense filled story of what happens when a group of friends who love reading adventure books find themselves caught in the thick of a mystery. Eleven year old Sam (Samar) lives in an apartment complex. He and his friends are part of a book club run by Miss Priya. Their favourite author is Mashoor Lekhak.

“Nimmi’s Spectabulous Schooldays” by Shabnam Minwalla. Published by Talking Cub, the children’s imprint of Speaking Tiger. A hilarious story of Nimmi Daruwala who is having a dramatic start at beginning of grade 6. Eleven year old Nimmi Daruwala is looking forward to a new year in school. There are things she doesn’t like in her life like her surname and the bullying classmate Sumit who torments her to no end about it. She has a way with words and loves creating unusual words which are delightful.

“The Tale of the Naughty Flying Mountains” by Anand Neelakantan and illustrated by Doodlenerve. Published by Penguin. A mythological story from a long time ago when mountains had wings and could choose to fly until something happened to make them stay at a place. Though it might sound quite preposterous, this is a story from an ancient era. Mountains did have wings and could fly wherever they wanted if they chose to.

“My Name is Cinnamon” by Vikas Prakash Joshi and illustrated by Niloufer Wadia. Published by Hay House. An engrossing story of the coming of age of a boy who is trying to find his identity while experiencing everything that life has to offer to him. The story starts with Roshan Rishikesh Paranjape aka Cinnamon representing his school in the finals of the Pune Under-13 School Football Championship.

“Hari and Other Elephants” by Shankar and illustrated by Pulak Biswas. Published by CBT. A delightful collection of six stories which portray the feelings and  behaviour of elephants giving us an insight into how they think. Elephants are often misunderstood as we do not understand how they feel and end up making mistakes while interacting with them.

“And That is Why - Manipuri Myths Retold” by L. Somi Roy and illustrated by Sapha Yumnam. Published by Penguin. A delightful collection of twelve unusual and fascinating tales from the rich folklore of Manipur. India is a diverse country of various cultures each having their own rich repository of folklore. Manipur which is a mountain land in the north east of India on the border with Myanmar is no less when it comes to myths and folk tales.

“Batata, Pao and All Things Portuguese” by Vaishali Shroff and illustrated by Suha Riyaz Khopatkar. Published by the People Place Project. A concise book about the lesser known story of the Portuguese rule in India that lasted for over four centuries. The colonial era of India began in 1498 when Vasco da Gama finally found the sea route to India.

“Mermaids in the Moonlight” by Sharanya Manivannan. Published by Red Panda. An enchanting collection of folklore of mermaids from around the world with beautiful and magical illustrations. Nilavoli and her Amma (mother) go on a boat ride down the lagoon in Mattakalappu (in Sri Lanka) on a full moon night. They are on a special quest.