Swapna Dutta shares her views on Alone By A.Coven(Duckbill Books)

                                                        

 

Alone

By A. Coven

Cover design by Kaveri Gopalakrishnan

The first book in the Hill School Girls series meant for Middle Readers

Published by Duckbill books and Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Price: Rs. 225

“Alone” is the story of Elizabeth who is nervous about returning to school for a fresh term because there are so many impending changes. Her once familiar Hill School has changed hands and is now the “Hill School for Holistic Learning” which promises to be totally different, with a new principal, new curricula and a new approach to learning. To crown it all, Elizabeth has to face it alone because her best friend Pallavi has left. Elizabeth’s parents feel that she is going to enjoy the change and their new principal sounds really smart.

Elizabeth, who is in Class 7 and 12 years old, notices that the number of students that had been 38 has already reduced to 18. As the story proceeds we get to know Elizabeth’s other classmates – Ayesha, Mahrukh, Maitreyi, Rakshita, Sara  and others and also about their teachers,  ‘Tanveen miss’, ‘Shabnam miss’ and ‘Indu miss’ who also happens to be Maitreyi’s  mother. The principal, however is always just “Palak Nanda”.

 The new principal speaks of the changes in her opening speech, telling them that they are in a “very vulnerable space” and that she wanted the school to be “a space of exploration”. So there would be several changes in the curriculum. There would be no tests and no markings, just ‘creative projects’ and activities. The seating arrangements are also changed, the desks being placed in a circle round the teacher. The first activity where they have to go out to the school ground and “bond” with some object and “talk to it” ends in disaster for Elizabeth who chooses a tree that is thorny. The others fare no better. Other weird activities follow such as dance-yoga and a hide and seek tournament.

When they are handed out class projects Elizabeth and her three friends Maitreyi, Mahrukh  manage to find an old journal written by Madhavi Sultania (who had founded the school years ago) in their library. They grow interested and decide to write a paper on her. They decide to interview Madhavi’s granddaughter Suman who also lives in the same place. She is quite supportive but things begin to happen when the journal goes missing.  They suspect Suman of taking it and the four friends decide to retrieve it. A series of adventures follow and how they manage to find it is the grand finale.

The writer tells the story lucidly and children of today would enjoy her contemporary language. There could have been a little more description of what the school, the teachers and the girls look like as one finds in the school stories of Enid Blyton, Judy Blume as well as   J. K. Rowling.

The books are well produced and the cover designs are delightful. It is a pity the cover artist’s  name is not displayed more prominently and the illustrator’s name is missing.

( Swapna Dutta is the first  children's author to write a school series in India. Juneli, her popular character in the school stories, first appeared in the Children's World Magazine and later in books. Swapna has been writing, mostly for children, for several decades and has over 50 titles to her credit, including translations. She has been published by Hachette, Scholastic, Orient Blackswan, National Book Trust and others. Many of her stories and poems have been included in school textbooks. She worked briefly as Editorial Consultant for Target (Living Media), Asst. Editor for Limca Book of Records and Deputy Editor for Encyclopedia Britannica. )

  To buy a copy of Alone(Duckbill Books) click here.