LITTLE THIEF! CHOTA CHOR! A Picture Book Review and Giveaway

 Congratulations to Cathy Ogren who won Lulu and Rocky in Indianapolis from last week's blog.

It is my honor to present Vijaya Bodach's new picture book, LITTLE THIEF! CHOTA CHOR! (Reycraft, 2020) Vijaya is an active member of SCBWI-Carolinas and a great supporter of all things literary. Last year I reviewed her YA book, BOUND. 

REVIEW

True to "in media res," the book opens with Anjali startled awake by a strange noise. She decides to investigate.

 
She lifts the mosquito net and tries in vain to wake her mother and warn her. The floor is cooler than usual--the door must have been opened! Someone has entered their home!  Despite her fears, Anjali determines she will find the thief. 

Details of her home alert the reader to its distinctive nature: "Scrambling into the kitchen she saw that jars of pickles, chutneys, and jams stood silently on the shelves. Burlap sacks containing flour, lentils, and rice were tied closed."

When Anjali checks the front room, she is dismayed to find that her favorite sparkly skirt, some coins, and her mother's treasured silver comb are gone.

 

Anjali screams that a thief has invaded their home and quickly gathers the help of her mother, the neighbors, and the night watchman.

While her neighbors scour the street, Anjali looks for clues inside her home. She discovers that her smooth, pretty river rocks are missing and mistakenly thinks that the thief is a little girl who would treasure rocks like she does. 

Convinced that the thief is a frightened little girl, Anjali runs to her favorite hideout--the peepal tree. There she finds her sparkly skirt and is peppered by a few stones. When she looks up, she discovers the culprit!

Quick-witted, Anjali uses a banana to lure the monkey down.

With the mystery solved and her treasures returned, Anjali slips "into sweet dreams of her Chota Chor and their many adventures to come."

Nayantara Surendranath's vibrant illustrations magnify Vijaya's text. I loved how explosive they are and show Anjali's emotions as well as the events and the setting. Did you catch the bananas on Anjali's pajamas? Great artistic touch.

Coincidentally, while I was preparing this review I was in the middle of Daniel David Wallace's Plot Summit. I listened to Joseph Nassise describe how to use the character's emotional journey to connect to the reader. Although Nassise used novels as examples, LITTLE THIEF! CHOTA CHOR! fit his points too: A little girl has a problem that she reacts to emotionally, she tries and fails to resolve that problem, but ultimately finds the final piece to the puzzle and solves the mystery.

I also listened to Michelle Schusterman's talk about writing middle-grade mysteries. I think the rocks are a great example of a red herring. 

Make sure you read Vijaya's backstory behind writing this terrific multi-cultural picture book!

GIVEAWAY

One fortunate reader will win this book. Please leave me a comment by October 30 along with your email address if you are new to my blog. One of you has been leaving comments from "Unknown." Please leave your name and contact information to be entered in the giveaway. United States addresses only. 

Orchards: A Review and a Giveaway

This is a two-for-one week as I review and give away two books on the theme of bullying which Joyce Hostetter and I tackle in the spring issue of Talking Story.

From the number of novels-in-verse that I review, you may guess this is a genre close to my heart. Ever since I was in high school and poured my heart out in free verse, I've admired this genre. But there is more than a world apart from my attempts and beautifully written novels such as THE GOOD BRAIDER, BLUE BIRDS, CRAZY, THE KISS OF BROKEN GLASS. I am consistently impressed with these authors' ability to tell well-plotted stories using succinct, figurative language.

Let's add ORCHARDS by Holly Thompson to this list.  

(Please note that the line spacing in the following excerpts are not an exact replica of the book's poems. I had difficulty formatting these poems for this blog.)

Half-Japanese, half-Jewish American, Kana Goldberg is sent to her mother's ancestral home in Japan for the summer. A bullied eighth grade classmate (Ruth) committed suicide at the end of the school year and although Kenna wasn't the bully, she didn't stop it from happening. Working in her mother's ancestral mikan orange grove, she deals with her anger, guilt and grief and comes home a stronger young woman.

because of you, Ruth
I'm exiled
to my maternal grandmother, Baachan,  

to the ancestors at the altar 

and to Uncle, Aunt and cousins 

I haven't seen in three years-- 

not since our last trip back 

for Jiichan's funeral 

when Baachan  

told my sister Emi 

she was just right 

but told me I was fat 

should eat

less fill myself eighty percent 

no more each meal

                    but then I was small
                    then I didn't have hips
                    then was before this bottom inherited from my father's 

Russian Jewish mother  (p.9)

Initially, Kana experiences problems fitting in.

I try to learn fast 

make up for my 

non-Japanese half 

but Uncle makes  

remarks like after I set the breakfast table-- 

how are we supposed to eat... 

with our hands?

I rush to set out chopsticks...  

seconds  

too late

they seem to think 

I can just switch

          one half of me
       on and leave the other 
       half of me 
       off but I'm like
       warm water
       pouring from a faucet
       the hot
       and cold
       both flowing
       as one (p. 24-5)

In Japanese school, Kana tries to reach out to a girl she perceives is an outsider, because that's what her school counselor had said she and her friends should have done for Ruth. 

but instead of opening up to me 

instead of warming to me 

instead of reaching out 

in return
she pivots 

and walks away.
after that 

not everyone is so eager 

to get to know this New Yorker not everyone so hot 

to try their English 

I don't care 

groups don't matter 

so much to me now 

maybe because I know 

most atoms aren't as stable

as they seem (p. 53-54)

She has a negative opinion of her deceased grandfather, but when she realizes he was operating out of his own hurt over her mother's leaving Japan, she recognizes there are two sides to every story.

