When I launched my book club in December 2020, I began with a hOle book, Trouble with Magic by Asha Nehemiah, and somehow, that became a tradition. During each edition of my book club, the first book we read is a hOle book. This time, it’s Shabnam Minwalla’s The Shy Supergirl.
The Shy Supergirl is such a lovely, lovely book! It captured my heart from the very first paragraph. Nina Merchant is a supergirl. She isn’t strange; she’s special.
What’s her superpower? That she can look at a person and tell what kind of person they actually are – nice or nasty, evil or kind. That’s why she shrieks when she sees her father’s boss, but loves the schoolbus driver, Singhji, who seems to be rather scary looking.
This superpower comes in handy when there’s a theft at Venus Towers! Who stole Mrs Khanna’s priceless silver owl? Was it Nina’s best friend Buggy’s cunning cousins? Or Mrs Khanna’s nephew Robin? Nina must find out!
Here’s what we’ll do as we read The Shy Supergirl at my book club.
Superpowers
Two years ago, when we read Shrinking Vanita, we explored superpowers and superheroes. There’s so much more we can do, plus my regulars have all moved from the book club for older children. I’ll introduce the structure of a story in terms of a problem and a solution, and we’ll explore superpowers and create superheroes together.
Colours
I find the link between colours and emotions fascinating. Nina sees colours around people, and that’s how she can tell what kind of people they are. Pink puffs of happiness, green sparks of sneakiness, splotchy orange clouds of lies … what else? What colours do we associate with various moods?
Riddles
I love clues, riddles and treasure hunts! The Shy Supergirl features a treasure hunt in which the children have to solve riddles that are written in the form of rhyming couplets. I’ve worked on rhyming puzzles several times in the past (you can find some in our e-zine, Words!). We’ll try to solve a few of our own too!
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