Manya Learns to Roar
by Shruthi Rao and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan
“Manya Learns to Roar” by Shruthi Rao and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan. Published by Duckbill. A heartwarming tale of Manya who struggles with her stammering problem as she gears up to bag the dream role of her favourite character in her school play.
The book begins with Manya and her classmates trying to make the most of an unexpected free period in the middle of a regular school day. But their happiness is short lived when Ms Sridhar-Ali walks into the class. She announces that the school will be participating in the Panorama Fest which is an inter-school competition. They will be doing a performance of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”. Manya just can’t believe it. The Jungle Book is her all time favourite movie and she knows all the lines so well. She wants to participate in the play as Shere Khan.
Manya thinks that she can do the part of Shere Khan very well. But most others don’t think so. She gets bullied by her classmate Rajat who never lets go of an opportunity to taunt her and make fun of her stammer. He tells her not to think of getting into the play and discourages her at every possible opportunity. Her English teacher feels that it is too risky to have her in the play. However not everyone is unkind to her. She has her best friend Ankita standing with her for support. Whenever she gets anxious, her stammer becomes worse. Will Manya get a chance to perform her dream role? Can she overcome her stammer and roar like a real tiger? Read the book to find out all of these.
My eight year old and I found the book so interesting that we couldn’t put it down. We started reading it at bedtime and ended up finishing it well past our sleeping time! Thankfully it was a Saturday night :) I had heard so much about this book that I couldn’t wait to read it with my son. He could relate so well to the school setting of the story and cheered for Manya as the story progressed. He wanted to understand why people stammer and how we can help someone when they do instead of making fun of them. We appreciated the character of Ankita who stood up to support Manya when she was being bullied by their classmates and gently nudged Manya without sounding sympathetic towards her. The topic of being inclusive is handled very well. We have read another book by the same author earlier called “India to the Rescue” in a totally different genre altogether and loved it too. This book was a winner in the Children First writing competition organised by Parag which is an initiative of Tata Trusts and Duckbill Books. Thank you Vidya Mani of Funky Rainbow for recommending this lovely book!
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 8 and above.
Reasons to Read
The story is a beautiful way of conveying the message of being inclusive, supportive and standing up to bullying.
Where to buy from?
An independent bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.