Reviewed by:
Michael Thal
Genre:
Fantasy/Magic/Children's Fiction
Approximate
word count:
65-70,000
words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes &
Noble, or Smashwords store
Author:
Born and raised in
India, Gita V. Reddy earned a Master’s degree in Mathematics from
Hyderabad University in 1985. She worked for the State Bank of
Hyderabad as a Probationary Officer for 26 years. In 2011 she retired
and pursued a career as an author. Reddy writes for middle-grade
readers and some of her books include Cinderella’s
Escape and The
Missing Girl.
Description:
Nine-year-old Tara
is a poor little rich girl ignored by her parents. Her father is a
rich industrialist and her mother a generous philanthropist. When
Tara’s birthday nears, all she wants is to spend quality alone time
with her mom and dad, so she chooses a cruise as her birthday gift.
She figures that way her parents will be far away from their minions
and phones. Unfortunately for Tara, her folks bring their work with
them. So when a storm rocks her ship, Tara is in hiding in hopes of
teaching her family a lesson. However, fate has other plans, and Tara
is jettisoned alone in a lifeboat that ends up on the shores of Giant
Land.
In Giant Land Tara
meets people that look similar to humans, but they dwarf us in size.
She is no bigger than a thumb. The cast of characters, to name a few,
includes Cheetaka, Queen of the Purple Mountains Land, her seven
year-old son, Montek, Aaloma, a wise and aged giant, and Mamahak, an
evil magician.
The basic plot is
about Tara’s adventures with best friend Montek and Giant Land’s
infiltration of evil by the hapless King Druaka and his son, Trimo,
who uses evil magic in an attempt to conquer the world. Naturally,
everything leads to Tara’s final quest to return to her home world.
Appraisal:
On her website,
Gita V. Reddy claims her target audience are children from 8-14. With
that in mind, Reddy keeps her sentences short and simple, a huge plus
for reluctant readers. However, her novel, Cheetaka,
Queen of the Giants,
is 214-pages long. Too often the author goes off on tangents that
don’t really push the plot forward.
Though she has written an action
packed book some middle school children would love, I felt there was
too much gratuitous violence.
It was obvious
that Cheetaka
was self-published. A good editor would have cut out unnecessary
scenes and rambling narration. Also, books for children are about
children. They have a problem and they work out that problem with
other children. Adults are just props that give little or no
feedback. In Cheetaka,
Tara feels more like a secondary character overwhelmed by the wise
Queen of the Giants who solves most of her problems for her.
A good writer
shows her audience the plot as it develops. Though Reddy did this to
some extent, she resorted to meandering narration rather than focused
dialogue and scene descriptions. Too often I had to go back and
re-read the scene to figure out where it took place, and frequently
could not find the answer to my search.
Format/Typo
Issues:
None
noted.
Rating: ** Two Stars
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