Shabnam Minwalla has spent most of her life with words—editing
her school magazine, working as a journalist with the Times of India and
writing non-fiction. Her fi rst book, The Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street, was
critically acclaimed and won the Rivokids Parents’ and Kids’ Choice Award.
Apart from the Nimmi series, her books for younger readers include The
Shy Supergirl, Lucky Girl and When Jiya Met Urmila (Winner, Neev Book
Award). Her books for young adults include What Maya Saw (nominated
for the Crossword Book Award, the Neev Book Award and the Peekabook
Award), Saira Zariwala Is Afraid (Winner, AttaGalatta Bangalore Lit Fest
Award), Murder at Daisy Apartments and Zen (both winners, AutHer Award for
Children’s Book of the Year).
Shabnam has also written short stories in a number of anthologies, a stack of
picture books and a non-fi ction book, Colaba.
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Teenagers Paromita Mehta, Nihal Advani, Darius Engineer and Sunidhi Menon all fall sick with chicken pox at the same time. Stuck at home and with each other, they form the Chicken Pox Club. The summer workshop on detection and investigations the three of them had signed up for is closed to them now, so they decide to do some detecting on their own. They don’t need to look far for a mystery to solve. A week back, their neighbour, Sandra Saldanha, poet and Eng Lit professor, had fallen to her death from her balcony, straight into their apartment’s swimming pool.
The Chicken Pox Club starts digging into Sandra’s past—her students from years ago, her book of poetry, her close friends who knew her like no one else. The clues range from a cryptic note that leads them to an eerie cemetery, and a poem that makes no sense. Doggedly, they pursue the leads, till they realize that a deeply twisted and dangerous mind is at work here—someone who will go to any lengths to keep a deadly, long forgotten secret hidden forever…
