Hama- Guri Goes To School- Book Review

Hama-Guri Goes to School-Children’s stories
Author- Aditi Bose
Publisher- Cresco Books
My Rating- ***1/2
About the Author- 
A management professional from Delhi, Aditi is a popular Indian blogger who has written numerous interesting stories of Hama-Guri before.

Getting to preview a book before its publishing is a great privilege and to review it is a great responsibility. I am even averse to reading E-books but since it is going to be a book for kids, I couldn't help but jump at the opportunity.

This book has the most minimalist cover and to judge the book by it would be wrong. The solid yellow may create a recall value but since its a children's book, I's expect a little more pains taken for a good illustrated cover. Maybe a caricature of the boy-Hama Guri would have been great! 

This cover may also works in its advantage because I began reading with an open mind. I was looking for good vocabulary and correct selection of words and as I read I was happy to see it was all about that. 

The protagonist's name itself is a very interesting aspect because it creates a level of intrigue for children too. Its not a commonplace name in Pune at least and hence makes a great first impression.

A children's book is best reviewed by a child. So I coaxed my 6 year old son to come hither. I am happy that he is as avid a reader as I am but being a child that he is, he loves a book full of pictures. Reading the black and white paragraphs scrolling on the screen was not a tempting offer for him. However like I mentioned before he was already wanting to know who Hama-Guri is, so he began reading. 

My preview copy of the book has 5 stories, all on interesting topics that primary school and even secondary school students experience at one point of time or the other, in their lives. Learning to accept that losing a competition is also OK, handling bullying, time-management, the doctor's visit or learning the importance of earning or saving pocket money are very important aspects of life which have been beautifully covered in the book.

My son chose to read 'Hama-Guri Learns How to Manage Time'. And here's a video of him engrossed in it. 

Quoting his feedback on the same," How I wish this was not such a long story mummy. I am getting tired but I will read it after a break. Maybe if there were pictures I wouldn't want to stop."

I asked him whether he would like to read more of such stories, part by part or maybe if I read it to him, he said, "The story seems like it will have a great moral at the end. I would like to finish it later mummy!" 

The response brought a smile to my face and I felt my opinion of the book was not wrong at all. Indeed 'Hama-Guri Goes to School' will make for a good book for kids of all school going ages.

I now look forward to May 14th when its slotted to be released and I truly hope it is a colourfully illustrated story book in print, not only in an E-reading format!

Being a stickler for perfection however and also because this is a book for children who are still in the early stages of perfecting their English, I would stress upon a thorough editing and proof-reading before going into print.

There are a few typo' errors that I spotted while reading the first couple of stories beginning with  “Yes Hama it will a be a good day today.” Two words were missing in the sentence. And in ' Everything will be fine.' The first letter of every sentence after a full stop has got to be a capital. 

Except for such minor errors, the story-telling seems flawless and right from the heart. True to life experiences and apt solutions given to the problems in a child's life.

“I love Saturdays.” Hama said as he finished his breakfast.

And my son said " Me too!"