Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship

Chitra Soundar's Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship is a clever, gentle collection for 8 year olds about a young prince and a farmer's son who end up running a royal court.

What happens

Prince Veera is ten. His best mate Suku won a scholarship to study with him at the palace. Their favourite game is spying on the king's court from behind the golden curtains.

So when King Bheema falls ill, the boys offer to hold court for him. They get the courtyard, four guards and a very long queue.

People bring them all sorts of problems. One man wants his neighbour to stop following his cow around collecting the dung. A sweet-maker says a poor farmer should pay him for smelling his sweets! And later a man sells his neighbour a well, then tries to charge for every bucket of water drawn from it.

The boys have to think fast and be fair. Their answers are properly clever, and half the fun is trying to work out the trick before Veera does.

Each tale is short and complete, so it's lovely for bedtime. Some are funny and some are a bit more thoughtful. In one, the king himself nearly sends a poor man to prison for spreading bad luck, and it's Veera who stands up and tells him he's wrong. That's a great one to talk about afterwards.

The friendship is the heart of it. The boys tease each other constantly (Suku's jokes are terrible). But when a greedy moneylender takes Suku away to do chores until his dad's debt is paid, Veera is off to teach the man a lesson straight away.

And there's SO much food. Laddus, jalebis, crunchy mango pickles, aloo paratha. Your reader will probably finish it hungry.

If you've got a reader who likes a puzzle with a funny answer, or a quick story that's done in one sitting, this is a real gem.

What to read next

If they're hungry for more, try The Curious Case of the Sweet and Spicy Sweetshop. It's set around the only sweetshop in a village called Vasantnagar, with its trays of pedas, orange jalebis and pink watermelon barfi.