A multifaceted celebration of a vibrant American community.
Eleven authors tell interconnected stories about identity and belonging in their South Asian American New Jersey community.
Each story revolves around an event at the bustling Maple Grove Community Center, a hive of cultural activities, celebrations, tournaments, and sporting events. In Mitali Perkins’ “Smile Number Seven,” Steven, an adopted boy with special needs, wants his mother to be his badminton partner. In “Out in the Open,” by Rajani LaRocca, student journalist Veda holds up a mirror to her family, forcing them to recognize the unfair burden they put on her mother. Duaa, in N.H. Senzai’s “Answered Prayers,” uses her technical savvy to save the day at a fundraiser. And, in “The Map of Home,” by Sayantani DasGupta, Munia and her band challenge racism. These middle schoolers with varied interests create a wonderful mosaic representing a diverse community. Readers learn that the community center is in danger of being shut down because some people oppose both its activities and “the people who use it.” The stories explore the idea of who belongs and examine thorny issues, including gender roles, domestic violence, and racism. Though the stories only feature characters of Indian or Pakistani heritage, there’s a richness of regional representation (including Gujarati, Maharashtrian, South Indian, and Bengali), as well as religious diversity (such as Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Sikh). Families with single and divorced parents, multigenerational households, and blended families also appear. Final art not seen.
A multifaceted celebration of a vibrant American community. (author bios) (Anthology. 9-12)Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780316450634
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
During a school year in which a gifted teacher who emphasizes personal responsibility among his fifth graders ends up in a coma from a thrown snowball, his students come to terms with their own issues and learn to be forgiving. Told in short chapters organized month-by-month in the voices of seven students, often describing the same incident from different viewpoints, this weaves together a variety of not-uncommon classroom characters and situations: the new kid, the trickster, the social bully, the super-bright and the disaffected; family clashes, divorce and death; an unwed mother whose long-ago actions haven't been forgotten in the small-town setting; class and experiential differences. Mr. Terupt engineers regular visits to the school’s special-needs classroom, changing some lives on both sides. A "Dollar Word" activity so appeals to Luke that he sprinkles them throughout his narrative all year. Danielle includes her regular prayers, and Anna never stops her hopeful matchmaking. No one is perfect in this feel-good story, but everyone benefits, including sentimentally inclined readers. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-73882-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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