Enter the World of Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond with The Serpent's Secret

The Serpent’s Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond, Book 1)
written by Sayantani Dasgupta
illustrations by Vivienne To
published by Scholastic (2018)
Next Installment: The Game of Stars, February 2019

“I guess every kid whose family is from somewhere else thinks their parents are weird.”

It’s not often that the cover of a book totally and completely sells me on it. Yes, it’s true that we often judge books by their covers, but I don’t usually fall head over heels about a book until I’ve at least read it.

The cover to The Serpent’s Secret had me at hello. I mean, just look at it. What’s not to love? Beautifully illustrated? Check. Fearsome (yet intriguing) snake monsters? Check. A goofy demon eating the barcode on the back cover? Check. A badass female protagonist striking a hero pose with a bow and arrow? Check. A front-and-center protagonist who’s a young woman of color? Check.

It’s not an understatement to say that the actual book itself had a lot to live up to. So, does it?

In so many ways, yes.

I knew it would with the very first sentence: “The day my parents got swallowed by a rakkhosh and whisked away to another galactic dimension was a pretty craptastic day.” Oh yeah, it totally starts out on the right foot.

Kiranmala is a fairly normal 6th grader living in New Jersey. She goes to school, she has friends, and her parents are as normal as can be (in the eyes of a tween). All in all, there’s very little out of the ordinary to report. Until her 12th birthday.

That’s the craptastic day her parents got swallowed by a demon. This demon, to be exact…

That’s also the day she discovers why her parents kept calling her “princess” and that her parents aren’t really her parents. She also gets caught up in an interdimensional game of cat and mouse with two princes who alternate between driving her crazy and making her swoon.

Craptastic day, indeed.

“Since I’ve met you, my house has been destroyed, my parents have disappeared, I’ve almost been eaten by a tantruming transit officer, then practically got arrested for stealing someone’s moustache . . . I got beaned with guava seeds by a delusional bird, and pretty near got devoured by your demon mother.”

That should give you some idea of the wild ride Kiranmala has in this book.

Sayantani Dasgupta’s debut novel has been an out-of-the-gate success (the second book in the series is coming early next year), and it’s sure to be a hit with readers in the 4th-7th grade range.

By infusing the story with both familiar and potentially unfamiliar elements, Dasgupta has crafted a story with staying power. Kiranmala’s “normal” life is one to which most kids can relate, but the adventure she’s thrust into is filled with mythical creatures and legendary characters – mostly from South Asian cultures.

“May you have children this ungrateful . . . so you know the intestinal agony that only your progeny can give you.”

Readers will align themselves with Kiranmala as she vents frustrations with her parents, deals with friendship woes, and secretly crushes on boys she knows are no good for her. But they’ll also encounter bloodthirsty rakkhosh, flying pakkhiraj horses, ferocious khokkosh, a demoness whose mouth contains galaxies, and the Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers.

Kiranmala’s South Asian heritage isn’t merely a layer of “flavoring” over a generic fantasy story. Thankfully. Her cultural identify is integral to who she is, where she comes from, and what’s happening to her. It’s essential to the story, and The Serpent’s Secret couldn’t exist without it.

In a book with so many twists and turns, genuine laugh-out-loud moments, and windows (both big and small) into another culture, it’s Kiranmala’s arc that is most rewarding.

We get to see her develop from a “typical” New Jersey 6th grader who, in some ways, rejects the culture of her immigrant parents into a powerful young woman who embraces her family’s history and grows to define herself with it.

Highly recommended.