Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Melissa Dalton Martinez ILLUSTRATOR: Tom Tolman GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: August 31, 2021 RATING: 3.5 stars. Tough to believe that the very first Doctor Dolittle story was published more than a hundred years ago in 1920. This picture book contains a much simplified version of the classic story but with an interesting little twist midway. I was a bit disappointed because the story here doesn’t flow very smoothly. If you have ever heard a child narrating some incident, the flow is usually “I went here. I saw this. And then I went there. I did that. And then I met him…“ You don’t get descriptions or feelings. You get crisp sentences full of actions and you wonder where the story is going. And that’s exactly what this story gives you; one action sentence after another. There is not much smoothness between the scene changes and this leads to some gaps in the plot. But I need to consider it from the target reader’s perspective and that age group is the 2-5 ...

AUTHOR: Krystaelynne Sanders Diggs ILLUSTRATOR: Ananta Mohanta GENRE: Children's Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: July 10, 2021 RATING: Undecided! It goes without saying that such topics must be accompanied by a conversation by a parent/guardian. A parent can’t simply rely on the book to do the parenting. I was hoping that this book would serve as a good option for a parent to introduce the topic of safe touch. But it turned out to be a case of “good intention, bad implementation.” The story is written in rhythmic verse and talks of a little girl who has been taught by her mom where hands should go through a poem. I wasn’t a great fan of the rhymes as they seemed forced and included a couple of words too difficult for children to understand. (‘stray’ and ‘unruly’) But more than this, I wasn’t a fan of the information provided. Basically, this poem only states that kids should shout ‘NO’ and run away when ‘hands begin to stray’. But what does ‘straying’ actually mean to a child? What pa...

AUTHOR: Alicia Fadgen ILLUSTRATOR: Victoria Robustello GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: August 3, 2021 RATING: 2.5 stars. If you are a clumsy person, you surely understand the struggles of knocking things over or banging into walls while walking. Callie is one such child. Her clumsiness is so extreme that her classmates tease her and even spout a funny chant about her clumsiness which they repeat whenever she is around. When she received an invite for a friend’s birthday party, she is both surprised and worried. But to her surprise, her clumsiness somehow ends up saving the day. The idea behind the story is very cute. The way the children learn not to make fun of someone for their traits and to accept everyone as they are, the way Callie learns that she is much more than her clumsiness, these are put across very well in the book. Unfortunately though, the presentation is quite amateurish at times. This is supposed to be a book in rhythmic verse but the rhyme scheme...

AUTHOR: James McKimmey GENRE: Sci-Fi Short Story RATING: 4.25 stars. Want a sci-fi short story that makes you introspect? Try this one! Story Summary: Sixteen year old George is in love with Gistla. The problem is that Gistla is not a fellow human but a Venusian he met when humans colonised the planet. His family seems to be the elite among the settlers and can’t understand their son’s love for a weird-looking alien. Is there any future to this young love story? George initially comes across as a level-headed boy and mature beyond his years. Sample these thoughts from his heartbroken mind: “But she was a person. The beauty was inside of her. Did you have to point to a girl's face and say, "Here is where the nose should be, here is where the ears should be?" Did you have to measure the width between eyes and test the color of the skin? Did you have to check the size of the teeth and the existence of hair? Was all of this necessary to understand what was inside someone?” B...

AUTHOR: Baptiste Bouthier ILLUSTRATOR: Héloïse Chochois GENRE: Graphic Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: August 20, 2021 RATING: 3.5 stars I was in two minds about whether to go for this book or not. I have read two fabulous books on this topic just last year and I am old enough to know what exactly happened on 9/11. But having the story told in graphic format was a new appeal and so I decided to give this a try. The result? Mixed feelings. Every adult already knows the details of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Whether you are a US citizen or not, there is no way you could have forgotten the image of the plane smashing into the two towers of the WTC. No matter what nationality you belong to, your life has changed since 9/11/2001, even if you weren’t alive that day. And this graphic novel shows you exactly how! This book presents the events that day in two perspectives: the actual unfolding of the attacks in New York, and the reactions of the French citizens who were watching it on their TV sets. T...

AUTHOR: Lyanda Lynn Haupt GENRE: Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: April 4, 2017 RATING: 4.25 stars. Most books about pets seem to dwell on more common choices: dogs and cats being the most popular. This little gem came as a surprise to me. What could be more unique than a pet starling, right? The author is a nature writer, a birdwatcher, and a committed wildlife advocate. While watching some starlings play outside her window, a story she had heard popped into her head: that of Mozart having a starling as a pet. And this random memory triggered a whole lot of action, culminating with this book. You might be aware of starlings mainly for their magical murmurations. The sight of hundreds of thousands of them moving as one is bewitching to watch. But that's only one side of the story. You need to know the other side too, especially if you aren't much aware of birds in Western countries. Starlings are considered pests. If you Google for America's most hated bird, starlings come out ...

