This month, Book Club brings you four books that take you from the comfortable world of grandparents, to an inheritance, to Scottish knights and finally, ending on a high note, a Ninja Nani.
The Boy With Two Grandfathers by Mini Shrinivasan introduces you to Amol who lives with his parents and his Appa and Ajoba. So, what’s special about that, you ask. Because, everybody has two grandfathers... But the thing is, both of Amol’s grandfathers live with him and the two grandfathers have three things in common. They were: interested in everything; afraid of nothing; and capable of anything.
But both of the grandfathers look very different. While Appa is from Chennai, wears dhotis and bush shirts, Ajoba has stylish white hair, a thick moustache and wears a tweed coat with a silk scarf. What ties them together is Amol and their love for him.
Into this perfect world, comes illness. Amol’s mother is diagnosed with cancer. He turns to his two grandfathers to help him through this tough time. They are sensitive and gentle with him, bringing him comfort and helping him cope.
Heritage talks
How nice it would be to get a windfall. Twelve-year-old Candice Miller finds a letter, in a book, in a box, in the attic of her grandmother’s house in Lambert, South Carolina. The letter is addressed to her grandmother and it describes a young woman named Siobhan Washington and an injustice that happened decades ago.
The letter promises treasure to the city if the puzzle in it can be solved. Candice gets to know that her grandmother had spent a lot of time and effort trying to solve this and for all her pains lost her reputation and her job as the first African-American city manager in Lambert.
Candice decides to do something. She joins hands with 11-year-old Brandon to come up with answers. Will they do it?
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson, touches upon racism, injustice and discrimination.
The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras takes you into the past to a remote Scottish headland where invading knights have captured Drest’s family and left her behind. Her father, the Mad Wolf of the North and her brothers form a fearsome war band, but now Drest is all alone. And, it falls upon her to save them. Taking a wounded invader along as a hostage, she sets off on a rescue attempt.
Drest travels through unwelcoming villages, desolate forests and haunted towns. All the while she is being hunted by a bandit who has a dark link to her family. But, she has help — a witch she rescued at the stake. But, her journey is a learning process. She finds out that the war band is legendary for terrorising the country side. Now, she is caught in a quandary. Should she find and rescue them, allowing them to continue doing what they do best, including killing the gentle knight who has now become her friend. Or, should she turn her back on them and become her own legend?
To close off this month’s selection is Ninja Nani and the Zapped Zombie Kids by Lavanya Karthik.
Deepu and his cool granny team up once again to stave off the danger facing the children of Gadbadnagar. Well, as of now, there is no real danger, but Deepu can sense it. He tells his Ninja Nani, who is also known as the Mystery Hero, but she does not believe him.
When a new danger threatens the children of Gadbadnagar, only Deepu can sense it. His eyes are trained on Mrs Godbole’s tuition class where his friends act like sleep-deprived zombies.
And then during a jewellery heist, the people caught on camera looked a lot like them too.
