Aru Shah and the End of Time
Aru Shah series, book #1
by Roshani Chokshi
Adventure
Fantasy
Hinduism
Supernatural
Review #1
* * * Stars (Pretty good)
One day three of her classmates show up at Aru’s doorstep to catch her lying. They don’t believe the “Diya of Bharata” in the museum is cursed, so they dare Aru to prove it. Overwhelmed, Aru lights the Diya with dire consequences, as she unwittingly frees the Sleeper, a demon whose duty is to awaken the God of Destruction. Aru’s peers and mother are frozen in time and she has to find a way to save them. She shows that she has the power to save everyone if she can find herself capable. At the end of the book Aru Shah stops the Sleeper, but releases a chain reaction of events that she has to solve by handling the friendship of her fellow Pandavas and by utilizing her wits.
The humor and content from this book are extremely relatable to all the problems she has faced and all the solutions she has tried. Aru’s classmates view her as an Indian freak and Mini as a nerd, but they are much more than that. Aru’s imagination is breathtaking as she uses it for strategy, empathizing, and breaking through illusions and magic. This book brings in ancient scripts such as the “Mahabharata” and the “Ramayana.” I liked how this book has brought in some diversity.
For upper elementary school kids and middle school teens.
