A fully trained ten-year-old witch chooses to live with regular human beings. The premise itself is delightful.
Sure, you want to be a witch or a wizard. You want to do magic. But have you ever thought about the other side of the story? The magical creatures who want to be part of a regular world?
Enter Tootoolu Toop, who loves books and regularly sneaks into the cottage of an old lady nearby to “borrow” what she can. She’s forced to do this because ever since the great war, the written word has been banned in the magical world, and witches from Tootoolu’s tribe have hidden themselves underground. Is this the life Tootoolu wants for herself? Of course not!
Soon, with the help of her grandmother, she takes the big step. She leaves her tribe and goes off in search of a glum* (read non-magical) family that would be willing to adopt her.
[*I love that ‘glum’ is written with a small ‘g’. If we write ‘witch’ with a small ‘w’, why write ‘glum’ with a capital letter?]
There was just so much to love about this story! I love the setting – Darjeeling. How many stories have I read set in Darjeeling? (I can think of just two – one that was written by a child at my writers’ club, and the other is one of my own, The Toy Train!)
I love the world building. So often, children ask me if there’s no fantasy written in India apart from mythology spin-offs. More often than not, this leads to a discussion of the market and the publishing world and all of that, but that’s never satisfying. I can’t wait to recommend The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop to the children I meet!
Additionally, in a lot of children’s literature about magic, I find that the words of magical folk are influenced by Latin or Greek. They are almost understandable because of their links with English. With Tootoolu Toop, the words are almost understandable for different reasons. We have, for instance, Mie hire choo, which, translated into English, is ‘I am lost’. It’s such fun to be an insider in a magical world!
The design of the book is lovely too. There are little notes that Tootoolu’s written here and there, the font is tiny when someone whispers, the frightening sounds are huge, the illustrations are grand …
But that’s not all. I enjoyed the story. I like a villain who is truly villainous without being scary. The mystery and the darkness kept me reading, and the best thing is the fact that Tootoolu Toop just needs a friend (or two) to defeat evil forces. Isn’t that the premise of every timeless children’s tale?
| Title | The Very Glum Life of Tootoolu Toop |
| Author | Stuti Agarwal |
| Tags | Fantasy, Early Middle Grade, Adventure |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4.5 |
| Age-group | 9+ |
I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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