World of Nagaraj

nagaraj

by

R. K. Narayan

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan was born on 10th October, 1906 in Madras.  He was educated at the Collegiate High school in Mysore and at Maharaja’s College, Mysore.  Narayan worked as a teacher and journalist before he published his first novel.  He had published numerous novels, five collections of short stories, two travel books, four collections of essays and a memoir.

In this book, “The World of Nagaraj,” Nagarajs’s world is quiet and comfortable.  He is staying in Kabirstreet with his wife Sita.  They had no children.  Nagaraj filled his days writing letters, drinking coffee, doing some leisurely book-keeping for his friend Coomar’s Boeing sari company and sitting on his veranda watching the Kabvir street and planning the book he intends to write about the life of the great sage Narada.

But everything is disturbed when Tim, the son of his ambitious landowning brother Gopu, decided to leave home and come to live with Nagaraj, because Gopu called him a bad word.  Tim had very bad habits; Nagaraj was forced to take responsibility for the boy.  Tim used to come late at night.  But Sita waited for him all night till he came back.

One day when Tim came late at night there was a strong smell of spirits.  Tim got married to Saroja.  Saroja played her harmonium all day without any stop.  Nagaraj found his days, suddenly filled with unwelcome complication and turbulence, which threaten to alter forever the contented tranquility of his world.

I liked the book, and in my opinion it didn’t have a proper ending that the readers wanted.


Reviewed by

Hemant S.

Class IX B (shift II)

Famous Five: Five have a plenty of fun

five

by

Enid Blyton

A wonderful read, Enid Blyton’s master piece. We liked this story because its all about adventures. The five were enjoying the sunny weather in Kirrin Bay. Quinton and his friend discovered a secret formula. Mr. Elbur keeps his daughter Berta in Quinton’s house because the kidnappers would kidnap her and take her ransom from the secret formula. The five decides to save Berta and at the end they succeed in this after many adventures.

Happy reading. Enjoy yourself.


Reviewed by

Sikha Gopan and jaleen N.

VIII C (Shift-I)


Princes Diaries: Take Two

twooo

by

Meg Cabot

The princess diaries –take two, is the second part of the phenomenally successful princess diaries. The story revolves around Mia, oops, Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo- the new princess of Genovia! Mia is finding life as a princess very hard. Her mother is dating her algebra teacher, she is flunking algebra and she has a mad crush on her best friend’s brother!!! All this provides a very hilarious plot which can keep you laughing even after reading .A good read for all .Meg Cabot fans will love this book. Reading the first book would be nice before reading this book. Anyway read and find out about the book. Plus grand mere butting in everywhere is very funny. No doubt you will enjoy the book .A happy reading to you!

Reviewed by

Neema K. Saji

VIII C

Two of a kind

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We all must be knowing about the fabulous and cool twins Ashley and Mary Kate.Ashley a ballet lover and Mary loves sports.mary is forced to take a huge yawn whenever she thinks about ballet programmes. But now she has to go to the ballet organized by “The Todd taylor Dance company”. Fortunately, their common friend Nicole agrees to take the ticket and go with Ashley for the ballet.After the programme they became best friends.

Ashley is spending all her time with Nicole and  Mary feels totally left out. She wants to get rid of Nicole. And she kmows how to do it.And the story goes on….

Reviewd by

Malathy C.

X A

Jane Eyre

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by

Charlotte Bronte

“Jane Eyre” is a well-turned tale spun exquisitely by Charlotte Bronte. This work of fiction is all about a young girl, Jane Eyre who is an orphan and who had the misfortune to spend some part of her life with her spiteful benefactress. The story continues with her finding a new life at a charity school, Lowood. Helen Burns, Jane’s friend at school, who has a divine nature, helps Jane get on with her hardships by making her believe that ‘she will be judged on her true inner goodness alone when she dies’.

After some years, Jane finds herself working as a governess at a distant house. It is a turning point in her life when she falls in love with Mr. Rochester there. At this juncture, one feels that this is where the real story began as the plot is entirely different from where we started. At long last, after disastrous as well as pleasant incidents in Jane’s life the novel ends with a happy note.

I was enraptured by the seemingly simple yet suspense-filled nature of the book. Not a moment passed when I was not reading each word with bated breath. I feel that Charlotte Bronte, who first published “Jane Eyre” under the pseudonym Currer Bell, is one of the best woman authors ever. It is a treasured book for all who have at least once tasted the consummate skill of Charlotte Bronte.

Reviewed by

Salini Johnson

Class: XI

Innocent Man

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by

John Grisham

The book the confesses the innocence of Ron Williamson who is accused of a murder in the town of Ada.Debbie Carter is a cocktail tendor who is found murdered in an apartment one night.Ronnie who has failed very badly in his is at last being accused because the cops didn’t find the real culprit.This was mainly because Ron was druggist,drunkard and a women chaser.He proved his excellence in baseball in his younger age but loses touch as he grew older.He is being sent to jail for 11 years for a murder which he has not commited.John Grisham has explained Ron’s excellence in Baseball too much.That is one of the worst drawbacks of this book.Any reader will lose interest in the book.But if u skip those pages your interest will be regenerated.It is a very good book which u should read and enjoy!!!

Reviewed by

Manishankar, X D

News of a kidnapping

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by

Gabriel Garcia Marques

This book is a piece of remarkable investigative journalism made all the more brilliant by the author’s talent for magical story telling. The ideas are very well organised mixed with suspense, emotions,thrill and happiness.

