Venkat and Friends
by Sambhavi Ganti
“Venkat and Friends” by Sambhavi Ganti. Published by Notion Press. A lovely collection of five tales featuring eight year old Venkat from Hyderabad.
Venkat lives with his parents, younger sister Pragya and his taatha (grandfather). He loves his family and is quite a good big brother. He tries his best to be good. But he gets into trouble once in a while like all of us. He learns a lot of things in such situations. For instance, in the first story, he learns to be responsible and realises the reason behind rules when he breaks his mother’s team award trophy while doing a cartwheel. All this just before her colleagues were coming home to celebrate. How do he and his family manage this situation?
The second story is about caring for animals in a responsible way. This story portrays why feeding strays has to be done in a responsible manner without making them dependent on humans. The third story has Venkat trying to make Pragya’s birthday party memorable and how things take an unexpected turn with some hilarious consequences. No one is going to forget this party for sure! :) The fourth story has Venkat facing a terrible day with almost everything going wrong for him. How he learns to discuss and share his problems with his family to get solutions and faces them is the highlight of the story. The last story is about an amazing trip that Venkat makes to his maternal grandparents during his holidays. He gets to experience life in a farm in a village with them and learns quite a lot about how it is different from being in an urban area.
My eight year old loved reading this book with me. He thoroughly enjoyed Venkat’s adventures and could relate very well to the situations that he faced. He was a bit disappointed when the book got over. He now wants more stories about Venkat :) The activities at the end of each tale and some facts related to the topic of each of them were very interesting. Without being preachy, the way Venkat’s family explain things to him by drawing parallels to what they had faced in similar situations at different times of their lives is so nice. This sort of puts him at ease with them and he learns to open up with them and have discussions whenever he needs their help. Also, the fact that there is a learning that we can take away from every situation. It is up to us to identify it. Something that we appreciated. Overall a lovely debut book!
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 7 and above.
Reasons to Read
The children will identify with the characters and relate well to the situations while enjoying the stories.
Where to buy from?
The publishers Notion Press here. Use the coupon code HFOB20 to get 20% off on the book. Available for the first 20 customers who buy with this link.
Disclaimer - We received this book from the author, Sambhavi Ganti, for review. Thank you to Sambhavi for sending across the book as well as offering to create a special discount coupon code for House Full of Books subscribers.