P.S. 276 Student Publishes Debut Novel
From Herman Melville to Toni Morrison to Augusten Burroughs, Lower Manhattan has long been home to renowned writers. Their ranks have lately been joined by Saanvi Singal, a sixth-grade student at P.S./I.S. 276, whose first novel, “Isabel Johns and the Lion of Power,” is now available at the Tribeca Barnes & Noble, as well as on Amazon.
The genesis of Saanvi’s book is rooted in the Manhattan Youth Afterschool program, which offers a filmmaking club. “After my little sister got an explorer’s costume for a birthday gift,” she recalls, “I decided to write a film script based on the character that this costume made me imagine.”
“But once I started writing,” she continues, “I eventually decided to make this a 12-chapter book, with two of my best friends as characters.” Saanvi adds that a pair of fifth-grade teachers at P.S./I.S. 276, Dawn Panebianco and Rachel Weltman, “helped me a lot. We did a Fantasy Writing Unit at school, and the planning sheets they gave showed me how to organize the story.”
“Isabel Johns and the Lion of Power” tells the story of a young girl who ventures into an enchanted forest after her school is attacked by a green, furry, feline monster. The heroine embarks on a journey of discovery, in which she must find a series of enchanted gems, which will combine to form an emblem that will help her defeat the monster and save her neighborhood.
“She finished the first chapter before she showed it to us,” recalls Saanvi’s father, Sumeet Singal. “I was amazed and engrossed by what she had written. On weekends, she would write by herself for hours. And by time she had written a few more chapters, we realized this could become a book.”
Mr. Singal and Saanvi’s mother, Shonali Gupta, did some research and came across the Society of Young Inklings, a non-profit group that mentors school-age authors, guiding them through the revision process, while also helping them publish their work. As a non-profit, the Society for Young Inklings donates to charity all royalties from the works it publishes in partnership with child writers.
Saanvi’s novel draws on her own experience in one respect. Saving your neighborhood from a monster is only slightly more daunting an ambition than publishing your first novel while still in middle school. Asked what lessons both the fictional and the real triumph hold, she reflects, “if you want to accomplish a goal that you feel is impossible, just believe in yourself and keep working hard.”
For Saanvi, the next step, “is to write a series of novels for children, with the same characters, but facing a different challenge in each new book.”
“We wanted to support her and encourage this ambition,” adds Mr. Singal. “Her mother and I are so proud of what she has accomplished.”
Mr. and Mrs. Singal, who are both investment bankers, have lived in Battery Park City since 2011, where they are raising both Saanvi and her younger sister, Saina, who is also a student at P.S./I.S. 276.
Saanvi’s advice to aspiring young authors is, “if you have an idea, just write it, because if all authors were nervous of doing that, then all our books would not be there.” She adds, “don’t give up, otherwise your hard work will have no point to it, nothing will be achieved, and it’s like you’re purposely letting yourself down.”