Title: Aru shah and the end of time.
Author: Roshani Choski.
Format: Paperback from library.
Publisher: Scholastic.
Page count: 343.
Release day: March 27th 2018.
Genre: Middle Grade, fantasy, mythology.
Rating: 4 stars.
What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)
Twelve-year-old Aru Shah has a tendency
to stretch the truth in order to fit in at school. While her classmates are
jetting off to family vacations in exotic locales, she’ll be spending her
autumn break at home, in the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, waiting
for her mom to return from their latest archaeological trip. Is it any wonder
that Aru makes up stories about being royalty, traveling to Paris, and having a
chauffeur?
One day, three schoolmates show up at Aru’s
doorstep to catch her in a lie. They don’t believe her claim that the museum’s
Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. Just a quick
light, Aru thinks. Then she can get herself out of this mess and never
ever fib again.
But lighting the lamp has dire consequences. She
unwittingly frees the Sleeper, an ancient demon whose duty it is to awaken the
God of Destruction. Her classmates and beloved mother are frozen in time, and
it’s up to Aru to save them.
The only way to stop the demon is to find the
reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the
Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, and journey through the Kingdom
of Death. But how is one girl in Spider-Man pyjamas supposed to do all that?
My thoughts:
Ever since this book was announced with the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, I was really excited! I mean books similar to Percy Jackson or Magnus Chase with different mythology, YES please! It took me quite a while though to actually pick it up haha.
I started loving this book from page one! I absolutely love Aru’s character! She is so funny, full of doubt and really brave! The other big character in this book was Mini, and she was just as amazing! I love how she kept saying ‘you know you can die from this’. As if this whole adventure is not dangerous haha!
The actual story was really good! It might have been a bit too fast, but that’s being excused by the fact that it is Middle Grade, and I understand that you just need action! All the action parts were really good, there was just not that much time in between to breath haha.`
Also I love the mythology! I’m not familiar at all with Hindu mythology, so this was also really informative! So if you haven’t read this because it is middle grade, please do, even as a master student I learned from it!
I can’t wait to pick up the sequel and the other Rick Riordan presents imprints!
My tween is a big fan of Percy Jackson. She will not have the resource of a classroom library anymore as she’s finished the last of contained classrooms. I will see if our library has this book. I’ve seen it around and it’s cover definitely catches my eye every time. I told her to try Magnus Chase but she says she only likes Greek mythology.
It’s definitely worth it! (Magnus Chase as well!)