The Tale of Despereaux

‘The Tale of Despereaux’ is written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering.  The adventure starts with Despereaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, a Princess who he loves, a servant girl who longs to be the princess, a jailor, and a rat determined to bring them all to ruin. Despereaux was put in mouse prison for coming in contact with a human Princess. Despereaux Tilling followed the music played by Princess Pea’s father into her room where he was reading her a story. Despereaux loved the Princess the moment he saw her. He goes to the Royal Library to find a book on love and so on.

But one of the mice finds this out and complains to the mouse council who decides that he should go to prison. There he meets a rat who wanted to rule the kingdom all by himself and he meets Gregory the jailor who has been in prison for ages. Despereaux tells him about the world above, and in turn the jailor tells him about the Royal family and about the tragedy that happened to the Queen. On hearing this, Despereaux pines for the princess more and more, and he promises to get out and meet her. The rest of the story is about how he gets out and fulfills his wishes.

I recommend this book to readers between the ages 8 and 12 as they would enjoy it.

A few other books by Kate DiCamillo – Because of Winn – Dixie, The Magician’s Elephant, The Miraculous Journey of, Edward Tulane, The Elephant Rising.

Reviewed by Aditi Nair, VII A

 

World Book Day 2014: Jaishree Misra to interact with students at the ‘Meet the Author’ session

Image courtesy: Saurabh Dua

Jaishree Misra, well known author of seven best selling novels, the Ancient Promises, Rani, Afterwads, Secrets and Lies, Secret and sins, Scandalous secret, and Accidents like Love and Marriage, will interact with students of Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) Pattom, on April 22 at 10.00 am at the ‘Meet the Author’ session, organized in connection with the World Book and Copyright Day 2014 and the Schools’ Golden jubilee Celebration.

Ms Misra will also open the 3 Day Golden Jubilee Children’s Book Fair, jointly organized in collaboration with M/s Scholastic India Inc.,. The Book Fair will end on April 24, 2014.

The formal inauguration of the activities of Readers’ Club will also be held at the function.

Know more about Jaishree Misra

Author website

Jaishree Misra is an Indian author whose debut novel Ancient Promises was published and sold worldwide by Penguin UK and became a major bestseller in India. Subsequent books include Accidents Like Love and Marriage, Afterwards and The Little Book of Romance.

A historical novel based on the life of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi was published by Penguin in December 2007 and banned soon after by the Uttar Pradesh state government in India.

In 2009, Misra signed a three-book deal with Avon, the commercial fiction imprint of Harper Collins UK. The first of these books, called Secrets and Lies, was published in June 2009 while the next in the series, Secrets and Sins was released in July 2010. Secrets and Lies appeared on the Heatseekers list in Britain’s Bookseller magazine’s best-seller lists in the summer of 2009. The third book, A Scandalous Secret, was released in May 2011, at the Hay-on-Wye festival.

Jaishree Misra has an MA in English Literature from Kerala University and two post-graduate diplomas from the University of London, the first in Special Education and the second in Broadcast Journalism. She was awarded a scholarship by the Charles Wallace for India Trust in order to complete her course in Special Education.

Misra worked for several years in the Child Care Department of Social Services in Buckinghamshire and, more recently, as a film classifier at the British Board of Film Classification in London, England. She resigned at the end of 2009 after a seven year stint when she went to live in New Delhi, India, where she helped to start up a residential project for adults with learning disabilities. Currently, she lives with her family in Trivandrum, Kerala.

Jaishree is a regular on the literary festival circuit, having taken part in the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Daily Telegraph Hay-on-Wye Festival, the The Week Hay Festival in Kerala, the Kovalam Literature Festival, Words on Water in Johannesburg, South Africa and the Odisha literary festival in Bhubaneswar. She has also held events at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Sharjah International Book Festival and been part of a panel discussion at the London Book Fair. She was invited by the Arts House in Singapore to conduct creative writing workshops for adults and schoolchildren. She recently inaugurated the Keraleeya Samajam Book Fair in Manama, Bahrain, and led the pledge for International Women’s Day at Technopark, Trivandrum.

Jaishree Misra is the great-niece of the late Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, famous Malayalam writer and Jnanpith awardee.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

 

The Sari Shop

by

Rupa Bajwa

The story revolves around a salesman Ramchand who works for a sari shop. Ramchand’s charactar is similar to that of any common Indian youth who strives hard for a living and is unable to voice many of his feelings.This story that revolves around Amritsar gives a clear picture of the upper and lower class ( economically ) people of this country.

