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Sowmya Rajendran
THE ADVENTURES OF STOOB: TESTING TIMES by Samit Basu Red Turtle, Rupa, Delhi, 2014, 116 pp., 195
November 2014, volume 38, No 11

The Adventures of Stoob is a breezy read that you probably will finish reading in one sitting. The book takes you through the life and times of a fifth grader, the unfortunately named Subroto Bandhopadhyay. And since that is quite a mouthful, let’s just call him Stoob as everyone else does.

Stoob is an average kid, which gives him the moral right to pass colourful comments on all those who are above average and below average. His problems are the usual—a crow who wants to make his head its personal toilet, a principal who is unreasonably unreasonable, annoying classmates, parents who jump to the worst possible conclusions and so on. In this world of the ordinary and the absurd, there comes a day when Stoob has to use all his resources to save his best friend from descending into darkness—he has to prevent him from becoming a criminal! Brrr.

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