The Summer Of Cool by Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, reviewed by Aswitha Visvesvaran

The Summer Of Cool by Suchitra Krishnamoorthi

Reviewed by
Name: Aswitha Visvesvaran
School: Father Agnel School, Noida

‘The Summer Of Cool’ is a book written by Suchitra Krishnamoorthi. She is a well known singer, actor, painter and poet. Suchitra's debut novel called The Summer of cool was released by Penguin India in January 2009. It is her first novel in a series of four books called the "Swapnalok Society" Series. The book has been dedicated to her daughter, Kaveri.

The book is very well written along with the use distinct language. The book would have been better if the use of slang words such as ‘arrey’, ‘na’ and ‘yaar’ were minimized. The story is written in such a manner that it gets illustrated in the reader’s mind. Suchitra has a very easy and conversational style of writing. Through this story Suchitra Krishnamurthy describes the whole environment of being in a society. The book is a cool, trendy, funny story about friends, family and finding true love.

The book revolves around a ten year old girl, Chitrangana. The story is about how she passes her summer vacations along with her gang of friends. Chitrangana along with her innocent, childish eyes and precocious lies lives with her mother and her elder sister, Smita. She is later joined by her grandmother, Ammama. Meanwhile, there is not a dull, monotonous moment as the varied, often eccentric residents of a society go about their life. All Chitrangana wants is to grow her hair, have her mother bake her angel cake and become a bathroom decorator. But deep down what she really wants is to find her father.

Suchitra Krishnamoorthi has very well described the various different characters in Swapnalok Society. Be it underwear uncle and underwear aunty or Sita maami (better known as haldi maami.) or Varun Vadola, a charming, amiable and polite young bachelor settled next to Chitrangana’s house. Chitrangana’ life takes a sharp turn when her sister, Smita gifts her doll, Sapna. Sapna was a doll with speaking abilities which only Chitrangana could her. Sapna enormously resembled Chitrangana. Armed with Sapna, Chitrangana decides to take the mean streets of Mumbai in order to look for her father. After crossing all the struggles to find her father, to Chitrangana’s dismay, her father is well settled in life and seems to show no affection towards her. The story ends with Chitrangana realizing that it was her mother, who although strict, showered blessings and affection on her.

With swapnalok society series, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi establishes herself as a writer who will be loved by readers of all ages.