The Bad Smell Hotel
The Bad Smell Hotel is my first-ever book for children (8 and older), and is especially dear to me for another reason - our daughter Leela and I wrote it together! During the first lockdown of 2020, we would take a daily walk around our neighbourhood and add a bit to the story, and this is the funny, farty book it turned into.
Leela and Rajorshi Chakraborti
Cover Description:
It’s 2050, and the world of Jerry, Aina and Dr Winnie Ngata is very different from ours. Most humans have an easy life. There are robots to make you a smoothie, take your avatar on a VR tour of any city you like, or bring anyone you’re missing as a hologram in front of you.
But why are more and more people checking in to bad smell hotels?
What is causing them to fart so much that they can’t live with their families anymore? And what on earth is a Fartbit?
The Bad Smell Hotel is a story to make you laugh and make you think, by Wellington father–daughter writing team Leela (11) and Rajorshi Chakraborti (a bit older), and illustrated by Dan Mills.
The Bad Smell Hotel is now available in New Zealand bookstores and on websites. If you're elsewhere, you can order a copy here, directly from the publisher.
Here’s an article I wrote based on a chat Leela and I had about our book, and you can listen to a conversation about it that we had on Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan at RNZ National, which also marked Leela’s radio debut.
Reviews of The Bad Smell Hotel:
"This father and daughter creation sets out to make you laugh and it succeeds. It is aimed at primary and Intermediate readers […] Set in the year 2050 when some people cannot stop farting and society takes up the challenge and confines them all to bad smell hotels where the inmates all wear breathing apparatus to fend off the evil smells. Why has this come to pass? [...] Read this very funny book and find out.” - Bob’s Books Blog, New Zealand
"This daughter and dad team began to put this story together on walks during NZ’s Covid lockdown in 2020. Each day after their walk they would make notes and changes until their story had finally come together.
The Bad Smell Hotel is a quick and funny read for ages 8 up. The narrator talks directly to the reader, telling the story of two twenty-somethings discovering each other, a solution and a much happier life. It’ll make you wonder what might be in store for us in the future. Will we have to start wearing a Fart-Bit?" - WhatBookNext.com
“There are lots of humorous scenes that emerge from this plot set-up eg. people needing to wear expensive smell-protection headsets. Young readers will have fun with the frequent use of the word “fart”. My favourite is the “fartbit” that measures people’s emissions. Added to this jokey theme there is also the imaginative descriptions of the world in 2050 – more laughs in store. This book will be very popular with primary and intermediate-aged readers – but beware if you are thinking of reading it aloud...” - KidsBooksNZ
“It’s comforting to think of the father/daughter duo who wrote The Bad Smell Hotel extracting this futuristic slice of fun and farting from our own lockdowns, spicing up their daily walks, and revealing the secret to (intestinal) wellbeing along the way.” - The Sapling