Customer Reviews (25)

Amazing Read!
I just finished reading The Conch Bearer. It is an amazing book! You get to go on a journey with Anand (the main character.)This is one of the best books I have ever read. Anand is loving life, he gets to go to school which he loves and reads a lot of books. His life goes all topsy-turvy when his father leaves Anand, his mentally ill sister and mother at home, to go to Dubai for a job. Things are okay for the first couple of months, his father is sending money regularly to the family, until one day the money stops coming and so do the letters. Anand has no idea what happened to him and he is worried. All these thoughts run through Anand's head. Is he alive? Is he okay? After the money stops coming Anand's mother has to pull he and his sister Merra out of school. Merra being younger didn't care but Anand did, they also had to move out of the beautiful apartment and in to a one room shack. And on top of all that Anand had to start to go to work. One day an old man came and followed Anand home. He is a Healer and he healed Merra and asked Anand to go on a very dangerous mission. I think the author did a terrific job writing this book and I hope that she had as much fun writing this book as I did reading it.

Superb - for all ages
The book takes you to the Silver Valley in the Himalayas - full of fantasy, action and adventure. People of all ages will enjoy.

Average writing, great concepts
I absolutely LOVED the premise of the book.In plot, Chitra's bookis clever but the writing was not as tight as I would like.It had too many adverbs and poorly constructed sentences that distracted the reader from this wonderful story. There was more "showing" and less "telling" and a lot of narrative that could have been replaced by action or dialogue. The storyline became a little too complicated and the ending, although a clever surprise was not entirely believable.It felt contrived, done,to shock rather than please.Wasn't it Somerset Maughm who said that the main aim of a novel is to please. It left me feeling a little dissatisfied.Nevertheless, for a writer of her caliber to flow into children's writing is admirable.I look forward to reading the Mirror of Fire and Dreaming.

The Conch Bearer: A Review
The Conch Bearer is a fine book, but not great. It does a good job of following the traditional hero cycle, but not much more.

As not a particular lover of fantasy, I was not that impressed with the quality of writing. The characters were, admittedly, well-thought-out, but with not much feeling and progression.

Basically, I didn't really like it, but I wanted to see what would happen in the end, so I just kept reading. I was assigned this book as part of our hero unit. If it hadn't been an assignment, I wouldn't have read it.

However, I did find it in me to read the sequel (The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming) voluntarily, NOT as an assignment. I found The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming much more pleasing and original, though it didn't follow the hero cycle. This, I think, actually made it a more likeable book, since the plot was more creative and less predictable.

I wouldn't recommend The Conch Bearer. However, I WOULD recommend The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, and it's probably better to read Conch Bearer first.

My final recommendation is: if you really want to read either The Conch Bearer or The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, just check them out of a public library, or buy them cheap from a used bookstore.

The Conch Bearer : student review
The setting of the story is in Kolkata, India. It is about a boy who works in a tea stall striving to help his mother and sister who is ill.
One day an old man walks in the store and the store owner yells and insults him to leave, But Arnand shows remorse and gives the man some tea and food. Seeing the compassion in Arnads heart the old man follows him home, and invites him to go on a journey with him to return the magical conch.
With this man he goes on a journey across the Himalayas to bring the "conch to safety." During his journey Arnad gets tested on his courage, honesty and loyalty. In the end when he reaches the Silver Valley he is asked which of these virtues he believes is most important. If he chooses the right one he can become a member of the brotherhood, but the wrong choice and he goes back home.
The purpose of this story is to teach people about courage and making choices for yourself. I think this was a well written story and I really enjoyed it.
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Word count: 2535. ... Read more

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Written in German ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Neela, Victory Song
Neela, Victory Song is a very good book.It is about a 12 year old girl living in India, during it's struggle for freedom.She has a spirit of her own and when her beloved father goes missing after participating in a freedom march, far away from her little village.Though during some parts I was ready for the book to end I really enjoyed it.

Hooray for Neela
Like the stories of "American Girl" series, Victory Song provides a glimpse of a tumultuous time and place through the eyes of a brave and spirited heroine. I'm not sure how realistic it would be for a 12-year old Indian girl in 1939 to run away from home dressed as a wandering minstrel and help her father break out of prison. However, it makes a great story. Victory Song deals with some challenging historical issues without unseemly language or "inappropriate" material, so it's a good choice for preteens who have moved beyond simpler stories. It's also a very readable introduction to a part of history that most American kids never hear about. Five stars for Neela!
Janet Gingold
author of Danger, Long Division

...brings India to life - taking readers on a cultural adventure
The year is 1939. Twelve-year-old Neela Sen wants nothing more than to please her mother after her fifteen-year-old sister, Usha, is married and moves away, but from the night of the wedding, the only thing she appears to be able to do is disappoint. Neela wants to obey her parents, but it is hard for her to think about settling down and getting married, when the only thing she wants to do is climb trees, play with her cow, Budhi, and learn everything she possibly can. And getting married will compromise all of that for her. However, when Freedom Fighters arrive at Usha's wedding, demanding that everyone donate a piece of jewelry, and hand over some money to support the cause to free India from Britain's rule, Neela begins to look further into the problems facing her beloved country. The problems that will certainly affect her in the future, even if they are not directly affecting her now. But then Neela realizes that she is being affected by India's fight for independence. For, soon after Usha's wedding, her father reveals that he will be going to Calcutta to march, and learn more about the problems affecting the world around them. Neela knows that her father will be fine, as he is a strong, kind man. But when he doesn't return home after one week, when he is expected, she begins to worry. She just knows that something horrible has happened to him, and decides to do the unthinkable...run away from home, leaving her mother to fend for herself, to search Calcutta for her beloved family member. While the world is a big, lonely place for Neela almost instantly, with the help of the relatives of a Freedom Fighter whom she helped escape from danger, Neela is able to integrate into upper class society, and learn more both about British rule, the fight for independence, and information regarding her father's whereabouts. Now, however, Neela must confront natives who have turned against their own kind, in an attempt to reunite her family, and save the only country she's ever known and loved.

