Friday 28 September 2012

Nina and the Travelling Spice Shed by Madhvi Ramani (Children's, 7 years +, 10/10)



October 1st 2012, Tamarind
74 pages, Paperback
Review copy

Themes: heritage, national pride, travelling machine (non time travel variety), Bollywood film star, helping others, run-in with scary animals, keeping secrets, adventure, some humour, moderate peril


Did you know that Nina's aunt's spice shed is a travel machine?

Well neither did Nina - and now she's head first into a great adventure involving a lost envelope, a charming street thief, glamorous Bollywood star and a fierce tiger . . . 

Nayuleska's thoughts
You know how much I like books with purple covers! This is a sweet tale of a girl who thanks to her aunt actually starts to like her parents' homeland. The concept of how she travels to India is well thought out with limitless possibilities for Nina's next adventures. She shows great bravery in all situations, and her pleasant nature means people help her out more than they realise.

The illustrations are in harmony with the story, my favourite was the spice shed. That's where it all begins, and For some unknown reason I like food storage areas. It's not the contents of the jars, but the feel of the person/company who owns it. By thia I mean I could imagine Nina's Aunt's kitchen from the jars, I could tell her passion for cooking and that she likes organisation - well, some of the time! I look forward to Nina finding out more about her aunt in the rest of this series which has started with a 10/10 read.

Suggested read
For more adventure try Jack Stalwart The  Hunt for the Yeti Skull Nepal by Elizabeth Singer

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