Review #717: The Wild Folk by Sylvia Linsteadt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”

----Alan W. Watts

Sylvia Linsteadt, an American author, has penned an incredibly beguiling fantasy novel, The Wild Folk that centers around an enchanting land filled with the power of magical star-gold that can the divided city prosper with wealth and health, where two young kids accompanied by two young hares, must save their land and its dwellers from getting ruined by the Brothers from the city, who are hell-bound to destroy everything beyond the walls of the city that was once pulled up to save the humans from the wild folks and the diseases. Two kids and two hare embark upon a deadly journey through the villages and forests of the land of wild folk to save it.

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Review #704: Flamingo Boy by Michael Morpurgo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Close friends are truly life's treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.”

----Vincent van Gogh

Michael Morpurgo, a bestselling English writer, has penned a delightful children's historical fiction called, Flamingo Boy that revolves around a young teenage boy, who after finding the real artists behind the painting in his room, journeys to the north of France, where he stumbles upon a family of an old woman and a strange old man living in a farm, and gradually the old lady narrates the story of that strange old man, who was once known as the Flamingo Boy, a story that involves the German invasion, the playful song of a carousel, friendship, laughter, even grief, a boy with healing powers and lots and lots of flamingos.

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Review #701: The Sky at Our Feet by Nadia Hashimi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“If you don't take risks, you'll have a wasted soul.”

----Drew Barrymore

Nadia Hashimi, an internationally bestselling author, pens a heart wrenching and extremely intriguing tale about two kids' fearless adventures around the city of Big Apple to get to an address in her new book, The Sky at Our Feet. The story revolves around a young Afghan-American boy, goes on a quest to find his beloved aunt in New York City along with a friend whom he met at a hospital, when his mother is taken away by the police on the pretext of illegal immigration issue. But on their way the two kids face a lot of challenges and dangers, and how they overcome that has been brilliantly portrayed by the author.

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Review #647: A Hundred Little Flames by Preeti Shenoy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“To the loyal and to the blood-lovers, in the good families and in the fiery dynasties, life is family and family is life. It is the same people who give advice and their vices to live well who turn out to be the ones who give resource and reason to live long.”

----Criss Jami

Preeti Shenoy, an Indian bestselling, pens a heart warming family drama in her new book called, A Hundred Little Flames that centers around the bond of friendship between a young man, who has recently lost his job in the city, and his aging yet humble grandfather, living in his ancestral home in a small village in Kerala. When the paths of the two collide through trust, love, and through a beautiful story, of two friends whose fates never let them to tie the knot in a holy matrimony, the young man and the grandfather learn a lot about life from one another and also learn to live for themselves.

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Review #620: The Rat Prince by Bridget Hodder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“If you don't like Cinderella because she seems so "naive" and "weak," listen to this quote from the Walt himself: "She believed in dreams, all right, but she also believed in doing something about them. When Prince Charming didn't come along, she went over to the palace and got him.”

----Walt Disney Company

Bridget Hodder, an American author, pens a delectable and compelling retelling of our favorite fairy tale, Cinderella in her new book, The Rat Prince that revolves around those rats who turned into Cinderella's coach drivers after fairy god mother's magic and also centers around Cinderella herself. The rat prince, who was one of those rats from that magical night, has forever been in love with Cinderella, but the night has a different twist that the fans of Cinderella never knew about, so if you want to know about it, simply grab this book.

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Review #582: What Not to Do If You Turn Invisible by Ross Welford

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“I don't need a cloak to become invisible.”

----J.K. Rowling

Ross Welford, an English author, has penned a thoroughly entertaining and extremely exciting middle grade fiction, What Not to Do If You Turn Invisible that revolves around a 12 year old girl who in order to cure her severe acne problem and to save herself from bullying in her school, she discreetly purchases an untested and unknown Chinese medicine that she tries it on her with the strong UV rays of a sunbed, resulting in invisibility. In the beginning being invisible from her peers and family was fun for her, but gradually her invisibility makes her a victim of lies and dishonesty among her peers and family.

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Review #543: The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“But if the world measures a refugee according to the worst story, we will always excuse human suffering, saying it is not yet as bad as someone else's.”

----Victoria Armour-Hileman

Zana Fraillon, an Australian author, has penned a heart breaking and thoroughly compelling tale about refugees in her latest book, The Bone Sparrow that is centered around a young refugee boy living his days with his mother and his elder sister in an Australian detention camp where he spends his days helping his orphan friend to smuggle and with an outsider to help her read the stories about her family history, all the while longing to meet his father across the ocean and to save his soul from such a wretched place.