Ramchand who had a very pleasant childhood , as the only son of his parents is left on a turmoil when when his parents die in an accident.He is deprived of education and is sent to work at an early age. The chapters where Ramchand goes in search of English books and expresses his urge for education are very inspiringly written by the author.The transformation of a lazy,boring person in Ramchand to a meticulous learner is a lesson to all school –drop outs.

The author has addressed many social issues such as child abuse , sexual abuse to women, bribery which takes place in our society.

This is a book that any person of any age read. Written in simple English , you can involve in the book as all the characters appear as though in the neighborhood.

Reviewed by

Rakshanya Sekar,8 A

 

The Kalam Effect

by

P.M.Nair

In this book,the author describes his experience with ‘Kalam Sir’ that he had during his time. He describes the humbleness and great qualities of A.P.J.Abdul Kalam that he recognised while working for him.
A.P.J.Abdul Kalam was known as the "people’s president", and the
correct reason behind this has been penned down in the book.He was the man who worshipped and believed in God a lot. He had such a strong  belief in n god that,I think, he could communicate with him.
For, once, there was a programme in the Rashtrapati Bhawan,that was to be  visited by  a great mass of people,approximately,2000-3000. That  day,the rain started pouring in the morning. The author i.e; the secretary started to panic for how the programme would be held. He talked to Kalam , but he, in response, teasing him, told not to  worry. If it is raining out,we can keep the programme inside. P.M.Nair  went hysterical and told that the Bhawan could hold only 700-800  people. To this, the reply came from the President in a rather cool and calm  way. He smiled and pointed towards the sky through  the window and said "I  have spoken there. Do not worry" And believe it or not, at 5 o’clock the  programme was to be started and the rain had stopped at 4:30 pm!!!  And, as if it was not amply surprising to digest,the rain had started  after the programme.

Well, this is only one of the incidents written in the book.This book
tells a great lot deal about him.I loved this book and would like to
recommend it to all.

Reviewed by

Himabindu Bhardwaj, VIII C

 

Digital Fortress by Dawn Brown

By

Dan Brown

The story revolves around an international decoding organization named NSA (National Security Agency). Their cryptophers prided the organization not only because the NSA was the most secretive and intelligent organization in the world, but also for the $2million   TRANSLTR (the best decoding machine) that they possessed. In the final years of the World War II, when USA dropped the atom bomb in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a boy named Tankado mysteriously survives the war with three fingers in each hand and a layer of skin highly exposed to radiation. He later overcomes all his disabilities and proves his talent in mathematical reasoning and decoding. IN no time he joins the NSA and designed the model of the TRANSLTR along with commander Strathmore. After building the TRANSLTR, commander Strathmore lied to the world that the TRANSLTR was a complete failure that the NSA were devising plans to make it work, while in reality the TRANSLTR was intercepting coded E – mails from terrorists and drug lords, and warned detective agencies like the CIA. But Tankado was against hiding the existence of the TRANSLTR and so he was fired. IN the hope of taking revenge he warned the NSA that he would one day build a coding machine that will confuse even the TRANSLTR. No one paid any heed to him because they knew that according to the Bergofsky principle every code is breakable. What they didn’t know was that one day they would have to take it all back.

Coming to the present, Susan Fletcher wakes up one morning with a call from Strathmore asking her to come over to the NSA in the light of an emergency situation. Strathmore also tells her that he has sent David to Spain to get the belongings of the late Tankado.  Later she finds out that Tankado succeeded in developing not an unbreakable code as they initially suspected but a super powerful worm that was supposed to infiltrate the databanks of the country that destroyed Japan in the final years of the deadliest war ever. As Susan Fletcher tries unsuccessfully to deactivate the worm by inserting possible combinations of the kill code, David obtains Tankado’s ring on which is engraved a puzzle that ultimately leads them to the kill code – 3 (the number of fingers on Tankado’s hand). It has a thrilling climax.

I really liked this science novel. The ideas expressed are profound and exciting. There are many twists and turns in the story which present humorous thoughts and ideas. It is quite ironical to know that such a secretive agency actually exists. Digital Fortress is closer to truth than any of us dare imagine. 

Reviewed by

Firoz Baker, IX A