Sayantani DasGupta
Photo by Chris X. Carroll
Sayantani DasGupta trained in pediatric medicine and now teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at Columbia University. The Serpent’s Secret is her debut, middle-grade novel. When she’s not writing or reading, Sayantani spends time watching cooking shows with her trilingual children and her black Labrador retriever, Khushi.
MFOB FEATURED BOOK: The Serpent’s Secret (ages 8-12)
On the morning of her 12th birthday, Kiranmala is just a regular sixth grader living in Parsippany, New Jersey . . . until her parents mysteriously vanish and a drooling Rakkhosh demon slams through her kitchen, determined to eat her alive. Turns out there might be some truth to her parents’ fantastical stories—like how Kiranmala is a real Indian princess and how she comes from a secret place not of this world. To complicate matters, two crush-worthy princes ring her doorbell, insisting they’ve come to rescue her. Suddenly, Kiran is swept into another dimension full of magic, winged horses, moving maps, and annoying, talking birds. There she must solve riddles and battle demons all while avoiding the Serpent King of the underworld and the Rakkhoshi Queen in order to find her parents and basically save New Jersey, her entire world, and everything beyond it.
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Dasgupta draws her inspiration from Bengali stories, which lends the fantasy a unique spin. But the language truly brings two places to life: The Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers and Kiranmala’s house in Parsippany, New Jersey, and while the majority of the magic takes place in the Kingdom, Dasgupta manages to make New Jersey surprisingly interesting.
To find her parents and, well, preserve her world and all beyond it, she has to navigate puzzles, fight demons, and stay away from the Serpent King of the Underworld and the Rakkhoshi Queen.