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Review #532: One Half from the East by Nadia Hashimi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .”

----C.S. Lewis

Nadia Hashimi, an internationally bestselling author, pens a terrific and extremely heart rending yet enlightening tale of love, friendships, child marriage, bacha posh in her new middle grade contemporary fiction book, One Half from the East where the author weaves a tale centered around a ten year old Afghan girl who encounters a bomb blast that claims her father's leg that led that girl and her family to shift to the villages where the little girl is forced to dress as a boy in order to bring good fortune to her falling family.

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Review #478: Ambushed by Nayanika Mahtani

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity."

----George Bernard Shaw

Nayanika Mahtani, an India author, has penned an incredibly thrilling and heart-touching adventure story that includes tigers in her debut book, Ambushed where the author weaves a tale about a young girl who takes a summer vacation holiday trip on a Himalayan tiger reserve where the gadget freak young girl had little idea that this holiday is going to change her life forever as an exciting and dangerous adventure awaits her in the dense, dark forest of Himalayas.

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Review #429: The Inn Between by Marina Cohen, Sarah Watts (Illustrations)

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” 

----Arthur Conan Doyle

Marina Cohen, a Canadian author, pens an intriguing middle-grade part horror-cum-part-mystery story in her new book, The Inn Between that revolves around two pre-teen girls who take a trip with one of the girl's family and on their way, they all spend the night at a mysterious and a creepy-looking Victorian Inn, which turns out to be quite peculiar as on the very same night the girl's family goes missing. Will the two girls be able to find the parents and the brother who disappeared in the inn without a trace?

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Review #407: Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. If you can bend space you can bend time also, and if you knew enough and could move faster than light you could travel backward in tie and exist in two places at once.”

----Margaret Atwood

Ross Welford, an English author, pens his debut middle grade science fiction story, Time Travelling with a Hamster that unfolds the story of a 12-year old boy who after his father's death travels back in time with his father's invented time machine to meet his father along with his pet hamster, but things do not go well when he go backs in time.

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Review #347: The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The love that you withhold is the pain that you carry lifetime after lifetime.”

----Alex Collier

Sharon Guskin, an American author, pens her debut book, The Forgetting Time that narrates the story of a four year old boy who constantly asks his single mother to take him to his real mother after his nightmares. For his mother, the boy seems like making up imaginary stories, until when things get serious in his pre-school, she thinks that there is something terribly wrong with his little boy and she fears that she might lose her son to someone else when a doctor enters their lives.

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Review #338: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Human can surprise you sometimes. An unpredictable species, Homo sapiens”

----Katherine Applegate

Katherine Applegate, a multiple award-winning American author, has penned a deeply moving tale about an adult gorilla living inside a glass cage in a mall in America, in her book, The One and Only Ivan. Inspired from real-life events, the author pens a heart-breaking yet thoroughly entertaining story about a gorilla and his friends and his mission to find freedom, and mind it, this book is not only for the middle-grade children, but can be enjoyed irrespective of any age of the reader, from young to old.

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Review #296: The Isle of the Lost (Descendants #1) by Melissa de la Cruz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” 

----Desmond Tutu

Melissa de la Cruz,a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, pens her new YA book, The Isle of the Lost which is the first book in the Descendants series. This series opener tells the story of all those villains whom we all encountered in all the Disney Princess books and movies, from Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty to the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Jafar from Aladdin to Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians, when they were banished from the kingdom to a lonely island devoid of any magic or charms. This is the villains' story whom we all loved to hate them, but now we get to love them for real!

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Review #271: Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The past was worth remembering and knowing in its own right. It was not behind us, never truly behind us, but under us, holding us up, a foundation for all that was to come and everything that had ever been.” 

----Laura Lippman

Laura Lippman, an American award-winning NY Times best-selling author, has penned an incredibly nail-biting as well as edgy thriller, Every Secret Thing , that was published in the year 2004 and that has won quite a lot of literary awards. The story revolves around two little girls who unfortunately became a part of a horrific and sad murder of a little baby who was left abandoned by a sitter, seven years later, the disappearance of yet another child speculates and brings back the same memory of that child and will life ever be same for those two little girls who have just served seven years in juvenile prison.

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Review #115: Secrets from the Dust by George Hamilton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars




Who doesn't know about that period of history in Australia when the government removed the Aboriginal children from their parents forcefully assimilated to work in the homes of white people as servants. We call it as Stolen Generation.
And I found a real nice poem about a child screaming for her real parents and for her identity.

