It has been a while since I read a book meant for children and I almost never believe blurbs. So I confess that when Nirmala Sridhar’s book titled The Mysterious Tsunamis promised that it was a ‘geo-thriller’ I was full of suspicion.
First off, it is critical to be able to catch a reader’s eye and it is unfortunate that the cover page illustration falls short in imagination. Children need their attention to be held and enough hasn’t been invested in this aspect, which might indeed make it difficult for Ms. Sridhar to find a buyer in the bookstore chains of today.
Having said that, the content does make up for this deficiency to some extent. The book has 189 pages with 20 short chapters and is well edited and definitely readable. There are barely any illustrations, which could’ve been a magical aid to a child’s imagination. Since the protagonists, young Abhishek and Addy aged ten, appear to come from middle class Indian families, the book does devote some detail to life in such a setting.
I found this too distracting since my prejudices interfered with accepting that I was going to read more and more about this rather conventional family—decidedly vegetarian above all else.