My Honest Book Review – “A Girl in the New Town” by Alpana Deo

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”- Maya Angelou

Absolutely

I believed every aspiring writer (and blogger) always had a dream of becoming a published author.  It is the most satisfying and fulfilling experience when your dream turns into reality and you accomplish your writing dream.

Recently one of my dearest friends has reached this stage in her writing and blogging journey, with lots of hard work, dedication and motivation. It is really a matter of pride that she has published her first book with such an exciting theme and narration.

Yes! I am talking about Alpana Deo from Mothergurukul.com, who has recently launched her first book as an author “A Girl in the New Town”. The book genre is children’s book and she has published this as both paperback addition and as a Kindle edition too.

My heartiest congrats to Alpana for this new and great venture and I wish her all good luck for a great success for the same.

Though I am a bookworm and love to read books since childhood,  I had never done a book review before this.

This is first attempt to do this, and I will try to do a full justice to this.

What is the book all about?

The book is a child book targeted the kid’s age 5-10 year old. Book has 13 chapters and each chapter ends with a few questions that raise our curiosity that “what will happen next?”

The story is revolving around a 7-year-old girl Ria, and her parents Taniya and Dev. She is a cheerful girl, who is enjoying her life with her family and friends. But something is bothering her for quite some time. The story is all about what is bothering her and how she keeps up with it.

Book has a beautiful tagline that says, “Place change, minds changes, people change, memories do not...”

The story begins with this loving family and lovely girl, who will be moving to a new city within a few days. And Ria becomes very nervous while thinking about this sudden transition to her otherwise peaceful and happy life. She has lots of apprehension and question, regarding this big change.

And at the first phase, she felt it is quite daunting and challenging for her, to move to a new and different place.  She expresses her fear to her mom and says “Mamma, I do not want to move. I want to stay here. My friends are here. My school is here. I do not want to move…”

Though they are a couple of months away from their move, Ria already felt a pain of separation from her dearest friends.

Her mom and dad are trying to help her in handling the feelings.

How will Ria adjust to the new city? Will the transition be smooth? Will her imagination turn out true in the new city?

All these are some of the exciting questions and as the story moves on, you will get the answer of each one.

Highlighting factors of the book

From a reader perspective, here are some highlighting factors that I just loved it.

Selection of challenging genre

Yes! I think it is quite a challenging genre to write a good book for children’s. Kids usually have a shorter span of attention. They get bored easily and it is not an easy task to write a children book, especially when you are just starting your journey as an author.

But Alpana has taken this risk, and she has put her best efforts to make book interesting, exciting and kids friendly.

Indeed, we get a sense of curiosity at the end of each chapter that what will happen next?

And I think it is a true victory of a writer. The book raises a sense of curiosity during the initial few chapters and we get intend to read more and more.

A beautiful expression of the relationship

The second and most important thing that I loved is the “beautiful expression of relationship”. Whether it is a daughter-mother relationship (Taniya and Ria) or relationship among friends, she has expressed the beauty of each and every relationship so well.

While reading we feel that these characters are a part of our everyday life and their all emotions (happiness, sadness, and struggles) are our own emotions.

It touches our heart, so beautifully.  We feel ourselves a part of Ria’s emotional moving journey and like her parents, we as a reader also express the same thought for Ria that “everything will be fine, do not worry…”

Loved the Message and purpose behind the book

The third and most important thing that I like about the book, is the “beautiful message and purpose” that the author wanted to convey to her readers.

Indeed, moving to a new place is not as easy as it seems. Especially for kids, it is really hard to leave her/his school, and friends. Kids always had a deeper sense of affection for the place and people where we live.

But unfortunately, sometimes it happens…

And due to certain situations, we have to move, we have to leave our old place, friends, and loving people.

As a mom of two cute kids, I also had faced the same situations, so many times. And I know, at this time it is really hard to handle our kid’s emotion when we moved to another place.

Alpana has handled this sensitive subject so wonderfully and we really get a good idea and guidance about how to handle this situation.

Though the book is a fiction, still,  it gives a beautiful message and while reading we learn a lot too, as a parent.

Something to change

Though the book is really a good read, but I felt at some place routine sequences is over-elaborated and repetitive. These sequences (explanation of room set up etc…) interrupt the flow of the story.

Other than that, the book is really a nice read for kids and parents.

Also, I just loved the ending of the book. It is really amazing and inspiring…

And for sure, I will not tell you this here…

For knowing that, you have to read the book.

The book is available on Amazon,

Here is the link to buy it. if you are in USA, please click here, A girl in the New Town

If you are interested in Kindle edition, click here

If you are in India and want to check this out, click here.

Please read it and let me know what your thoughts are? Did you have the same experience as I had?

Please share!

The post is a part of #MondayMotivation hosted by Zainab from https://slimexpectations.com/  and Neha from http://nehatambe.com/