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Review #58: Bee Summers by Melanie Dugan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Such a beautiful, classic and compassionate story that will only make your heart cry!

Melanie Dugan is an American author, whose new book, Bee Summers is an exciting classic tale story about a young girl and her lost mother, and lots of bee-keeping and a number of exciting trips!


Synopsis:
Melissa was 11years old when her mother left her with her father and never returned. Feeling disappointed, Melissa asks her father about her mother's whereabouts, and in return she couldn't receive any concrete answer. But now it's Bee Summer, and it's the time when her bee-keeper father takes the hives into his clients' orchards to fertilize. And there begins a remarkable journey for Melissa along with her father, where she gets to make lot of new friends, like, Mr. Earl Caulkins, Mr. Chance, and the couple, Les and Opal. But her life changes drastically, when her father asks Opal to marry him after her husband's death, and thus putting Melissa in the back-gear of his life. And years pass by, and we see Melissa as a happily married author, and still resent her estranged father. But when she stumbles upon Mr. Chance’s new book, the truth about her mother comes gnawing at her thus making her filled with regret and love.

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Review #53: Hot Flashes & Cold Lemonade by Susan Flett Swiderski

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each others' life" that's what was said by one of the most famous author of all times, Richard David Bach. Hot Flashes & Cold Lemonade by Susan Flett Swiderski teaches us the value of family bonds and the concept of how to respect each and every one of your family. The name of the book may sound so quirky and girly and chick-litish type, but it's more like a classic drama which gives a lesson to its readers.


Synopsis:
This is about Pearl, a doting wife, caring mother and a careless daughter, who is optimistic about every aspects of her life and loves to wear rose-colored specs. Since Pearl is hitting menopause, she is getting hot flashes all the times (I mean literally, she sweats out like a big fat sumo wrestler!). She is in love with her garden centerpiece; a unicorn called Elvis and always praises her children no matter how they treat her. But soon we see her dealing with some hard core realities and truths about her family and at this time, it’s quite unpredictable that how she would handle all those issues, considering the fact that she gets angry too easily. And oh that beautiful climax as well as the epilogue will totally bewilder you.

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Review #48: Little Exiles by Robert Dinsdale

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Everyone must come out of his Exile in his own way.”

---Martin Buber, an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher

Robert Dinsdale, one of my favorite English authors, has woven a spectacular tale about illegal immigration of little children to Australia with or without the consent of their guardians, in his book, Little Exiles .

Synopsis:
In Leeds in the year of 1948, a eight year old’s father doesn't return home, weeks later, that same boy is sent off to Chapeltown Boy’s Home of the Children’s Crusade by his mother and all the while the boy believed that it's just a short matter of time until he return backs to his own home with his mother and his twin elder sisters. But fate had stored something else for him. Two months later, that same boy along with his few friends that he managed to make in his two-months stay at the Children’s Crusade, are also on the same ship which is destined to reach the land of red-earth- Australia. Thus begins the story/journey of the little boy named Jon Heather, who happened to be forcefully sent off to an exile in an unknown land. He along with his friends, George and Pete, they fall, survive, and learn to accept their new lives in Australia. Read it to have a first-hand experience of a true, raw and very Kiwi tale which is packed with only adventures.

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Review #44: Wreaking by James Scudamore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“When you're the only sane person, you look like the only insane person.”
-----Criss Jami, an American author

And that's probably what I was feeling about myself while reading this extraordinarily unique novel of James Scudamore, called Wreaking, which is based on the lives and past of three hermetical characters revolving around a desolate and forgotten psychiatric hospital, named Wreaking on the English coast. An eerie and creepy tale, at the same time, an enthralling and captivating tale which will pull you into its very psychotic core and leave you with a claustrophobic feeling into the preposterous and freakish world of three deranged characters.

PS: And you are the only sane individual among this set of insane characters.

Synopsis:
Past: Jasper Scriven, an ex-teacher and a victim of lung disease, lives in the dilapidated mental asylum, Wreaking, in the south of England, which he bought with his dead wife's money, intending to turn it into a private school. Flash forward to the present: But now his dream seems lost and forgotten just like the crumbling and shabby corridors of Wreaking and he collects case histories about the patients once resided in Wreaking and pens them down to incorporate a book of his own. Apart from recollecting the case histories, Jasper ponders upon the lives of individuals, especially, his estranged daughter, Cleo.

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