Thirst

Varsha Bajaj's Thirst is a gripping Mumbai story for 10 year olds about a girl who sees something she shouldn't, one hot night by the railway tracks.

What happens

Minni lives by the sea, in a yellow house on a street painted like a rainbow. There's water everywhere she looks. Hardly any of it comes out of her tap.

Her family shares one tap with the neighbours, and it only runs for a couple of hours in the morning and one in the evening. Ma is up at dawn to fill the buckets. The queues get so tense that fights break out, and a gentle neighbour comes home with a bandage round his head.

Then Minni, her big brother Sanjay and their friends get a ride in a brand-new Mercedes (moonroof and all!). While the driver pops out, the boys sneak across the tracks to look at a water tanker. It's filling up from the city's pipeline. Someone is stealing the water.

A man with a scar grabs Sanjay. The boys get away just ahead of a train, but the man has seen them. And soon his boss is asking about them...

It's very tense, but it's full of warm, funny family moments too. Sanjay calls her Minni Meow and tries to pinch the last of her potatoes. Ma cuts one precious Alphonso mango into four and keeps the smallest piece for herself. You really feel how much this family loves each other.

Minni writes poems in her notebook to untangle her thoughts. She asks questions about everything. Why does one building have a swimming pool on the roof when her street has one dribbling tap? It's a very fair question!

It does get serious. The threats are real, the family has to make a painful choice to keep Sanjay safe, and Ma is unwell. For a child who worries a lot about their own family, that might need talking through together. For a reader who likes stories about real places and real problems, it's a brilliant one. It'll probably make them think twice about leaving the tap running!

And there's courage in it that isn't about being fearless. Minni's dad always says that if you invite trouble, it'll stay for chai and dinner. Minni has to decide whether she can keep her head down.

What to read next

If they're after another brave kid making their way in Mumbai, Ajay and the Mumbai Sun is in the library too. Ajay sells newspapers on the station platforms and dreams of being a real reporter.