AUTHOR: Bella Osborne GENRE: Contemporary Drama. RATING: 3.75 stars. We all judge a book by its cover. (Don’t deny it!) We also judge books by their titles at times. So if you see this book, you will certainly go for it because it is about the magical place we all love: the library. But does the content do justice to this title and cover? Not exactly. Story: Tom Harris. Sixteen. Dead mom. Drunk dad. Bullied at school. Lonely. Discovers that he enjoys reading romance novels, much to his embarrassment. Maggie Mann. Seventy-two. Widowed. Lives on a farm with her animals and her garden. Lonely. Discovers that her weekly book club at the library is a wonderful opportunity to find interaction with other bookworms. The common factor? Loneliness. These dear characters develop a beautiful friendship with each other courtesy their beloved local library. And when they find that the future of the library is at stake, they decide to go all out to save it. There are many things I loved about the boo...

AUTHOR: Angela Elwell Hunt ILLUSTRATOR: Marrieta Gal GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: August 2, 2018 RATING: 4.5 stars. What a cute book! And a useful one too! Henry is a little fellow who enjoys reading books to his chickens. And one of the chickens, named Red, loves the adventures that Henry recounts. But one fine day, when Henry comes into the coop with a video game, the chickens devise a plan to get their reading time back. I loved how the book puts across its message in an easy way. Especially in today’s day and age where most children prefer screens to pages, this book can come as a timely reminder of how much fun reading can be. I just wish the ending were a bit smoother. It ends too abruptly. The illustrations are reminiscent of old-time children’s books. Simple, straightforward and appealing sketches. If you are looking for an easy, independent read for your youngster, this will be a great option. But more than that, this book would serve wonderfully as a b...

Author: Sarah Adlakha Genre: Time Travel, Suspense. Rating: 3.75 stars. If you got a chance to go back and redo some decisions in your life, would you change a thing? You might say no because whatever you went through made you who you are today. But you might even say yes because you want to erase some painful memories or regretful actions from your past. Whatever your answer, you know that this is not an easy decision to make as it has a lot of repercussions. But what if you are not given a choice? That’s the situation faced by the protagonist in this story. Story: 39 year old psychiatrist Maria is living a busy life managing her home, career and two young children with a third on the way. One day, she has a strange encounter with a new patient named Sylvie, who possesses a lot of knowledge on Maria’s life and warns her to stay away from her assistant Rachel. Soon after, because of certain events I don’t want to reveal here, Maria finds herself back in time in her 17 year old self. Ho...

AUTHOR: Nicholas Tana GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: August 10, 2021 RATING: 4.5 stars. Do you choose a book by its cover? I do, many times. And this is one such occasion. What a treat to the eyes this cover is! Those huge brown eyes peeking from behind the leaves, the vivid contrasting amalgamation of reds and yellows and teal… Does the content of the book match up to the cover? It sure does! Leo, the lion cub, lives in a happy family with his parents and two elder siblings. Everything is fine except for one thing: Leo doesn’t roar. His dad wants his son to roar. His mom knows that when the time comes, he will. Though Leo ends up saving their lives twice, his dad is still worried that he can’t or won’t roar. But when there is an emergency, it is Leo who saves the day with his mighty roar. Does the book end on this happy note that Leo finally learnt to roar? Nope! The true end is the last line of the book; the line that shows that Leo hasn’t changed his basic pers...

AUTHOR: Vita Murrow ILLUSTRATOR: Alexandra Finkeldey GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 7, 2021 RATING: 4 stars A cute little story about how a baby leopard in Gir found a new family with a pride of lions. The book narrates her quest through various animal families before she finally settles on the lions as they seem to match her idea of what constitutes food and shelter and fun. Of course, the quest part of the story is entirely fictional. But the essence – a leopard cub finding a new home with a lioness and her cubs – is true. I liked how the authors have taken a lovely true story and turned it into a tale of acceptance and adjustment. I liked the photos at the end showing the actual leopard-lion family. At the same time, I feel that the true hero of the story is not Talala the leopard cub but the lioness who willingly gave a place to the orphaned leopard in spite of having her own cubs to tend to. There is a small fact section at the end of the book that ...

AUTHORS: Janelle London & Matthew Metz ILLUSTRATOR: Ilya Fortuna GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: August 31, 2021 RATING: 4.25 stars. This is a cute little book that advocates the use of greener means of transport. After Rory receives a hamster for his birthday, he is excited at finding a cozy spot for him: the exhaust pipe of his dad’s car. This shocks his elder sister Tina and she explains to him why it is a terrible place for Sparky. The conversation moves to how gasoline comes into being and how much havoc it wreaks on the planet in various ways. When Rory wonders what could be a possible solution, Sparky comes to the rescue. The concept of the book is fabulous. Knowledge about renewable and non-renewable energy resources are the need of the day and if the next generation is made aware of this at an early age, maybe there is some hope left for our planet. The way the book explains difficult processes such as how gasoline is made and how the planet gets heate...