Review: Discover Fresh New Talents!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 21, 2012
A Calm Whisper: Art Unseen, Stories Untold is an anthology of sorts put together by Akshat Singhal who also contributes some pieces to the book. It is a Youth World publication so is full of fresh young talent just waiting to be discovered. The book begins with an introduction written by Akshat Singhal, a young man who seems passionate about getting the voice of the youth out into the world, and in a Calm Whisper he does this well. His entrepreneurial side is in clear evidence and I can envision him running his own publishing company someday.The majority of contributors to this amazing anthology of work are very young adults. There's a lovely section at the end of the book that gives a short, few sentences bio about each author/artist/poet and it was superbly fun to read something or see a piece of art I fell in love with and flip to the back to read that they probably hadn't graduated high school yet. The freshness of each work is, in one word, amazing. Yes, some things can probably use more work but a true masterpiece is never really finished, is it? Also contained in the bios is the artist's email address and I encourage anyone with praise to write and tell them. I'm sure nothing would please them more than to know they were not only read and seen but appreciated as well.The first part of the book is a section of short stories that all contain a bit of tragedy laced with a twinge of, dare I say, moral irony. Some people shy away from sad stories but these aren't all doom and gloom. The sadness is never drawn out. It's a bit like when the sun goes under a cloud and there is momentarily a bit of gloom but soon the sun comes back and it becomes light again, no matter how watered down it is.  I had a couple of favorites out of them although all were lovely. One involved a young man in trouble with the law who finds a "brother" in a dying boy. The other is about a girl who befriends a strange boy, shares everything with him, even falls in love with him, only to discover he has a terrible, heart wrenching secret. The second section of the book is full of art. I am a huge lover of art in all forms and can sit and stare at a piece for ages trying to determine how the artist accomplished it. There is no shortage of such delights here as there is everything from pencil drawings to water colors to digital art to my all-time favorite, ball point pen art. There are a wide range of techniques and subjects. It's like a cornucopia for the eyes. Finally the last section is poetry, again a vast array of feelings and emotions in the works. My favorite one from this section is about 9/11 and it really struck a soft spot within me.I loved discovering the talents of these young people and it's a true joy to see such individualism, not watered down to suit the majority of today's critics. The water runs deep in this collection of work and gives me hope for the future of these wonderful new talents.