HYDERABAD: Nine-year-old Kavya Kompella has every reason to feel good about the pandemic lockdown. Reason? The young Telugu girl has penned a 110-pages book titled ‘The Three Adventurers at Fungalore’, which rose to the best-selling list of Amazon India from July 15 till July 30.
The book has 30 illustrations done by her which also includes the cover page of the collection.
The book was also among the hot new releases on Amazon USA, UK, and Germany in the Children’s Adventure Category.
But how did such a young child come up with a published book? Says her father Kashyap Kompella, who works in the industry of Artificial Intelligence: “Ever since the lockdown began, the schools have been temporarily shut. My daughter, after finishing her school work would feel bored. That’s when we asked her to write something out of her imagination.”
And much to the surprise of the parents, Kavya ended up writing a few chapters. She comes from a family of book lovers and loves to read mystery, adventure, and fantasy books.
Some of her favourite authors are Enid Blyton, Jeanne Birdsall (author of the Penderwicks series) and Roopa Pai.
A student at Sishu Griha School, she penned this book during the third grade summer holidays which also were during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Shares her father, “She’s been reading books from the time she was six years old. She reads so much that sometimes we have to ask her to keep the books aside, go outside and play.”
The book is about two children, Neel and Nina who are excited to go to their new school, Fungalore. This unique boarding school allows each child to bring a pet along.
They quickly settle into Fungalore with their dog Nibble, making new friends, and are also thrilled to find a talking parrot, Chatter.
The children tumble into a world of adventure along with their pets and enter a magical world of fairies, pixies, witches, and wizards.
Her father shares further, “We have plans to go for the print edition, once the situation becomes normal.”
The edition is available online on Amazon at Rs 99. It is also available in the USA, UK, Australia, and other countries for $4.99