The first few days in a new school can be scary. Shabnam Minwalla’s The Right Way School (Pratham Books) introduces us to a disciplinarian teacher Mrs Gambhir, who punishes students should they do anything improper like ask questions in class. She shows her disappointment with a “Tcht tcht tcht”. All the students are afraid of her until one day Laila arrives, inquisitive and fearless. What is Laila’s fate going to be when she steps into Mrs Gambhir’s classroom?

Minwalla drew inspiration from her childhood. “The school I went to was quite grim. We were not encouraged to do anything beyond the straight and narrow. Asking questions was frowned upon.” She noticed that this wasn’t the case with her daughters’ school. Things fell into place for a story, with the protagonist Laila popping into Minwalla’s head with, “her hair like a palm tree in the morning”.