One day, Lata finds a red and gold shoe while playing on the railway track. It was a beautiful shoe, covered in velvet with a sole of felt, and Lata who had never had anything in her life, suddenly had a shoe for show. All the other children who never played with her now begged to be her friend. But her friend had always been Joseph Pinto, the little boy with polio. When they find the shoe, the two children suddenly become the most popular in the slum. How long can a little bit of magic last for two children who have nothing at all? This poignant story by Margaret Bhatty finds joy even in the darkest places.
Catagory: Literature & Fiction
The Boys Who Fought
A book about handling bullies and being humble
‘When you can fight for the meek without hating the mighty, you follow dharma.’
In the forest, the mighty eat the meek. In human society, the mighty should take care of the meek. This is dharma. A hundred princes should have looked after their five orphaned cousins. Instead, they burnt their house, abused their wife and stole their kingdom. The five fought back, not for revenge but for dharma. What came of the five’s fight against the hundred?
India’s favourite mythologist brings to you this evocatively illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata that is sure to illuminate and enthral a new generation of readers.
Lost in Time
‘I am the rakshasa Ghatotkacha, born of the Lord Bhimasena and the lady Hidimba. I rule over hill and vale, wood and stream, protecting the spirit of the forest and all who live in it.’
Young Chintamani Dev Gupta, on holiday in a bird camp near Lake Sattal, is transported via a wormhole to the days of the Mahabharata. Trapped in time, he meets Ghatotkacha and his mother, the demoness Hidimba. But the gentle giant, a master of illusion and mind-boggling rakshasa technology, wields his strength just as well as he knows the age-old secrets of the forest and the elemental forces. And in his enlightening company, Chintamani finds himself in the thick of the events of the most enduring Indian epic.
An intense yet tender look at a rare friendship as well as the abiding puzzles of the past, this is a fascinating read.
The Curious Case of The Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop
Making and selling sweets day after day is the life of Vishnudas Mithaiwala, the owner of The Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop. However, when Laddoo appears at his doorstep one night, claiming to be his estranged sister Revati’s son, Vishnu’s life is thrown into confusion. More craziness ensues when Anu turns up, also insisting that she’s Revati’s child! With no idea how to discern the real Mithaiwala, life is full of chaos for Vishnu, as the two children compete to prove their identity.
And Laddoo, worried about his parents, who have suddenly disappeared, is thrown another curveball-he senses a ghostly presence in the house! When a plot to steal the Mithaiwala family’s valuable recipe book is hatched, Laddoo tries to use this new psychic ability to save the day.
Mandodari
Borrowing from Sanghadasa’s Jaina version of the Ramayana, Mandodari-one of the least known characters of the Hindu epic-is finally given a voice.
Considered to be one of the most beautiful apsaras, she was married off to the mighty Ravana, the legendary king of Lanka. In her story, she speaks about her struggles after her marriage, her insecurities and her pious nature that challenged her husband’s growing aspirations. She narrates the rise of Ravana’s power and the blunders he made that ultimately caused the downfall of Lanka.
Despite her husband’s faults, Mandodari loved him and advised him to follow the path of righteousness. Ravana’s defeat in a thirteen-day war turned him into a villain. But what if he were the real hero on his side of the war? What if his downfall was a result of scheming to push him out of power? This is Mandodari’s story.
The Globetrotters
The call of the wild
Hudhud is horrible to everyone. He polishes off his classmates’ lunches, plays cruel pranks on his teachers and troubles innocent creatures. Until his strange new history teacher decides to set him straight.
The lesson? A curse! Now Hudhud must roam the vast earth . . . with-and as-the greatest migratory animals. His goal? To find the answer to all wrongs. And so begins Hudhud’s remarkable journey: as a blue whale calf separated from his mother in the deep; as a trusting caterpillar who befriends a hunting spider; as a competitive caribou on a perilous trek; as an Arctic tern too scared to fly . . . But fly across the world he must, if he hopes to ever return home.
Follow Hudhud on this surreal trip, through the Arctic Ocean and the Sahara Desert, among fragrant flowers and tall grass, and find out all about the inner lives of some majestic animals and the wonders of the wild.
Haroun And The Sea Of Stories
In a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name, lived a professional storyteller named Rashid and his son Haroun.’ Thus begins Rushdie’s magical and delightful book, which is comprised of hundreds of stories, funny and sad, all of them juggled at once, together with sorcery and love, wicked uncles and fat aunts, and mustachioed gangsters in yellow check pants.
Red Card
One team. One year. Everything to lose.
When Rishabh Bala reaches the tenth standard, life takes a turn for the complicated. The bewildered boy feels the pressure of the looming board exams and finds himself hopelessly-and hormonally-in love. But what he yearns for most is victory on the field: at least one trophy with his beloved school football team.
Set in the suburban Thane of 2006, here is a coming-of-age story that runs unique as it does familiar. Hopscotching from distracted classrooms and tired tutorials to triumphs and tragedies on muddy grounds, this is the journey of Rishabh and his friends from peak puberty to the cusp of manhood.
The Children of Destruction
We used to live in a world of magic . . .
For Alice, life as a teenager is hard enough without turning into a supernatural herald of destruction. And you would think that after causing minor hurricanes with a major sneeze, being visited by a talking fox and ending up on a journey with death around every corner, things can’t get much worse.
Wrong.
They can.
Between a blind and telekinetic mass murderer, a girl bound to a shadow-demon and a genetically engineered pseudo messiah, a whole generation of weird is ready to come of age. And when it does, the world will change.
If it survives that long.
Who Let Nonu Out?
A new house can be fun! Nonu squirrel moves to a new house on a butter fruit tree with mummy squirrel and papa squirrel when mummy squirrel surprises him with – a brand new skateboard ! Hop on the skateboard with little Nonu squirrel and his ‘blue’, and make new friends, eat tasty nut cakes, go to camp, get out of scrapes with the mean Goonda Cat and steal mangoes with the Mango Gang. Featuring charming illustration, Who let Nonu Out ? is a joyride of emotions, experiences and life lessons, and is delightful read for childern (and even adults ) of all ages.