MY AMMA'S WHITE STONE MOOKUTHI

Little Bose loves his mother’s mookuthi, the Tamil word for an ornament that many Indian women wear in their noses.

The stone reminds Little Bose of beautiful things in his life, like morning dew or a star in the sky. Most importantly, though, the mookuthi reminds Little Bose of how much his mother loves him. Amma’s mookuthi sparkles all day long: when she wakes Little Bose up in the morning, when she drinks her filter coffee, when she comforts Little Bose during a nighttime thunderstorm. One winter day, however, for an unexplained reason, Amma stops wearing her mookuthi. Little Bose is heartbroken. That night, Amma takes him outside and shows him the moon, which, she says, is a mookuthi that shines on their family always. The book’s text and illustrations cleverly incorporate aspects of middle-class South Indian life, including filter coffee, kanchivaram saris, and jackfruit trees. In the pictures, most of the characters are light skinned, which does not reflect the wide variety of dark skin tones typical of rural Tamil Nadu, where the family lives. The story does not have much of a plot, and the text is, at times, both overwritten and too sentimental. While the author’s note explains that the book is about grief, the only loss the protagonist obviously suffers is that of his mother’s mookuthi.

There are few enough U.S. picture books about South Indian families; it’s a shame this one is so weak.