We invited Savita Kalhan to tell us about her book That Asian Kid winning the Warwickshire 9 Book Award this winter. Here is what she told us...
When I was told that That Asian Kid had just won the Warwickshire 9 Book Award, I was absolutely delighted!
The award is voted on by Year 9 students across schools in Warwickshire, organised by the Warwickshire School Library Service (SLS). The SLS do amazing work promoting reading for pleasure and getting books into the hands of teenagers.
What makes winning this award very special is the fact that Year 9s loved the book! Jeevan and his story gripped them and resonated with them.
That Asian Kid is about fifteen year old Jeevan. He’s got great friends, enjoys school and he loves life. He’s can be a bit of a smart-aleck, which gets him into trouble with one particular teacher – Mrs. Greaves, his English teacher. Jeevan is an A star student in every subject apart from English, but he suspects Mrs. Greaves, of unfairly marking him down on purpose. His best friends, Dread and Sandi, think he’s over-reacting, and even if it is true, they say that there is nothing Jeevan can do about it.
Jeevan has to get an A star in English so that his parents let him study English at A Level. His sister Shanti is studying medicine at Oxford, so there is a lot of pressure on Jeevan.
Walking home from school one day, Jeevan takes the short-cut through the woods. He sees his favourite teacher Mr Green, his History teacher, and Mrs Greaves. They are talking about him, so he hides and gets his phone out to record the conversation. To his shock, the teachers’ conversation soon turns into something else when they get it on. Now Jeevan has this radioactive video on his phone, which feels like a ticking time-bomb. It’s something he could use against Mrs. Greaves. But should he upload it to the internet?
That Asian Kid has lots of history, politics and current affairs peppered throughout the book – the changes to the GSCEs, Brexit, school libraries becoming information hubs, references to racist comments made in the press and social media, and a mention of the coupons the British government gave out to encourage Indians to come to the UK to live and work in the 1950s and 60s. And there are also first crushes, and pink highlights, lots of teen banter, family, friendship, hope and courage.
Ultimately, the book is about this huge moral dilemma that Jeevan is caught in – to do the right thing, or not?
It’s hard enough to do the right thing when you are an adult who feels that a figure in authority is abusing their power, but it is so much harder when you are a kid.
So, does Jeevan do the right thing? Well, you will have to read the book to find out!
You can watch my acceptance speech on YouTube here:
Other books by Savita Kalhan include The Girl in the Broken Mirror and The Long Weekend!
Find out more on Savita’s website: www.savitakalhan.com
Follow her on twitter: @savitakalhan