‘Endless Journey’ for adventure fans

Young book lovers are set to have some adventurous experiences, at least that's what the new book Endless Journey promises.

The book, released a few days ago by women's chess grandmaster Tania Sachdev and teenage tennis star Ankita Bhambri, narrates how Nikki, a 12-year-old-girl, copes with adverse circumstances and comes out with flying colours.

Written by G. S. Dutt, Director, All India Management Consulting Organisation, and published by Wisdom Tree, this is the first of a six-book series.

Introducing the protagonist and the book's main theme to the audience, Mr Dutt expressed the hope that the other books in the series will also be popular.

This is his second foray into children's literature. He had earlier penned Red Giant and the Little Girl for children, published by Macmillan. He has also written a book of Urdu ghazals, Dil Aaur Nazar, published both in Urdu and Hindi.

Endless Journey depicts how Nikki witnesses a murder of a female co-passenger in a cruise liner while travelling along with her teacher and fellow students. When she tells the ship's captain that she can recognise the "killer" a cat and mouse game begins between the murderer and and Nikki.

Mr Shobit Arya, publisher of Wisdom Tree, said: "The reading habits of Indians are fast changing and we want to play a pro-active role." About the marketability of books for young adults, he says: "There is room for two million books in the young adult segment in India and the numbers will double in the next three years." Speaking on the occasion or the book release, Ankita said: "The book reminded me of my childhood days when I used to read Enid Blyton's Famous Five adventure series."

Tania said whenever she lost in her game, she found books, like a friend, helping her to get back her self-confidence and rejuvenate her. Both the teenage players read out excerpts from the book at the launch ceremony.

Other books of this series that would soon follow are The Spirit, Murder at the Crescent Point, The Missing Girl, The Girl with a Gun and Someone Shadowing Me.

— UNI

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