My favourite character in this story is Beatriz because when the kidnappers inform her that she was kidnapped by mistake and that she can leave the place immediately. But she replies without any hesitation that she will not leave Maruja , her sister- in-law, alone and that she will accompany her in all her difficult situations. Beatriz was not selfish and her decision was brave and generous. So, I admire the character.

Read this thrilling story.

Reviewed by

Sreeja Menon

Da Vinci Code

da_vinci_code

“Blinded ignorance does mislead us

O!Wretched mortals open your eyes”

These words were said by the famous painter LEONARDO DA VINCI,

the creator of the world famous paintings like The Mona Lisa , the Last Supper,

the Vtruvian man etc. He was an expert in many fields. It is said that  Da Vinci has leftmany codes in his paintings.

In the year 2003, a novel by DAN BROWN established that Da Vinci has certainly left many secrets. The book was none other than THE DA VINCI CODE. It is a fiction featuring

Robert Langdon, a symbologist and Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist who deals with numerical code breaking. The story starts with a murder. The curator of The Louvre Jacques Saunere’s murder and the message left by him Langdon and Neveu towards a new world of thousands of years old secrets.

Although the number of characters are limited,each one plays a definite role. The language and style of writing is incredible. The main theme of the book is the journey towards the Priory keystone which leads one to the Holy grail and many other well hidden secrets. According to the myth, only the members of the Priory of Sion, a secret society knows the exact location of the Holy grail.

Da vinci being one of the grandmasters of the secret society wanted the world to know the truth and hence left many clues in his paintings. One such striking trait is visible in The last supper. Da vinci has assigned certain feminine characters to disciple John seated next to Jesus Christ. Holy grail happen to be the cup in which Jesus had wine during The last supper. Mary Magdalene is also referred to as The Holy Grail. It is said that Da Vinci has painted John as Mary Magdalene to show Jesus’s intimacy towards her.

Mary Magdalene, a prostitute who joined Christ and later became of  his favorite disciple. In the book the author establishes that Jesus had relationship with Mary Magdalene and that their bloodline exists to this century.

A huge uproar was roused by this very book. The church and many disciples of the church launched protests against the book and movie alike. In many places the authorities were forced to ban the book. The reason put forth was that The Da Vinci Code hurts their religious sentiments. To be more precise, in the book it is said that

    • The Christians overpowered the Pagan religion to establish Christianity all over the world.
    • Jesus Christ was selected as ‘ Son Of God’ by mutual voting
    • Jesus’ relationship with Magdalene proves to be a major point of controversy.
    • In the book a monk named Silas murders the members of The Priory of Sion with the help given by a bishop.
  • Despite many controversies the book happen to be a best seller throughout the world. Anyone who thinks a fiction can never affect your religious beliefs may go ahead and read the book without hesitation.

      Reviewed by Karthika P (XI A, Shift-II)

A long way gone

a_long_way_gone

by

Ishmael Beah

A long way gone ” by Ishmael Beah is an extraordinary memoir which gives a first hand report of the hardships and desolate situations faced by people and countries during war.Ishmael Beah is a graduate from Oberlin College and a member of the Human rights watch children’s rights division and advisory committee of U.S.A. He emerges as a gifted writer by reporting his life in a clear eyed and liberate fashion and will surely haunt the reader for some time.Among the different war stories which are published, this one stands out as a bestseller because of its simplicity and transparency as seen and experienced by the author. It is a first hand information and gives an idea to the reader of the problems faced by the civilians, the army and the rebels during any war like situation.

In this story, the author is a 12 year old boy living happily with his close knit family in a place called Mattru Jong. He and his gang of friends, enjoyed school like any one of us and played rap music as pastime. The only exposure to war for them was movies. Suddenly their lives are torn apart by a group of rebels who attack unannounced  and the whole family is separated. Initially the author stays with his brother whom he later loses as they move from village to village in search of safety. The book vividly describes the impact on the young minds as they see families blown apart and the sufferings of those left behind.

It also gives a vivid description of the life of refugees who are ill treated and bribed by the nation’s own army. This book depicts the events in sequence how the cruel fate, forces them to join the army and the hardships and atrocities they are forced to commit and how it changes the impressionable young minds from home loving  to destruction. This book not only gives the account of war but also the turmoils in the young minds as they try to re-acclimatize to the civilized way of life. Thankfully by the timely intervention of the UN, we find as we read that we will start to concur with the actions  done by these young minds. the author finds some timely respite as he is reinstated with his uncle at Sierra Lane only to be heading to war. He tries to escape in order to not end up as a rebel or recruit. Reading this book makes us wonder how any one can come out of such horror with his humanity & sanity intact.

This book is also a testament of the ability of children to outlive their sufferings if given a chance. It really leaves an impression of a long way gone…by a determined impressionable mind………………………..

Reviewd

AISHWARYA NANDAKUMAR

IX – C (Shift-I)

Harry Potter and…..

Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosophers_Stone_Book_J_K_Rowling

Harry , an orphan lives with his aunt petunia and Vernon and their son Dudley they treated him like a servant. One day got an invitation to Hogwarts a school for wizards and witches here he makes good friends as well as powerful enemy. This book won a triple gold winner. Read the rest of the wonderful imagination of j k Rowling. ready get set go!!!!!!!!

by

Gayathri Nair

VIII C

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