Book review – Simply Nanju by Zainab Sulaiman

10-year-old Nanju wears a diaper to school and hobbles around as he has crooked feet. He lives with his Appa and older sister Shanti. He doesn’t pay attention in class and regularly scores zero but manages to hide the evidence from his father, who threatens to send him to a hostel. Happy in his world, nothing seems to bother him much. His best friend is Mahesh, who is terribly clever, and lets Nanju copy all his answers. Like us, he gets by with a lot of help from his friends.

When I was reading Simply Nanju many people commented on the lovely cover of the book. The face of an innocent child with an endearing smile, who can resist that? (People who have hearts of stone, that’s who!)

It is business as usual in school with petty rivalries and merciless teasing, greeting teachers in a singsong voice, and the class turning into a fish market when the teacher leaves the class momentarily. If this doesn’t take you back in time, I don’t know what will. Class topper Aradhana’s notebooks vanish and return days later in a shoddy condition. Nobody knows who is behind it, and Nanju makes it his business to find the culprit when fingers are pointed at him. Mahesh and Nanju, though not quite Holmes and Watson, set out to solve the mystery. Do they manage to find the thief who isn’t a thief? Read Simply Nanju to find out.