RITU IN THE SUN

A young girl of South Asian descent helps her grandmother grapple with age-old assumptions about skin color.

Brown-skinned Ritu lounges in a sunny spot indoors, much to the chagrin of her traditionally attired Nani (maternal grandmother). Ritu loves the sun and doesn’t mind her tanned skin, unlike Nani, who cautions her about turning “as dark as me.” But a shift occurs one afternoon as the sun-worshipping Ritu sits with Nani and learns about her grandmother’s own childhood experiences: Nani’s mother worried about her daughter's skin darkening, and Nani felt lonely, watching the other children play. Slowly grandmother and granddaughter embrace each other’s point of view and their collective past as this simple yet powerful and empathetic tale unfolds. Hossain’s exquisitely crafted similes uplift the prose: Rotis “are pale and round and speckled with brown craters”; “aloo bhaji is like the sun, bright and hot and yellow”; and the characters’ hands are the “rich brown of henna and tea steeped just right.” Elegantly composed yet infused with a childlike sensibility, López’s vivid illustrations blend past and present beautifully as Nani’s reminiscences mingle with present day. Just as Joanna Ho’s Eyes That Kiss in the Corners (2021) celebrated East Asian heritage, this picture book will be a welcome addition to South Asian diasporic stories and will encourage age-appropriate dialogue about colorism, self-image, and beauty standards.

A joyful and tender story of building understanding and generational bonds.