Title: Beyond School
Author: Chitra Anand
Publisher: Frog Books
ISBN: 978-93-83562-40-4
Number of Pages: 201
Price [INR] : 125
Genre: Reality Fiction
Beyond School centres upon the weeks leading up to 17-year-old Shail’s final board exams, as his world becomes a pressure-cooker and the weight of preparing for the exams sends him fleeing rebelliously in the other direction.
Along with Shail’s journey from boyhood to manhood, Beyond School vividly weaves between the narratives of four main characters, seamlessly uniting the past and present of Shail, his parents – Urmila and Sushil and his mentor – Gladys, in a story that is honest, funny, heartbreaking and ultimately, incredibly human.
Beyond School is a coming-of-age story of Shail, a grade twelve student who come to grips with the reality of life and undergoes a change in this thoughts and matures as a person.
Teens is a phase of life which can be quite turbulent and is indeed a testing time for not only the teenagers but even for their parents. Beyond School is a reality fiction that brings to light, a lot of issues faced by the teenagers and their parents. It brings to the fore, the concerns viz parental pressure for academic excellence, emphasis on academics vis-a-vis sports, disrespectful or defiant behaviour, disregard for rules and responsibilities, involvement in high risk and reckless activities, poor study behaviour and skills, communication gap between parents and children, among other things. The story also encompasses the elements of teen love affairs, the thrill of speed and gadget dependence too. The author who is an educator has neatly packed all these issues in the story. It is a story which all parents can relate to.
The author being from the field of education and my son who would be a teen soon, compelled me to read this book and to know the world of modern teens through her voice of experience. And Beyond School is definitely an interesting and an enlightening read. My only gripe about this book is its poor sentence structure and incorrect grammar usage throughout the length of the story. This was a big dampener for me.
Beyond School is an honest representation of the challenges faced by the teens and their parents in a global society.
Rating : [usr 2.75 text=”false” size=20]
This book review is a part of The Readers Cosmos Book Review Program. To get free books log on to thereaderscosmos.blogspot.com
24 Responses
Teenage stories are a way off for me…I simply can’t connect…maybe am growing old. 😛
Anyway, great honest review 🙂
… and you have a daughter who is very young 😛
Probably we need a non-fiction book on this topic, too?
Destination Infinity
Why dont you write one!!
My children are grown up now. So this book holds less interest for me.
I did order the previous one, the one based in Air Force. Can’t wait to read that one!
I can understand!
Wow… that’s cool, hope you enjoy reading Love @ Air Force. Looking forward to your verdict 🙂
Seems a useful book for parents of teenagers!
Yes, it is insightful.
Hmm…They dont proofread before publishing? Talk about exam times for the teens! Its like making the frogs, elephants, deer, tigers and penguins climb the tallest of the trees without giving opportunity for what they are really good at!
Looks like they miss doing just that! reading books with poor grammar and errors is so disappointing. Aah, our eductaion system is such that, it is not based on aptitude and abilities, sadly!
While this sounds like interesting subject matter, the fact that there are grammar mistakes without would put my teeth on edge and keep me from reading the book. Spectacular honest review. ♥
Yes, I was keen to read a book on teens. But the errors can really put you off!
Teen story – now that’s new!! I remember reading Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul as a teen – it was an awesome read back then.
Thanks for sharing about Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Nisha… will check it out!
thats sad really… the well meaning concept of an author undone by lacklustre proofreading. I fear it is something that is ailing Indian fiction for awhile now..
Agree with that. Hope authors and publishers do look into this aspect, seriously too!
Nice review, Shilpa. I’m sure it would make a good read for parents, if the author does an edit in the next edition.
Hope so… otherwise it is an interesting and an insightful story!
Thanks for the nice review.
Thanks for reading, SG 🙂
Nice review…Proof reading is something which is very imp but somewhere the publishing industry, the new ones, seem to have lost the plot..
I wonder why they dont focus on this important aspect of publishing! 😕
Would love to pick this book.
what is wrong with the proof reading industry? I find many books with grammatical and spelling errors, even reputed newspapers.
Would love to know your feedback, Asha.
Wonder why proof reading is no longer an important requisite before publishing a book! 😯