Book Review: Mata di Tanah Melus

Title: Mata di Tanah Melus

Writer: Okky Madasari

Publisher: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama

First Printing 2018

192 pages

After releasing six novels, Entrok, 86, Maryam, Pasung Jiwa, Kerumunan Terakhir and the latest one was a short stories collection Yang Bertahan dan Binasa Perlahan (2017), now finally Okky Madasari launched her first children book, Mata di Tanah Melus. 

Mata di Tanah Melus is the response for Okky's restlessness. As a mother with a small little girl, I felt her, that sometimes it's a bit hard to get good books for our kids. A story that brings something. Fun, educative, but still made in line with the kids' age. English children books are a lot but once in a while we need to get Indonesian book just to introduce the kids with their own local wisdom and to date there are still not to many options for Indonesian children book that are able to capture children's heart. With the current gadget attack, it's a serious work to create a book that is able to make the kids glue to the story until finished.

Although the book stated as  children novel 5+ however I started reading it before my girls do. As a fan of Okky's works, I am curious how Okky wrote this child adventure. Would she be successful?

I guess so, it's an adventure of a little girl, Matara, who joins her mom trip to Belu, East Nusa Tenggara. One day something happens  and Mata is separate from her mother and landed in Melus Land. Here is the adventure, Mata experiences lots of incredible stuffs. She needs to be on her own and fights to survive.

Okky said that this is her first book of kids adventure and she promised to continue working on this project. Can't wait for another adventure.   

Dilan 1990

Just like others, this Dilan fever truly hits everyone from almost all level of ages. I never read the book, I thought the book was kind of teenagers' romance and I guess I am done with that kind of book genre. The reason why I watched the movie several weeks ago with my hubby and the girls was simply to celebrate our nineties moment since the movie was set back in 1990 and this was totally my hubby and I since we enjoyed our high school moment exactly during 1989-1992. Yep, I know we are old. *defensive* 

But Dilan 1990 the movie turned out to be wayyyy beyond that. Its simple yet sweet story left us smiled here and there and haunted me for several days, hahaha...I finally went to Gramedia and directly bought those three books of Dilan series and...finished all of them within a very short time *thePowerofHighCuriosity* hahaha...

The movie is very faithful to the book perhaps since the movie script writer was also the author himself Pidi Baiq. Pidi even chose the lead characters for Dilan and Milea. Although at the beginning many people doubted Iqbaal as Dilan however Pidi proved himself that he as the author knew best for the characters he created. Kudos to Pidi Baiq and also Iqbaal, his acting was awesome.

The movie took almost two hours without any extreme conflicts but it's just enjoyable. We enjoyed every scene, its absurd yet witty dialogue, the athmospere and all successfully brought us back to that highschoolers moment when your most serious problem was having a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend hahaha...

And I just found out that on its 12th day, the movie has already reached its 4 millions viewers, a big WOW. This Dilan series, the books, the movie and all teach us that something simple can leave an important mark on people's heart. As it is said that when you make something purely with your heart, the result also will easily touch other people's heart. That simple.