Books to cheat the heat

With the temperature soaring, restricting outdoor activities in the daytime, children have loads of time on their hands during the summer holidays. Here's a list of my top few children’s books in the hope that you will like them as much as I do.

Holes Louis Sachar Holes by Louis Sachar was a book I had heard a lot about. Considered a modern-day classic, the book lived up to its reputation. Holes is the story of Stanley Yelnats IV, who is wrongly accused of stealing a pair of sneakers and sent to a boy’s detention center — Camp Green Lake — where the boys dig holes every single day, as a part of a character building exercise. Digging holes is not just boring but also extremely tiring and Stanley makes it his mission to find out the reason for digging the five-feet wide and five-feet deep holes, while carrying the burden of a family curse on his shoulders.

Caravan to Tibet Deepa Agarwal There are some books that quietly enter your reading space and heart. Caravan to Tibet by Deepa Agarwal is one such book. The hero of the book — 14-year old Debu joins a caravan of traders from the hills of Kumaon to journey to Tibet to search for his father. Contrary to the title, it’s a fast paced book with many adventures to keep you turning the pages. In the story you will visit a monastery, meet a young lama, fight a band of bandits and watch a breathtaking horse race.

The BFG Roald Dahl The BFG by Roald Dahl is a book I inhaled in one sitting as I did the rest of his books. And then I inhaled them again and fell in love with the Big Friendly Giant who calls human beings “human beans”. With words like scrumdiddlyumptious, uckyslush, whizpoppers, gobblefunk, bunkumhouse, hippodumplings, crockadowndillies, moocheling and footcheling, the BFG steals your heart. So does Dahl. So does the girl Sophie, who the BFG has whisked away. I’m sure after reading this book you will go out in search of a BFG, to make him your best friend.

Wonder R.J. Palacio Wonder by R.J. Palacio is the kind of book that makes you want to stop strangers on the road and tell them about it. Wonder is the story of August (Auggie) Pullman, born with a rare birth defect that plays havoc with his face. The poor boy has undergone several surgeries to correct the facial anomalies he was born with, but he still looks different from the rest of his classmates. When August starts fifth grade at Beecher Prep (he had been home-schooled earlier), most of the students avoid him. His classmates think his face has been burned in a fire. This book is about one boy’s survival in this cruel world where we are judged by our external appearance.

Because of Winn-Dixie Kate Dicamillo Because of Winn-Dixie is a story about a girl called Opal and her preacher father who move to a trailer park in Naomi, Florida. In the novel by Kate Dicamillo, Opal goes to a grocery store for macaroni, cheese and other stuff and returns with a dog who wasn’t on her shopping list. To save the dog from the store manager who wants to send it to the pound, she brings it home, claiming it as her own. She names it Winn-Dixie after the store she found it in. The mischievous dog helps the lonely young girl settle into her new town and make a whole lot of interesting friends. The book is a hymn to dogs and friendship.

A Cheese-Colored Camper Geronimo Stilton A Cheese-Colored Camper — Geronimo Stilton, was the first Stilton book I read. After meeting Geronimo Stilton, the brainy mouse editor of the newspaper The Rodent’s Gazette living in New Mouse City, I fell in love with rodents. When you read these whisker-licking good stories, you will want to have a mouse for a pet. I slurped the mammoth milkshakes — the national drink of these cool mice and enjoyed exchanging grilled cheese sandwiches with my rodent friends.

The Tiffin Mahtab Narsimhan The Tiffin by Mahtab Narsimhan is a heartbreaking story of a young boy, Kunal, who is separated from his mother and is forced to work as a slave in a café. Kunal is obsessed about finding his mother and he joins the famous dabbawallas of Mumbai so that while delivering the lunch dabbas he can search for his mother. For most of us who have heard a lot about the Mumbai dabbawallas, this book shows us their life and the troubles they go to, to deliver food to the people. After you read this book you will develop a lot of respect for the dabbawallas.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling. If you haven’t yet met Harry Potter, the boy with the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, then you are missing out on a real good friend. Once you enter Rowling’s magical world of wizards and witches you will want to study in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In Potter’s magical world you can travel through chimneys, wear invisibility cloaks, attend Potions classes, play Quidditch, and drink butterbeer. As you start reading, you will want to go through all the seven books at one go.

The Truth about Verity Sparks Susan Green The Truth about Verity Sparks by Susan Green transported me to 19th century London with horse-drawn carriages and ladies in hats. Verity, an orphan working as an apprentice in a hat shop has an amazing talent — teleagtivism. Though it sounds like a dreadful disease, it’s actually a wonderful talent to have. With this talent Verity can find lost things by thinking about them. It’s a gift everyone would love to have, especially when we misplace important objects like keys and glasses. This gift also leads Verity to the truth about her family.

A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L’Engle I rue the fact that I read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle a bit late in my life. The book opens up the world of science to young readers. It’s the story of Meg Murry; the awkward girl with flyaway hair, braces and glasses, searching for her missing scientist father. It follows the journey of three children: Meg, her brother Charles and her friend Calvin, as they cross the barriers of time and space via a tesseract, across the universe.

Swami and Friends R.K. Narayan Swami and Friends by R.K. Narayan will transport you into the middle of a small town called Malgudi, in South India. Ten-year-old W.S. Swaminathan known as Swami, studies in Albert Mission School. When you meet Swami you will realise that life in 1930 was very simple for children. There were no gadgets or malls and technology hadn’t yet hurtled them onto the Internet bandwagon. There were no iPads or computers to play games on. This was the time of making paperboats, plucking fruits from trees and listening to stories from grandmothers. Don’t gasp, children then were content to have their pockets jingling with coins.