I know very little about India. From its culture, to the Indian's fight for independence from Britain. However, since reading Neela's story, I feel as if I have walked away with a mind full of information that was not there prior to picking up this book. Neela is such a wonderful character. Full of spirit, and curiosity. Her transformation from an immature child to an educated, brave young woman is amazing to see happen before your eyes. Neela was determined from page one, and found the inner strength to strike out on her own during a time that was full of danger and uncertainty, and attempt to accomplish a task that seems so far-fetched for a girl of her age. A girl who was victim to a time when women were considered second-class citizens, and didn't have the same rights as men. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni paints a remarkable picture of the times of 1939. Her descriptions of the landscapes, and the lavish feasts and accommodations people of Neela's class, and those of higher officials, participated in on a regular basis were interesting to learn about, and really make readers think twice about the poverty that some people during those times experienced. NEELA: VICTORY SONG is a delightful addition to the GIRLS OF MANY LANDS series that brings India to life - taking readers on a cultural adventure.

Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer

Beautiful Story line and Characters
This book is excellent!Neela, who is adventurous and brave (something very important in a good heroine), takes a dangerous trip to try to save her father with the aid of an intriguing freedom fighter during the era of protest over British rule.Every girl I have recommended this title to loved it, and I can't see why anyone would think this book is just "about a girl who doesn't want to get married" (like my fellow reviewer).I recommend it without reserve.It is an exciting story, that will interest the reader in Indian culture.

Eh...
This book is about a girl who is afraid of getting married, and also shows a bit of the struggle over India's independence. Quite frankly, the characters are generic and the plot is chichéd. I give it two stars because it DOES show emotion, and it DOES have a plot, but both are a bit flat and standard. ... Read more

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poetry, first book by author of ARRANGED MARRIAGES ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Searing beauty
Divakaruni's poetry is visceral, breath taking, and haunting.Her images will stay with you.Her other collection of poetry is also impressive.Leaving Yuba City: Poems.I recommend reading anything she has written.Her prose is beautiful: Sister of My Heart: A Novel, Queen of Dreams, The Mistress of Spices: A Novel, The Vine of Desire: A Novel, The Unknown Errors of Our Lives: Stories, Arranged Marriage: Stories... All are excellent.

Interesting, provocative and flawed
Black Candle succeeds in its prose poems that a vignettes of thedifficulties of life as a South Asian.The poems also work if one judgesthem as vignettes rather than poetry.Yoga Lessons is the strongest pieceas poetry.Even as vignettes, however, the ubiquous use of first person,which works well for the poems in isolation, fails to work in thecollection as the reader gets many "I's" of which some are thesame and others not.The book does as excellent job of making the foreignculture and environment accessible to Americans.

This book reminds memost of Jana Harris' work where pioneer women's stories are made intopoetry.If you enjoyed that, you'll surely enjoy this,

A supremely impressive collection rich in metaphor.
Black Candle is a supremely impressive collection of poetry rich withmetaphor and set on the Indian sub-continent. These poems portray moving,palpable portraits of women's lives that will strike a universal chord ofrecognition and appreciation with the western reader. The Room: I havewalked this corridor so many times/I no longer notice/the gougedfloorboards, the brown light/washing the peeling walls, the stale/childhoodsmell of curried cabbage.//I am looking for the door,/the one whosestriated knob/matches perfectly the lines of my palm,/which opens withoutsound/into a room with milk-blue walls.//On the sill, a brass bowl/ofgardenias in water. Peacocks/spread silk feathers against cushions./Thewhite cockatoo on its stand/knows my name. Sun filters/through the sari ofa woman/who rises toward me. I am caught/by the lines of her bones, thefine/lighted hairs on her held-out arm,/your eyes, mother, in her mouthlessface.

Good thing I joined Amnesty International
I found these poems to reveal a harsh beauty.If I joke that American women should read this before they complain it would be to ease the tension over severity with which women are treated in many of these Asian cultures.Divakaruni has revealed a piece of her soul and raised concerns over themistreatment of women in Asia (as well as anywhere in the world for thatmatter)These poems are best read a couple at a time so one can absorb thepassion and the reality of the situations described.A few of the poems inthis collection moved me close to tears.Hopefully, a better day willdawn.I would like to apend my earlier comment that American women shouldread this by stating that all the men need to read it, too.

Nice Poems But Too Gloomy
I was surprised by this book. I generally dislike "modern" poetry, but these poems were different. They seemed to speak of things in a way that sounded very genuine. The major fault of the book was that all ofthe poems seemed to emphasise how hard and terrible women's lives were,usually as the result of actions by men. This is fair enough, but when ALLof the poems seemed to have this same theme, it began to sound more like acollection of ehining rather than genuine emotional expression. A fewverses on something other than mosery would have been nice. But all in alla very nice book. Well worth the price. ... Read more