Dolly won’t play by Monisha K Gumber : Book Review

Title      : Dolly won’t play

Author : Monisha K Gumber

Genre   : Teen

Pages    : 236

I received this Review Copy from Half Baked Beans in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Half Baked Beans and Book Marketing Consultant Richa Saxena!!

Review

Dolly won’t play is the third and the final book in the Teen series by the author Monisha K Gumber. Though it is a series, it can also be read as a standalone novel. This series deals with the life of three friends Tara, Megha and Dolly who are in their early teenage, each of these books are told from the perspective of these girl respectively. The first book Sick of being healthy is the story of Tara and there the author emphasis about the ordeal faced by teenagers because of their body shape and their desperation for being accepted by everybody, the second book Dying to Live is the story of Megha who is an overachiever and the author had beautifully portrayed the pressure faced by today’s kids to excel in academics as well as extracurricular activities. And now finally the third book Dolly won’t play is the story of Dolly, and this story is much deeper and sensitive than all her other books.

The protagonist Dolly is a teenager who has ADHD from a very young age and she is from a dilapidated family who craves for attention and love from her insensitive and discourteous father. In Dolly won’t play, the author had brought in the issue of child sexual abuse and how that affects them mentally and traumatize them forever. At the same time the author also focuses on other issues like, the effect dysfunctional families has on children and most importantly ADHD itself, how slow learning children are treated, looked down upon and bullied by fellow students as well as the teachers was said briefly. This book was a complete eyeopener at different levels.

The writing style of the author in this book was very unique and it made it much easier to read. The book was of course a page turner and face pacing. The characterization of Dolly, her familial background and what pushed her into being a victim of this horrendous act of child sexual abuse was well plotted. The way the predators will trap children into their vicious web was written brilliantly. This book would bring about awareness in kids about these horrible issues and it will help them from falling prey to these inhumane predators.

What I really liked about this book was, the relationship shared between Dolly and her mother was penned down beautifully, the way her mother supports Dolly in every aspect of her life was adorable and inspiring. It’s something every child deserves from their parents.  The best thing about this book was the illustrations done by the author. Yes it’s an illustrative novel and to be very frank the illustrations in this book was really amazing and exceptional than all the other illustrations from her previous books. These illustrations were innovative, realistic and deep. I love this book a bit more for the illustration made by the author in this book. Monisha is such a great illustrator as much a writer. And her responsibility towards teenagers is awe-inspiring. I have become a great fan of her teen book series as it would be help for innumerable amount of kids and I would suggest every teenager to read this series. There are somethings which we don’t talk about to anybody including our parents or our close friends and this book speaks about that kind of issues. And as a matter of fact these issues are very important for teenagers especially in this era. You cannot surpass these topics and this generation needs to know about them all.

I would not only suggest this books to teenagers but also to their parents, teachers and anybody who is associated with kids. As we might usually think kids don’t have problems/pressure/stress in their life as they are just kids but in reality it ain’t true. Kids these days are undergoing lots of pressure than kids some 20, 30 years back. If you are someone who doesn’t get it, then I would highly recommend you to read this book and maybe then you will understand.

In my view every school libraries should have these kind of books in their collection as it might be really helpful for the kids.

My rating for this book would be 4 / 5 stars

For writing style, plot and everything else I would have just given 3.5 or so but this four star rating is specifically for the illustrations made in the book.

Click here to buy Dolly won’t play

My book review of Book 2 : Dying to live

I hope this book would be helpful to all the kids reading it.

Happy Reading Folks!!!

~ Meenu