BOOK REVIEW: The Good Wizard by PrasunRoy

 

Do you read only age appropriate books? Or do you still hover around children book shelf and enjoy reading them?

I enjoy reading  children  fiction still now as it reminds me of my school days when summer vacation meant, buying  children magazine and books and spending the entire vacation devouring them (forgetting about the holiday homework).Now that I have a kid at home, I have more excuse to give .

This book The Good Wizard by Prasun Roy made me revisit my childhood days when I was keen on reading books on Magic, Wizard, and Witches and henceforth.

The story is about a little girl name Titli who is 11 years old, and always wanted to become a magician. In her village she was quiet popular among her friends for her quirky tricks which she learned from here and there.  Destiny makes her meet the most famous wizard, Badshah Bisht who is suffering from deadly disease which wipes out memories. Before the evil takes over the good, the good old wizard plans to pass on his knowledge, which includes very famous, The Dance of the Phoenix to someone who will become his protégé .Will Titli help Badshah come out from the deadly disease? Will she undo the injustice done to the good old wizard

The Good Wizard portrays a very positive and supportive relationship between a teacher and a student. Titli’s dedication to become a wizard shows us that every great dream begins with a dreamer, and a great teacher can change a student’s life. The beautiful illustration in the book made reading more fun.  Language used is easy keeping in mind that the readers are mainly children. The book font is very comfortable to read and lastly this book is for those brave children out there who dare to define destiny.

 

Book Review: The Night Diary By Veera Hiranandani

 

Have you read The Diary of Anne Frank? Did you like it? If you did then I would recommend you to read The Night Diary by Veera Hirandani. An young Adult historical fiction which has won Newbery Honor in 2019.

Some of my favorite lines from the book:

👉“Everyone knows who is Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh by the clothes they wear or the names they have. But we all have lived together in this town for so long, I just never thought much about people’s religions before.”

👉The British people are going to free India  but there is a talk of India being separated into two countries where Muslim have to go one place and the Hindus  the Sikh and everybody else have to go to another place. I told him that sounded insane why would India suddenly become 2 countries?

👉You don’t underdstand .You could be killed ! you cant change people’s mind s now.Its the only way to protect yourself. When we leave for the New India,things will be better. I hope"

👉Pakistan is for Muslims and everybody else will go to India, which isnt here anymore.  I wonder if any Hindus were staying  anyways. Papa says its not safe and the fighting will probably get worse. Papa says it was a group decision between Lord Mountbatten for thebritish , Jinaah for Muslims and Nehru for everyone else,They all agreed to the partition. 

Nisha , who is  twelve years old  writes a  diary dedicated to her mom, who died while giving birth . Nisha’s father is a doctor and works for a hospital in Mirkhaspur. Nisha lives with her grandmother, Kazi the cook, her brother Amil  and father.

Though Nisha was  Hindu but Nisha’s mom was muslim.  This novel has been written as documents/ recordinsgs. It recounts  India’s independence and the horror of Partition through Nisha’s  recordings.

At times this book  just gave me shiver on how much people had to struggle to be in the country they want to live.

As per Nehru, Jinnah and MountBatten, Muslims must move to Pakistan, while Hindu  Sikh Christian, Jain, Parsis should move to New India. 14 million people crossed the border  and atlest 1 million died.  Partition was one of the largest Mass movement in the history. The book is loosely based fiction..so when you read remember  there are things which are true and happened  to the author's father''s side.. The locality she lived everyone stayed united until the killing started.  It was beautifully expressed how Muslim and Hindu friends saved each other life in the misdt of all the chaos, staying together.

On 15 Aug 1947, Nisha and her family had to leave  Mirpur Khas which became part of Pakistan… Millions of people started walking  leaving everything behind, to enter New India as refugee without food and water .

From a child's point of view reading about  the partition, you can feel the innocence in every question Nisha ask to her mom in the diary. 

Highly recommended for Young adults and also Adults.