By: Jaxon Lee
Some authors chase trends. Jennifer Hashmi does the opposite. She writes from a place most modern children’s fiction has forgotten, a place where kindness is a kind of power, and where a hidden archipelago in the sky still has lessons to teach a noisy world below.
Hashmi is the author behind the Sonny, Gogo, and Tobo series, including the most recent installment, The Adventures of Sonny Gogo and Tobo: An Epilogue, and the companion fantasy The Ruby Ring and the Black Knight. Her stories drop readers into Pongoland, Maridoland, Beldeena, and the other floating islands of an archipelago that her young hero, Sonny, first stumbles into at age seven. By the time readers meet a grown-up Sonny in the Epilogue, the world has grown with him.
A Writer Shaped By Two Countries
To understand the books, it helps to understand the woman who wrote them. Born in Bradford in 1938, Hashmi trained as a speech therapist, studied theology, and then, in 1964, boarded a ship to India. She lived in Delhi for forty-one years, married Professor Salman Hashmi of the University of Delhi, raised a son and daughter, and only returned to Britain in 2005. Today she writes from London, surrounded by her grandchildren.
That long arc, England, India, and back again, quietly runs through every island she invents.
Why Pongoland Exists in Her Own Words
Asked what pulled her toward this particular world, Hashmi speaks plainly.
“I wanted to build a place where children could think,” she explains. “Not a place without trouble, trouble is half the fun, but a place where the trouble is solved by being clever, being fair, and being kind. That isn’t old-fashioned to me. That feels urgent.”
She is direct about the contrast she draws between Earth and the islands. In the new Epilogue, her hero Sonny reflects on a world “recklessly destroying its eco-system” and choosing luxury for the few over the work of the many. Hashmi does not pretend the parallel is accidental.
“I wrote those passages because I believe them,” she says. “Children notice everything. They notice when the world around them doesn’t add up. I wanted to give them a world that does add up, bartering instead of buying, clean air instead of factories, leaders who actually listen. Not as a fantasy escape, but as a question. Why couldn’t ours look more like this?”
Choice, Not Magic, at the Heart of the Series
Readers expecting wand-waving will find something else. Hashmi’s magic is gentler. Owls carry travelers between islands. A wise woman, Mother Fulati, heals with herbs and intuition. A young hero learns that growing up means making harder choices, not flashier ones.
“Magic in these books is wisdom,” Hashmi says. “It is patience and the ability to see what other people miss. Mother Fulati is the heart of everything I believe about how the world should work. She listens. She tells the truth gently. She trusts people to grow.”
The Epilogue takes Sonny into adult territory, duty, partnership, finding the right person, and learning what real responsibility costs. Hashmi handles all of it without lecturing.
Why She Keeps Writing
At 87, Hashmi shows no sign of stopping. Alongside the Sonny books, she has produced poetry, a spiritual diary, and a translation of Le Grand Meaulnes from the French.
“Writing keeps me curious,” she says. “Every story asks me a question I haven’t answered yet. The islands are still teaching me things. I think that is why readers stay. They can feel that I’m still learning too.”
For families looking for fiction that respects a child’s intelligence and adults quietly hoping a book might restore something, Hashmi’s archipelago is waiting. Readers can find her full catalog, including the new Epilogue, on Jennifer Hashmi’s official author website.
Some authors chase trends. Jennifer Hashmi built a world that waits, patiently, for readers to find their way to it.
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