BONKERS!
By Natasha Sharma
Winner of the SCBWI Crystal Kite award 2014 for India, Middle East and Asia
Listed in Flipkart’s Best Children’s Books of the Year 2013.
Bonkers! features all the madness of the author’s childhood, with a house full of dogs.
Bonkers! is a hOle book, a delightful series by Duckbill publishers for younger readers.
Armaan’s new dog Bonkers is insane: he chews Armaan’s spectacles, eats up his favourite shoe and gets him into deep trouble with the school bully, TT. Between mopping, toilet training Bonkers and escaping from TT, Armaan’s life has become impossible … will it ever get back to normal?
What’s the bit about the hole? The book literally has a hole punched through it! Apart from becoming a part of the illustrations, the hole very usefully doubles up as a convenient hanging option, a stick-your-finger-through-it-spinner kind of thing, a pendant to loop through a chain around your neck and whatever else you can come up with.
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Publisher: Duckbill Books (2013) (An imprint of Penguin Randomhouse)
ISBN: 978-93-83331-02-4
Watch life lessons from Obi Singh, one of Natasha’s inspirations for a few scenes (particularly the opening scene of the book!)
Can't get enough of Bonkers? Here are activities to keep you busy!
From a Bonkers doodle to a Bonkers dog!
Bonkers! started off as my sign-off on cards while in college. Back then, I would doodle two big eyes connected by a bulbous nose (any suggestion of resemblance of the doodle’s nose to mine shall be seriously frowned upon). This would be finished off with a smile, a little tooth sticking out and a scribble saying ‘Bonkers!’
When a dear friend recalled this, I took a closer look at the Bonkers from college and the facial features of Bonkers now created by Deepti Sunder, the illustrator of the book. Deepti has given the mad mutt gigantic crazy eyes. A dog’s nose in any case leans towards being blobby. She rounded off the face with a nice doggy grin with a little tongue sticking out. Isn’t the resemblance uncanny!
Well, I say, get them books such as this one.
A large part of the book actually talks about how it’s not very easy to have a pet because of the kind of training it requires to get them to behave. And with a mind of his own, the adventures of Armaan trying to train Bonkers is hilarious. I sat and laughed a lot when I read the book. I was giggling at many of the incidents described in the book. And the descriptions are so well written, that I could imagine the scene in front of me. There is a whole chapter on deciding Bonkers’ name. That one had me in splits. Hilarious is an understatement. And of course, I loved the ending of the book.