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June glorious June! We bring you four fabulous chapter books for your kids this month, all expanding the horizons of South Asian Kid Lit in wonderful ways. From books based on Shakespeare and set among Indian Americans to mysteries and a nani with ninja powers!
Midsummer's Mayhem is absolutely delectable and a brilliant read for chapter book lovers. A modern-day book inspired loosely by A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, the book is about 11-year-old Mimi Mackson and her big Indian American family. Mimi loves to cook and she is great at it, much like her idol, culinary celeb Puffy Fay. Mimi is drawn into the woods behind her house by a strangely familiar song and Mimi meets Vik, who takes her to parts of Massachusetts she never knew existed. Being a mum to an eleven-year-old and aunt to a teen, my YA-spotting abilities are now at full witness and this is exactly what they love! Rajani LaRocca gets under the skin of adolescents and teens. She speaks their language and pulls them into a world of 21st century enchantments, inspired by Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare and this is a wonderful way to bring Shakespeare into the mix. It also crosses so many genres - there is writing about food, relationships, and high fantasy. It has poetry, teenage drama and is deliciously current and trendy. We loved reading about the food. More than anything, we loved Rajani's admixture of teenage diction and poetic expressions. Truly a fabulous read!
A Mystery at Lili Villa is the kind of book I wish I had read when I was a girl. We all have our share of holiday reads from our childhood, including some famous children who did some dogged detective work and caught many villains. A Mystery at Lili Villa brings us three children, Arj and his sister Mira, and their cousin Tam. Tam lives in Bangalore but she comes to visit her cousins in Elathoor in a large house that they call Lili Villa, with its coconut trees, sprawling front yards, secret rooms and passages. The children have a great time being children - arguing over science projects, waking up late during the holidays, getting into fights and making up almost immediately, visiting libraries, and of course, eating some delicious food prepared by Pitamma. It is truly delightful to read about hot Puttu and spicy brown kadala, black tea, carrot cake and banana chips. We remember books we read in our childhood that described food so well that the descriptions made the book so much more appealing. This can be said of A Mystery at Lili Villa too. It really gives us an essence of a magical summer in an Indian home town.
The mystery at the heart of the book concerns Sheila Ammayi's jewels, which are stolen one day. Arj, Mira and Tam decide to bike around Elathoor looking for clues and investigating each suspect. Who is the culprit? How do the children foil the thief's plan to get away?
The children's powers of detection are both astute and spontaneous. Who is the suspect? Is it Pinching Kodavis or Dumdumchecchi, the milking lady? Is it the mean fisherwoman who starves the cat or the retired nurse who owns a luxury car? Or is it Mani with his upside-down Russian secret? Who could the thief possibly be? The book's characters are memorable and bring us a taste of Kerala. Children will love the book's riveting mystery and all the predilections that drive young children to spend unstructured summer time in the best way possible - building interesting skills, exploring their home town, and of course, making some great sibling memories together. We highly recommend the book!
Ten-year-old Aadya is a huge Ninja Nani fan and we decided to get her to review it for us. She says,
Buy this book now!
Toka Shop | Amazon India
This chapter book is about a twelve-year-old girl named Trish who can solve tough math problems and throw a mean fastball. But because of her mom's new job, she's now facing a summer trying to make friends all over again in a new town. That isn't an easy thing to do, and her mom is too busy to notice how miserable she is.
But at her first baseball practice, Trish realizes one of her teammates is Ben, the sixth-grade math prodigy she beat in the spring Math Puzzler Championships. Everyone around them seems to think that with their math talent and love of baseball, it's only logical that Trish and Ben become friends, but Ben makes it clear he still hasn't gotten over that loss and can't stand her. To make matters worse, their team can't win a single game. But then they meet Rob, an older kid who smacks home runs without breaking a sweat. Rob tells them about his family's store, which sells unusual snacks that will make them better ballplayers. Trish is dubious, but she's willing to try almost anything to help the team.
The book hooked my daughter and nephew. They loved reading about the baseball, about math, and the characters are lively and exciting. The book is inspired by Much Ado About. Nothing by William Shakespeare and combines summer reading, baseball and school life with magic.
