Why am I passionate about this?
I was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and as a kid I loved to read. But I never saw myselfâan Indian girl like meârepresented in childrenâs books before. I didnât realize how much it affected me until I began writing my first novel at age 23. When I did, I wrote the entire first draft with white characters and set it in a western country. I believed my Indian culture and my experience as an Indian kid was not worth writing about. I was so wrong! Now, with the novels I write, Iâm passionate about representation, especially South Asian representation because all kids deserve to see themselves and their cultures in the books they read.
Payal's book list on childrenâs fantasy with South Asian representation
Why did Payal love this book?
Farah and her two best friends get sucked into a Jumanji-inspired mechanical board game called The Gauntlet of Blood and Sand and itâs up to them to defeat the villainous architect of the game and save themselves and all those trapped inside. This fantasy story set in a Middle Eastern and Bangladeshi-inspired world is nail-biting to say the least and Karuna Riaziâs lush prose with descriptions of taste and smell transported me straight into the story and deadly game (and also left me very hungry!). Besides, when there are red scorpions, grease monkeys, and sand cats who wouldnât want to join in this captivating adventure?
1 author picked The Gauntlet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.
A trio of friends from New York City find themselves trapped inside a mechanical board game that they must dismantle in order to save themselves and generations of other children in this action-packed debut that's a steampunk Jumanji with a Middle Eastern flair.
Nothing can prepare you for The Gauntlet...
It didn't look dangerous, exactly. When twelve-year-old Farah first laid eyes on the old-fashioned board game, she thought it looked...elegant.
It is made of wood, etched with exquisite images-a palace with domes and turrets, lattice-work windows that cast eerie shadows, a large spider-and at the very center of its cover,âŚ