Title: Kanmani And Co. Five Friends (and a cat) Tackle the World

Author: Lalitha Ramanathan

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Scholastic India Pvt. Ltd.

A story that transports you back to childhood, the village that you grew up in – well that’s what Kanmani And Co. does to the reader. 

Kanmani, a chirpy nine-year old lives with her loving grandparents in the village of Maaripuram. Kanmani adores her grandparents and offers to teach them to read and write. Her parents are in Chennai and though Kanmani longs to be with them, she doesn’t want to leave her grandparents and Maaripuram.

Kanmani has her bunch of friends at school – Seetha – the drama queen, Subru – the snack lover, Sreejith – the differently abled and determined, Palani – the mischief maker who enjoy their school life and have their own share of adventures in the village. Varam, a black cat also joins them and entertains us with his little mischiefs and terrorizes the villagers just because he is a black cat.

Throughout the novel, we get to see the innocence of the kids, their helping mentality and their futuristic thinking. Lalitha, the author gives us the glimpse of a serene village in Tamilnadu highlighting the simple living, temple festivals and the helpful yet gossiping villagers. 

Whether Kanmani stays back in Maaripuram or fate takes her to Chennai, aah… read until the end of the novel to find out.

For me as a reader, I was able to relate to every character as he or she resembled people who I had seen while growing up. The village setting took me on a nostalgic ride bringing back a lot of fond memories. I would rate the book 5/5 for the simple language, interesting illustrations and of course the characters that you can connect to.

Link to the book : Kanmani and Co.