Book Review: Andaman Adventure—Barren Island

With an idea to introduce a unique island that has something not seen anywhere else in India—an active volcano—children’s author Deepak Dalal continues his Andaman Adventure series with Barren Island. The book takes teenaged adventurers Vikram and Aditya, protagonists of several Dalal books, to Barren Island in the Andaman as they attempt to find answers to questions raised in the first book of this series, Andaman Adventure—The Jarawa. In this first book, Vikram, Aditya and their friend Chitra cross the deep forests and waterbodies of the Andaman to escape some troublemaking characters. In Barren Island, the three characters have a different agenda; they want to find the bad guys and help bring a stop to their plot. The focus in this book is on solving the mystery rather than introducing the readers to the natural environment of the Andaman. This is a clever way of avoiding a monotonous tone through the series as the story comes to a conclusion.

The story thus continues like any good mystery for young readers, with several twists and turns that almost make you want to join our heroes and find the next clue with them. The fact that several answers are only given in the epilogue suffices to keep you engaged until the very last page.

This does not mean that the book doesn’t take advantage of its unique setting. Dalal does try, like in the first book, to provide access to a place that is otherwise hard to access. In the first book, he gives a glimpse of the Jarawa people, an elusive tribe of the Andaman that prefers to stay away from so-called modern civilisation. Here, he takes us to Barren Island, a landscape that may prove too closed off to visit even if you were to go to the Andaman. He also tries to explain volcanism in as simple a way as possible, keeping the focus on the characters and the plot rather than on the fascinating yet complex science.

The climax of the book is when chaos ensues. Without revealing too many details, it is safe to say that the story comes to an end with a bang as various characters act at once to save themselves and others from their nemesis—and from a dangerous volcanic eruption that would wipe them away without a trace.

In the end, Vikram, Aditya and Chitra are left with unforgettable memories of the Andaman, and the reader is left with an earnest desire to visit the islands at least once.