My Dadima Wears a Sari

My Dadima Wears A Sari
By Kashmira Sheth

This is a beautiful book about an extended conversation a young girl has with her Dadima (grandmother) about the usefulness (some of it imaginary) and personal history of Dadima's saris.  The book has a playful, tender tone, and my daughter has taken a liking to it.  She now keeps asking me if she can wear a sari.  I tell her we'll have to wait until her dadi comes to town, so she can dress GG in it.  Incidentally, my daughter's dadi does not wear a sari every day or even most days.  But she does wear them sometimes (she wears a salwar kameez most days).  The story illustrates a nice perspective of a young girl who is not surrounded by people wearing saris everyday (in the U.S.), but who is close to her grandmother who does wear one.  She is intimately familiar with her grandmother's saris, yet her grandmother has a lot to teach her about them.  I plan to check out other Sheth books, including her chapter books for older kids.

Bonus from book:  While she was playing by herself yesterday, I heard G discussing the Gir Jungle that is mentioned in the book.

Book reviews of children's books

I am always on the lookout for kid's books that reflect parts of our family - my Indian born husband, my midwestern, U.S. born self, and our daughter, midwestern-born, part Indian, part American, part Indian, part white.  If I see an author of a kid's book with an Indian sounding name, I check it out from the library without even reading it first.  Now that we're settled in a midwestern small town, it feels essential to bulk up the Indian part of our experience/selfhood as a family because the white, American side gets a lot of exposure and becomes the only normalized experience if we're not careful.  I am looking for books.  Books about Indian families, books that reflect multiracial/multiethnic families (whether or not one parent depicted is either Indian or white).  So far, most of the books with Indian familes have two Indian parents (which I recognize is the case for most kids of Indian parents).  My quest continues, and I figure if I can throw enough good literary influences at her, she'll develop a richer curiosity and experience than she otherwise would have.

So here goes. . .another blog.  Let's chat about kid's books.