Review : Potato Chips

As soon as I saw the title of this book and read a bit about the author 15 year old Anshuman Mohan I got very curious to read it.Anshuman wrote this book when he was 13!I wanted to read what a 13 year old had to offer and whether he could keep the reader interested. This book successfully managed to keep me interested till the very end and I almost felt I was Aman's mom! Anshuman really needs to be patted on his back and encouraged to write some more. I am almost gushing about the book but yes it is a commendable first time effort by a 13 year old.

The protagonist of the book is Aman Malhotra who is moved from an easy going,friendly atmosphere of his old school Akshar into the big,bad world of St.Xavier's, Kolkata.He is absolutely unhappy with the move and finds it difficult to cope with the new school and has to struggle very hard to settle in and become a part of the new school. The book takes the reader through the ups and downs of Aman's life, his friendship with Ankit,Rohan and Sameer. Their antics almost take you back to your own school days and you can't help but chuckle reading about it.Almost like the school version of Dil Chahta Hai!

Aman is shown as an extremely intelligent child with a social conscience so when Aman gets to know that his tennis coach's son and friend young Shubho is stopped from playing tennis in the club he goes all out to help Shubho pursue his tennis dreams.The book also touches on the unrest in Kolkata after Nandigram , North East violence through the eyes of a young adult.

The book gets negative points for trying to make Aman some kind of a larger than life hero who is on a single minded make the world a happy place mission.There is nothing else I can complain about the book!

Its a book that every 13 year old school going kid will enjoy.A fun read.

(This book is published by Harper Collins India and is part of their Young Adult series)