“Alter throws in helicopter chases, ruined towers and all kinds of excitements with a healthy dose of environmental wisdom.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
A child called Kip is deposited at a far away boarding school in the twisting hills by his two aunts, B and C. The impressively named Paramount Academy is run by the sinister Captain Lovelock with shiny shoes and Kip in the best tradition of boarding school stories finds himself at the whims of the staff who are mingy with food and encourage students to tattle on each other by saying that the truth has to be absolutely open.
Kip finds a group of friends who don’t seem to fit in and discovers that they are actually from another world though they don’t fit into the accepted groove of aliens. His friends have the ability to walk on clouds and want to return to the place they were exiled from.
Against this background is a story of the problems that children encounter when they enter boarding school – though Paramount Academy does not have ragging. Instead, it has a peculiar multiple-choice exam which everyone usually fails and strange classes on six toed salamanders and the making of poisons run by Brother Lazarus who is not what he seems.
Alter throws in helicopter chases, ruined towers and all kinds of excitements with a healthy dose of environmental wisdom – though he does admit mushrooms eaten raw taste like soggy bread. The influence of JK Rowling is strong however Alter refrains from fleshing out the school days and keeps his story within a short time frame with Indian child attention spans and study schedules in mind.
Reviewed by:
Anjana Basu
Added 19th April 2018
