The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong
Author: 
Shweta Taneja
Illustrator: 
Jayesh Sivan
age group: 
9+ yrs
Number of pages: 
220
Publisher: 
Hachette
Themes:
mystery ghosts detective
Genre:
fiction, mystery
 

 

Kids will love this exciting new book The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong, a racy fast paced Who-dunnit, that keeps one turning the pages.

Who, or, what are the ghosts? Are they for real? If not, how or why would someone want to scare the people of the town? What dastardly motives could they have?

Kartik Godse who has reluctantly moved to Kurseong, near Darjeeling, with his mother who has a new job as a tea-taster, is soon thrown headlong into the sporadic appearances of ghosts who dwell in an old and dilapidated bungalow - Iyer House.

He decides to investigate the appearances and is joined in this scary venture by his newly found friends – Opus, a plucky girl and Tashi, a puny-sized boy whiz, who makes robots in his spare time (one wishes that the story could have one of his creations getting into the action).

Being rational kids, they quickly rise over the primeval fear of the supernatural and set off to unearth the mystery that lays behind the ghost hauntings.

Even though, the story moves at a clipping pace, the author, still manages to gently sqeeze in some important messages – namely, not to be carried away by superstition, and more important the dangers of gambling and how addicting it could become.

Interesting, funny, and action-packed from the word go, this book is a great read!

 

 

Reviewed by Shamim Padamsee

Comments

Everyone has a prized possession they love. Similarly in this story Karthik Godse too has his Xbox playstation. Which he got only to soo that he would be ready to come to Karthik's mother's odl town Kurseong. To get adapt to a new place is very difficult especially when you are moving from an city( Mumbai ) to a small Hillstation like Kurseong.

Writer Shweta Teja has taken into consideration about the modern attraction o the younger generation with gizmos, Which is truely a fact. continuing with the story Karthik thinks that hes life is abput to come to an end as in a place like Kurseong how would someone live without Internet. He thinkd that his life has become Boredome. But on his very first day he is he is introduced about tales of ghosts in the town. Being intelligent and having an enxiety to find out if actually there were anything like ghostshe started having the curiosity of finding out. He set out with his companions Tashi a gentle and sweet soul who was actually frightened to find out about these ghosts.And Opus the daugher of Pinky Aunty , the person who makes delicious food. The trio has an amzing balance with each of their pros and cons.

The book was an admirable book and at every instance you would love to find out what happened next. A well Packed book would be an appropriate adjective for this curiosity attracting book.
It was a change for me in my regular books which i read. And I realy Admire the story to relate with my own life !!

Rushil Mehta
VIII A
Arya Vidya Mandir

Bandra (E)

Mumbai

Shweta Taneja is a fantasy storyteller who loves to examine the mysterious. She is also the author of a graphic novel, Krishna, Defender of Dharma. She lives in Bangalore.

The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong is about a young thirteen year old boy from Mumbai, Kartik Godse, who was bribed by his mother for an Xbox to come with her to Kurseong. At first, he thought Kurseong was a town in Europe. When he searched on Google, it turned out to be a small town in West Bengal, with a population of less than 80,000 people, whose main occupation was tea farming. He was sure that he would be bored in such a small town, but there were many surprises to follow.

On the very first night, on their way home, they met Bhushan a very frightened man, who tells them about the ghosts in the haunted Iyer Bungalow. The whole town is frightened of the ghosts. Kartik soon makes friends with two other children, Opus and Tashi. They join together to explore the mystery of the Iyer ghosts.

The book is exciting to read with many peculiar characters. My favourite one was Opus, the young bright girl, who knows Kurseong best and helps unravel the mystery. Surprisingly, the ghosts are not frightening at all. Even after reading the book late at night, I did not get any nightmares!

The author describes all events in detail and we can actually visually the strange little East Indian town and smell the tea grown around. Although, sometimes I did find some events slightly disconnected.

I would defiantly recommend it to all brave readers who love mystery books. It’s a perfect book to read during sleepovers and scare your timid friends!!

Arjun Milind Vaidya
Class: V-C
School:Polar International School,
Santacruz West,
Mumbai

Review: Master Arjun Milind Vaidya
Shweta Taneja is a fantasy storyteller who loves to examine the mysterious. She is also the author of a graphic novel, Krishna, Defender of Dharma. She lives in Bangalore.

The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong is about a young thirteen year old boy from Mumbai, Kartik Godse, who was bribed by his mother for an Xbox to come with her to Kurseong. At first, he thought Kurseong was a town in Europe. When he searched on Google, it turned out to be a small town in West Bengal, with a population of less than 80,000 people, whose main occupation was tea farming. He was sure that he would be bored in such a small town, but there were many surprises to follow.

On the very first night, on their way home, they met Bhushan a very frightened man, who tells them about the ghosts in the haunted Iyer Bungalow. The whole town is frightened of the ghosts. Kartik soon makes friends with two other children, Opus and Tashi. They join together to explore the mystery of the Iyer ghosts.

The book is exciting to read with many peculiar characters. My favourite one was Opus, the young bright girl, who knows Kurseong best and helps unravel the mystery. Surprisingly, the ghosts are not frightening at all. Even after reading the book late at night, I did not get any nightmares!

The author describes all events in detail and we can actually visually the strange little East Indian town and smell the tea grown around. Although, sometimes I did find some events slightly disconnected.

I would defiantly recommend it to all brave readers who love mystery books. It’s a perfect book to read during sleepovers and scare your timid friends!!

Arjun Milind Vaidya
Class: V-C
School:Polar International School,
Santacruz West,
Mumbai

The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong is a book full of mystery which will keep you glued to the book till you reach and unveil the mystery.

The characters are very well described and Karthik, the main character, is my favorite of all. He is a thirteen year old boy who moves to a new town with his mother. He is intelligent, good mannered, sensitive and is very caring and protective for his near and dear ones.

I liked the way he develops a true and everlasting friendship with Opus and Tashi in a small time period. His curiosity towards getting to the end of the Iyer Ghost mystery was awesome and made me read the whole book in 2 days.

The location around the story is also very well put together which makes it easy to imagine the plot and how things were moving in the story.
The climax is just unpredictable and I am sure all kids would love it as I did.

This is a must read summer vacation book. I loved it and would recommend all boys of my age to read the book.

Neelabh Dash
Class : IV-F
School : Vibgyor High School.
Haralur Road
Bangalore