Gangamma's Gharial

Book excerpt: ‘There was a swish of a tail and for the first time in more than seventy years, the bazaar at Giripuram was Gangamma-less.’ At the ripe old age of seventy-nine and a quarter, Gangamma the gardener comes across a rather unusual object—a gharial-shaped earring that can take her anywhere in the world. On her very first trip, she tries to kidnap an apple tree, only to discover that it has a guardian—a sullen twelve-year-old girl, and an unlikely friendship springs between the two. But that’s only the beginning of this story . . . or well, the middle, depending on how you look at it. This book is no teleporter, but it will transport you (whether you’re twelve or seventy-nine) to a fabulous (as in, fable-like) land of strange creatures and odd heroes, and where things are never what they seem.