Hats, Hoods And Humiliation – Hiranya Verma – Book Review

Hats, Hoods And Humiliation – Hiranya Verma – Book Review

Title: Hats, Hoods And Humiliation

Author: Hiranya Verma

Link To Purchase: Hats, Hoods And Humiliation

Format: Kindle

Pros:

The author of this book is ten-year-old Hiranya Verma. The book deals with the problems a child might face in school and family. It presents a host of ways to handle these problems from the point of view of a child. For a child who is just ten years old, the author Hiranya Verma shows a very high degree of emotional depth in her writing. Come to think of it, as I was reading the book, at one point it crossed my mind that one or two of the tips given by the author like how to avoid holding grudges and how to deal with humiliation could come in handy even to a fifty-four-year-old man like me. Hiranya has a very imaginative mind and she uses analogies like mixing the right quantity of water and lemon while making lemonade to demonstrate one of her concepts for dealing with sadness/anger. There are solutions provided for dealing with several other problems faced by young children in school. These include how to handle bullies and how to overcome self-pity. Also included are methods to deal with people in one’s own family like mother, father, siblings, friends etc. Some of the points she has mentioned about sibling rivalry made me think of my own family where my father never had good relations with his brothers and sisters. Hiranya also touches upon how to deal with guilt and humiliation. She contends that the best way to deal with humiliation is humour. 

Regarding bullies, she feels that most often it is best to just laugh things off unless the bullying is too severe in which case it is better to complain to a teacher. She also gives us a peek into some of her own stories which are rather interesting. She also deals with things like when and why it is necessary to apologize. She mentions the endless and destructive cycle the idea of avenging oneself leads to. After each chapter, she summarizes the major points in the chapter and this comes in very handy in maintaining the clarity of the book. I was really amazed at the fluency of the English the book has been written in. This book is definitely a masterpiece considering the age of the author. The ideas presented in the book show a maturity level way beyond that of a ten-year-old child. At the end of the book, there is also a small quiz! Hiranya should definitely take up writing books in other genres. I would be happy if she tries her hand at fiction.

Cons:

There is nothing much that I can find as a drawback in this book. The only thing I would like to mention is that the author should not use so many small phrases inserted in brackets between sentences. But that is nitpicking. One has to remember that the book has been written by a ten-year-old child and I would say it really is a brilliant effort.

Conclusion:

A definite yay! Please do read this book. It will give you a peek into the mind of a budding author who has great potential to take up a career as a writer.

Rating:

I go with 4.5/5 for Hiranya Verma’s book Hats, Hoods And Humiliation. The 0.5 marks I have cut is just to let Hiranya know that there is still room for improvement and to make her strive harder in her next effort. It does not detract in any way from the merit of this book.

Rating Scale:

                    1 – Poor

                    2 – Fair

                    3 – Good

                    4 – Excellent

                    5 – Outstanding