Moin and the Monster by Anushka Ravishankar

This book is about a boy Moin who draws horribly. One night he hears a monster under his bed, the monster threatens Moin that if he doesn’t draw the monster he will be turned into a suitcase (some stupid monster rule of course!). So Moin draws the monster by the invisible monsters description about himself and there he is, the monster comes to life.

Now Moin is in big trouble he has to hide the monster from his parents (bring back thousands of straw baskets and bananas home) and the monster loves eating bananas and singing which leads Moin to a singing class and a late birthday party. So one day the monster gets bored and goes to Moin’s school which creates chaos, the head girl gets fed up by Moin (because of the monster) even the principal K.K Kuttykrishnan (short form Kookie) thinks Moin is a poor boy who understands nothing. After some weeks the monster wants to grow long hair but Moin says no. The havoc increases and Moin goes nuts. He decides to send the monster to another planet but the monster gets lost and when he is found Moin says that he will never part from the monster etc. I think it is a quite a funny book, for sure you will be rolling on the floor laughing by the time you finish this book. This book is great for cheering up somebody. I have a signed copy of this book - I had met the author at the Kalaghoda arts festival a few years ago and drew some pictures for her next book. I don’t know what she did with them though.

39 Clues - Sword Thief (Book 3)

This time Amy and Dan will have to go to Japan with the next clue - two short ninja swords but with a deadly alliance, Alistar Oh and Ian and Natalie Kabra, because their babysitter (au pair) got captured. So, this time they are following the famous Japanese warrior Hideyoshi. This time many things are at stake and Amy and Dan do not want to get betrayed. They have to battle some Yakuza, solve loads of puzzles, do end up getting betrayed, get almost killed, find other swords, etc. Now opinion time: a fine book - not too great but also not too bad in the middle - but if you like brainy, geometrical and Japanese sort of things you have read the right review.

(P.S. The cover’s quite cool)

A bear called Paddington by Michael Bond

This book is about a bear from darkest Peru called Paddington. Now before you ask why he has such an unusal name I may tell you his story, one day Mr & Mrs Brown were going to Paddington station to pick up their daughter Judy home after her summer vacations, instead they found a bear sitting on a bench with a suitcase. They asked the bear if he wanted to stay with the Brown’s family, the bear politely replied yes, so the bear was named after the station, Paddington. So, Paddington keeps having adventures for example falling in tubs of hot water, creating havoc underground in the subway stations, having funny shopping expeditions, painting first prize paintings by accident, becoming an actor in a theatre and dropping marmalade sandwiches on top of peoples head in the theatre, going to the seaside and sailing in buckets all day long and making eggs disappear and making them reappear under peoples bums. So now to my opinion: truly DAZZLING book! A very very rare book to find, I even have a Paddington coat which used to be my mother’s when she was small and a Paddington stuffed toy. If you want to narrate this book to a young child, I say he\she will love it.

Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon

This is the first book about a very very horrid boy, Henry. He would do the most horrid things any one would imagine. He also had a brother, Perfect Peter who would do the most sweetest and politest things - a whole opposite of Henry. So one day Henry thinks “what if I became like Peter for a day”.

So, he stops reading comics, stops telling a lie and tries to become perfect (for 1 day) and that leads to Trouble (with capital T). His next totally horrid adventure leads him to a stupid dance class, where he does an elephant dance instead of a tap dance and treads on everyone’s feet. So comes the dance show that ends in a bang because he tread on someone and that person tread on someone and so on, the whole thing is an absolute disaster

More horrid stuff coming: this time it’s making yucky stuff with Moody Margret, who is Henry’s moody neighbour (who later becomes his arch enemy). They brew some yucky stuff called glop with snails, worms, porridge, soggy semolina, coleslaw, spinach, coffee, yoghurt, flour, vinegar, baked beans, mustard, peanut butter, mouldy cheese, pepper, rotten oranges and ketchup and they gave it to Peter - AND HE ATE IT!!!

The next thing Henry loves is camping - that is if the tents have tvs, refrigerators, etc. But no, his father took him to a deserted area with one public toilet and an ice cold river. The whole thing ended in the big camp but started like this: Henry’s father asked him if he would bring some logs to light a fire, but Henry is not hardworking. He takes away all the logs that support the other camps and the other camps come crashing down! Afterwards, Henry's camp came down with the rain and their camp got electrocuted - so like that they ended up in one big camp. 

Now down to my opinions, it’s a short book for fast readers. I finished it in 1 hour. It’s a book I like to collect but if you are looking for something funny this is the right place.