I think 

there must be at least 

two sides 

to your story, too, Ruth,
and maybe knowing 

more of Lisa's side

          how she lived 
       with her godparents
       not her parents
       who were I don't know where
       might help explain
       why she was so mean to you

       and why we all 
       followed 
       her lead (p.96)

When school ends Kana works long days in the family orchard. There she thinks about Ruth:

everyone knows 

Lisa didn't mean it 

everyone knows 

when a person says certain things 

they don't mean the words 

they say 

really

in the note you left 

for your parents

         and brother
      you said
      life was too hard
      they could never know
      what it was like
      for you at school
      where you were ostracized                           
                                 left out                           
                                 despised

and where 

just that day 

in front of all us girls 

after Jake handed you 

a piece of paper 

Lisa had given you 

a look  

and said 

I hope you die

I saw you glare  

at Lisa 

hard, I thought 

mean, I thought 

bitch we all said

hurt, I now realize 

as you crumpled that note into a  

tiny ball that was still 

in your jeans pocket

         when you were found in Osgood's orchard (p.110-111)

Kana's grief doesn't stop there; her world continues to painfully unravel. But by the time she returns to New York she has found a new home with her mother's family and a new way to go on living. 





Joyce Hostetter and I are giving away this book in conjunction with Talking Story's current issue on bullying. You can leave a comment either here, or through the newsletter. Do both, and your name will be entered twice. 

Turning On a Dime- A Review and a Giveaway!

Time travel. The Civil War. Multi-cultural. Horses. Romance. There aren't many books that fit such a wide variety of categories--but Turning on a Dime by Maggie Dana does just that.

Samantha DeVries' father is Lucas DeVries, a third-generation American of Dutch descent and master horseman; her mother, Gretchen, is an African American and a history buff who has traced her family's lineage back to 1875.

Caroline Chandler is the daughter of a plantation owner in Mississippi who prefers her brother’s riding breeches to petticoats and pantalettes. But in spite of her tomboyish interests, she has lived within the boundaries of privilege and mid-19^th century decorum. Soon after the story begins, Caroline is sent to a neighboring plantation for a dreaded social visit. While there, she learns that her family has fled their farm after Union soldiers commandeered it. 

Samantha (Sam) and Caroline’s worlds intersect when Sam visits her father’s friend’s antebellum home to look at horses. Sam picks up what appears to be a dime from her bedroom floor and falls asleep listening to Lady Gaga on her Iphone.  When she wakes up, Caroline is staring at her and wondering what a slave is doing sleeping in her bed.

Sam gradually convinces Caroline of who she is, although she admits that she doesn’t know how she got there. Caroline is barely prepared for her guest from the future: she has read about a man who travels to the future and sees horseless carriages and flying machines. But she is even less prepared to see a black girl who speaks, acts, and thinks as independently as Sam does. Fortunately, their mutual love for horses helps ease them over their initial discomforts. Or as Sam says, “No matter who you’re talking to, if they love horses you can get beyond whatever barriers you think are out there...” (p. 45)

Told from both girls’ points of view, the reader watches as Sam and Caroline experience slavery’s painful effects. I particularly enjoyed their “ah ha” moments.  When Sam first realizes she must act like a slave in order not to be detected she thinks,

“I am in a nineteenth-century horse barn facing a man with a whip—a mean looking thing with a knotted leather thong—and I can tell he’s dying to use it on me.
“Yes, mister,” I mumble.
He raises the whip. “Go.”
So I shuffle off trying to look as dejected as possible, but inside I am raging with fury. How did my people live like this? (p. 83)

Later, after Sam is mistaken for a runaway slave and is captured, Caroline thinks,

My fists curl into balls. Angry tears stream down my face. All I can think of is Sam huddled on the dirt floor of a slave cabin, being kicked and whipped. Without Papa to curtail him, Zeke Tuner will be brutal. He’ll unleash all his vicious fury on my dearest friend.
How did I not see this before?
Shame joins my angry tears. I’m angry with myself, and I’m ashamed of the world I’ve inhabited all my life without seeing it for what it really is.” (p. 137-8)

The author does a great job of showing the girls overcoming their initial distrust and forming their surprising friendship. In the process, each girl learns about the other girl's seemingly foreign world. Their wit and strengths are tested after Sam is captured; but working together they find a way of escape—and a way for both of them to return to their families. 

Maggie Dana’s love for all things equestrian is neatly woven into the narrative and the plot. Although separated by 150 years, from the moment that Sam asks Caroline,  “What is your horse’s name?”  they have a common bond. From the saddles, tack, to horse quirks and mannerisms, this novel is a great example of an author using what she knows to build a believable, fictional world.

I would recommend this book to girls from 6th-10th grade, as well as to adults who want to use their own life experiences as a springboard into fiction. And while you’re at it, it’s a terrific example of interlacing multiple genres into one novel. Read it. Enjoy it. Learn from it.

 ********

To enter the giveaway for an autographed copy of Turning on A Dime, please leave a comment by 8 AM Friday, August 15. If I don't have your email address, make sure you leave that too. If you post this on your social media of choice or become a new follower to my blog, I'll enter your name twice. Thanks! 

My review of this novel originally appeared on LitChat on August 7, 2014.