Why Not? Because I Said So Book Reviews and Author Interviews. : The Orphan Keeper: Adapted for Young Readers from the Best-Selling Novel by Camron Wright-YA Book Review

Sunday, October 2, 2022

The Orphan Keeper: Adapted for Young Readers from the Best-Selling Novel by Camron Wright-YA Book Review

Product Details

Title: The Orphan Keeper: Adapted for Young Readers from the Best-Selling Novel

Author: Camron Wright

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Shadow Mountain (October 4, 2022)
Genre: YA Children's Biography/historical fiction
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 163993054X
***I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own***

Book Summary

Seven-year-old Chellamuthu’s life—and his destiny—is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children. His family is desperate to find him, and Chellamuthu anxiously tells the Indian orphanage he is not an orphan, that he has a mother who loves him. But he is told not to worry as he will soon be adopted by a loving family in America.

Chellamuthu is suddenly surrounded by a foreign land and a foreign language. He can’t tell people that he already has a family and becomes consumed by a single, impossible question: How do I get home? But after more than a decade, home becomes a much more complicated idea as the Indian boy eventually sheds his past and receives a new name: Taj Khyber Rowland.

It isn’t until Taj meets an Indian family who helps him rediscover his culture and family history that he begins to discover the truth he has all but forgotten. Taj is determined to return to India and begin the quest to find his birth family. But is it too late? Is it possible that his birth mother is still looking for him? And which family does he belong to now?

The Orphan Keeper is a deeply moving and gripping journey about discovering one’s self and the unbreakable family bonds that connect us forever.

Book Trailor for The Orphan Keeper

Taj Rowland and Author Camron Wright

My Review

A young, mischievous boy of seven lived in a small village in India. Chellamuthu hung out with a gang of unsavory boys which eventually led to him being kidnapped and sold to an orphanage. This novel is based on the true life story of Chellamuthu, who was later named Taj Rowland by his adopted American family.

Chellamuthu's passport picture

The Orphan Keeper is the heartbreaking story of a boy who only wants to return home but finds so many obstacles in his way. As he journeys to America and becomes assimilated into a new family and life, his Indian life, memories, and self disappear.

Taj and his American brothers

Hidden deep within Taj he knows there's something there that's a clue to his past. It isn't until he's going to college in London and living with an Indian family, that memories start coming back to Taj. It's really quite amazing how little things like people's accents, certain smells, and foods are triggers for him. With divine intervention and help from family and friends, he eventually finds his family. His Indian mother never gave up hope about her son being alive and returning someday.

The first picture taken of Taj with his family in India

on the day he found them.

The Orphan Keeper is such an emotional journey for the reader as you feel the grief of a lonely boy, the heartache of a mother losing a son, and the steadfast man who longed to find his family and home. The novel is written so well and so very enthralling it's hard to put down. There are many life lessons for readers about bravery, perseverance, and never losing hope. This version of The Orphan Keeper is a great read for teens and adults. If you haven't read this novel before or it's been a long time since your first read of the original, I highly recommend this book be the next one on your list to read.

****Meet Author Camron Wright****

Camron Wright was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has a master’s degree in Writing and Public Relations from Westminster College.

He has owned several successful retail stores in addition to working with his wife in the fashion industry, designing for the McCall Pattern Company in New York.

Camron began writing to get out of attending MBA school at the time, and it proved the better decision. His first book, Letters for Emily, was a Readers Choice Award winner, as well as a selection of the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. Letters for Emily has been published in North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Korea, the Netherlands, and China.

His next book, The Rent Collector, won Best Novel of the Year from the Whitney Awards and was a nominee for the prestigious International DUBLIN Literary Award. The Orphan Keeper won Book of the Year, Gold accolades in Multicultural Fiction from Foreword Reviews, and was winner of Best General Fiction from the Whitney Awards.

His book, In Times of Rain and War (and the one he calls his most ambitious), was released in April 2021.

His newest book, The Orphan Keeper: Adapted for Young Readers from the Best-Selling Novel releases October 4, 2022.

Camron lives with his wife, Alicyn, just south of Salt Lake City at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. He is the proud father of four children, all girls but three.

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