A New Novel!

True Genius

Summary:

Siblings Sameera and Sahil Chacko, at thirteen and eleven years old, are expecting a great summer, having the time of their lives at the summer camp and doing what they love. Sameera is going to science camp, and she’s excited to try new experiments and learn new things. Meanwhile, her brother will be out on the fields for sports camp.

But on the first day of camp, Sameera learns crucial information about her father, whom she doesn’t know. She and Sahil go on an adventure with twists and turns that they never expected to take in search of their father’s story. But when Sahil goes missing, Sameera realizes something is fishy. As she attempts to uncover the mystery and grapple with everything that’s going on in their life, she discovers a shocking truth that will change her life forever.

In this novel, a pair of siblings stumble across an unexpected mystery involving their family’s past and learn new things about themselves and each other.

Why I wrote this book…

First off, I write books mainly because I have many ideas in my head that I think would be neat to transform into stories. At first I didn’t know where to start or what kind of story I was going to write, but I knew what I wanted my title to be. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to write some sort of an adventure story. I came up with two characters that I could work with. One being a sensible teenager and the other her clumsy younger brother. I gave them simple characteristics such as Sameera being a science nerd and Sahil being a sports fan. I first thought of revolving the story around a summer camp and how their interests towards science and sports lead them on an adventure to discover more about themselves.

At the time I was writing this book, I was watching many TV shows/movies and reading many books that revolved around a family with a single parent-mostly a mother. Whether it was due to the fact that the parents were divorced or one parent passed away, I didn’t completely understand their situation. I used to wonder why many stories portrayed the father figure as unimportant and how it was like not having a parent. Fortunately, I have a good family with both of my parents, but at the same time it makes it harder for me to relate to the people that only have one parent. There were a few times at my school where I came across people that only had one parent. Oftentimes I didn’t know what to say to them or how to feel about their situation because I grew up with both parents and didn’t understand what it was like for people that didn’t.

I wrote this story mainly to explore this concept of single parent families and also bring in the importance of family. I wanted to understand single parent families better and also feel more sympathetic towards them. I decided to write how it is like living with an absent parent through the eyes of a thirteen year old. Obviously everyone has different views and feelings about this topic. In my story, I didn’t want to portray the father as an unimportant figure because I know that fathers are very important in the lives of their children. They work so hard to support their families, especially their children. The children may not realize the hard work and effort their fathers put into in order for them to have a good life like my characters did, but the journey they went through helped them learn a lot about why their father wasn’t involved in their lives. That’s why in this story, I tried to portray the struggles and hardworking side of the father as the reason why he couldn’t fully be involved in his children’s lives. Through these characters, I got to share my understanding of this topic much better and also added my own twist to make it a unique and unforgettable experience. Hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Here are some interesting and meaningful quotes from my book:

Unknown: Don’t tell your mom this, but I know about your real father and where he is.

Me: Stop texting me. My mom is right next to me and she will get suspicious. Tell me later.

Unknown: Your father is not who you think he is. The man pretends to be your father.

"Your mom went through a lot of trouble so that you don’t grow up feeling like you never had a father. She told us how important a father figure was in one’s life."

"She wanted you to have a father so much that she didn’t think about how it would affect you once you figured out the truth."

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