BOOK DETAILS
Name of the book: Coming Round the Mountain
Author: Ruskin Bond
Illustrator: Mihir Joglekar
Pages: 128
Reading Level: 9 years and above.
MRP: INR 250/-
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This book brought back memories from my school days and summer holidays. I’m not too proud of the fact but ‘Coming Round the Mountain’ is the second Ruskin Bond book I’ve read. The first one, ‘The Ruskin Bond Children’s Omnibus’, I read way back in 2001 (if my memory serves me right) in my summer holidays after tenth standard exams.
‘Coming Round the Mountain’ made me feel like that little girl again. I felt like I’d gone back in time, and not just through the story, which is set in the year of India’s Independence. Written in first person the book is a chapter from Bond’s own life going back to his school days. The story is packed with interesting characters, school sporting events, and adventures involving underground tunnels. In a film-y twist, we also see a girl somehow making it to an all boys’ school and the boys’ reaction to it. The part that got me nostalgic was where the boys would be required to go to the school library and get books to read. We too, had a dedicated “Library period” once a week. I used to love browsing through the books and finally selecting one to read the rest of the week. It’s probably where my love for reading and books grew stronger.
The book is meant for ages 9 and up, but at 32, I had a jolly good time reading the story. I perhaps enjoyed it more because stories about adventures and about kids living in hostels were my favourite when I was a child, and this book had both. At a little over a 120 pages, it was a quick read and the pencil illustrations made the story more interesting. I read 20 odd pages every day over 4-5 days along with my evening coffee and throughout that week, that second cup of coffee had come to be something I was looking forward to, and not just for the coffee.
The prose was capturing, the story moved at a wonderful pace, and at the end of it, I wished there was a little more for me to read. I realised after I started reading this book that it is the third book in a series, and I can’t wait to read the other two as well.
If you want to purchase this book, you can click here to buy*. You can also find the other two books in the series by clicking here for Looking for the Rainbow* and here for Till the Clouds Roll by*. These are affiliate links*.
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