Blog Details

Manya Learns to Roar | Book Review

Here comes the next book in the Children First Series- Manya Learns to Roar written by Shruthi Rao and illustrated by Priya Kurian. This book won the Children First Writing competition, organized by Parag, an initiative of Tata Trusts and Duckbill books. You can find the review of the other winning book and about the contest here.

Manya Learns to Roar is a perfect book for young readers.

The Gist of the Story

Manya, a naughty and curious fifth grader, intends to participate in the "Jungle Book" school play. Jungle book is her favorite film, and she wants to be Shere Khan, the tiger who hates humans. She thinks that she would be the perfect Shere Khan but unfortunately not all her classmates and teachers (except two) think so because of her stammer. And her stammering gets worse when Manya becomes anxious and angry.

What happens then? Does she participate? If so, how she does she overcome her fears and how does she tackle others' comments? And how does she learn to roar? To know the answers you have to read this book.



The story line and the supporting illustrations make this book special. But along with Manya, the other two characters, Ankita - Manya's friend and Ms. Sridhar Ali, Manya's teacher make this book super special. I so wish I could get a cool and supporting friend like Ankita and of course, teachers like Ms.Sridhar Ali are always welcome.
I love these supporting words of Ankita when Manya's classmates tease her. "Because what she says is more important to me than how she says it. There are some people, you know, who speak so beautifully, but only hurtful words come out of their mouths."

"Because what she says is more important to me than how she says it. There are some people, you know, who speak so beautifully, but only hurtful words come out of their mouths."

Oh yeah, forget to mention, Manya and Ankita invent a secret doodling language in the course of the story and we had fun decoding those. :-)

I would recommend this book definitely to all parents out there. Let's support and welcome more books like these to build an inclusive world without any differences.