Keeping Corner

Keeping Corner Kashmira Sheth

Remember The Edge of the Forest? I still have a few reviews that ran in that wonderful magazine that I'm reprinting here...



Leela was engaged at the age of two and married at the age of nine. Next year, when she turns thirteen, she will celebrate her anu and move into her husband’s house. Leela’s excited for her anu but when her husband is suddenly killed, everything changes.

Following Brahmin custom, Leela is forced to shave her hair, smash her bangles, and wear muddy brown saris. She will be unable to remarry and must keep corner—stay in the house—for a full year. Leela’s family is devastated by her loss and their grief permeates the household, making it impossible for Leela to imagine any sort of future.

But India is changing. Gandhi is leading the people to stand up to the English. Leela wonders how a small, old man in a dhoti can change the white men who sit so straight on their horses, but Gandhi is. Confined to the house, Leela is still caught in a struggle between the old and new as India stands on the brink of liberation—both from the English and from tradition.

Based on the true story of her great-aunt, Sheth paints a lush, vibrant picture of Indian home life. Leela’s story moves with the weather and seasons as she marks off her time before being allowed outside. Moving and honest, Leela’s tale of drawing inspiration from Gandhi to find agency in her own life is sure to strike readers and linger long after the last page.

ARC Provided by... a coworker, who picked it up at ALA (maybe? this ran back in 2007-- I don't quite remember)

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National Poetry Month: Karma

Karma Cathy Ostlere

Dear Diary

Nah. That's lame.
(Be creative, you idiot!)

DEAR LOST GIRL
Who are you?
Whence have you come?
Will you tell me your secrets o voiceless one?
O yuck.

DEAR GODDESS GIRL
If illusion be your given name
and mystery wears your opaque veil
then I, Sandeep, with pen as sword
will scribe your silence
till you are cured.
(or till I'm bored)
(till I'm adored?)
(till I am gored)
(or deplored)
(or suitably and deservedly well ignored)

Rhyming diphthongs. How pathetic.


In 1984, Maya's Hindu mother commits suicide. Her Sikh father takes Maya and her mother's ashes from their Canadian home to India. Shortly after they arrive, Indira Ghandi is gunned down by her Sikh body guards. The country erupts into Hindu/Sikh violence. Maya is separated from her father and has to depend on the kindness of strangers to survive.

I love the language of this one. Many poems are told in two columns, to simulate dialogue or inner commentary on events. I also really like dual narrators. The poetry works in this one. I couldn't guarantee the formatting would work right in a blog post for some of my favorite poems, so I went with a funny poem instead.

But, I'm not sure on some of the plot details. People keep trying to give Maya away in marriage to strangers, even people who don't know her. Ostlere was traveling in India when Ghandi was assassinated, but I'm not sure on the authenticity of parts of the plot, especially when strangers promise a girl into marriage. Parts of it seem to be playing up the "exoticism" and "backwardness" of the location. But I don't know that much about modern India, so I don't know.

Has anyone with more background info than me read this? What did you think?

I loved the language and the poetry. I loved the sweep of the story and the voices. But, some of the plot details niggled a bit.

ARC Provided by... the publisher at ALA midwinter.

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Year of the Historical: Climbing the Stairs

Climbing the Stairs Padma Venkatraman

Vidya is 15, the daughter of a liberal family in Bombay during WWII and India's independence movement. When her father is beaten by the British during an independence rally, he lives, but his brain is damaged. The family is forced to move in with Vidya's conservative grandfather. There, Vidya's aunts make life even harder for Vidya and her mother. Vidya's only solace is the library, which is located upstairs in the male part of the house, and therefore forbidden to her.

There is a lot going on here-- Vidya caught between the freedom of her old life and the strictness of her new one, her pain at her father's injuries, the best way to get rid of the British, and the problems of nonviolence when it comes to Hitler. Despite all the meat, it doesn't get overwhelming or bog down. I always forget that the independence movement and WWII overlap. I also never realized how close Japan got to India (although once I thought about it, um... duh.)

A great look at a girl caught in a changing world and trying to find her own place in it.

I have one question-- at one point, Vidya's brother explains that Japan wants India because it'll give them access to China, Russia, and the Middle East. Now, outside of China, I don't know that much about the Pacific War, but I also know at this point (1941), Japan had been in China and Russia for years. Was Japan actively searching to attack these countries from multiple fronts?

I'm not a huge fan of the paperback cover and much prefer the hardcover. Vidya actively resists marriage and isn't into fashion and jewelry-- she prefers wearing half-saris to full saris because it's easier to climb trees. Also, what's with the downcast expression? Vidya's always getting into trouble because she won't lower her gaze or keep her mouth shut! I just don't see Vidya in the girl on the new cover.


Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical: Secret Keeper

Secret Keeper Mitali Perkins

In 1974 Asha's father leaves India to look for work in the US, Asha moves with her sister and mother into her paternal grandfather's house. There, Asha's family is in the precarious position of being female relatives dependent on their relatvies. In Kolkata Asha loses the freedom she had in Delhi. She struggles with being the "ugly" sister-- why is so much of her value dependent on her looks-- and with the role women are expected to play in society.

Her only solace is writing in her diary, up on the house's rooftop. There, she befriends and the neighbor boy, a friendship that is strictly forbidden.

I appreciated that Asha's brashness wasn't the only way that women stood up for themselves in this novel, and at different points, different approaches worked better. I also liked that Perkins included a depressed character and her explorations of grief.

But perhaps my favorite part is the fact that this isn't a story about how unfair traditional Indian homes are, but rather a story about the strength and importance of family, especially sisters. Oh! And a great author's note at the end  A great example of why I love Mitali Perkins so much!

Also, this is the paperback release day! Mitali Perkins does so much to promote teen and middle grade books using social networking, so give her some love today!

If publication day is a book's birthday, is paperback day like its bar mitzvah?

Book Provided by... the author, for review consideration

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New Books--Lots of Reviews

So, last we checked in, I had 25 books checked out from the library that had to be read, and 15 books from 2006 and that to be blogged. As it stands now, I have checked out 2 more books, but read 4, so, now I have 23 to read. I blogged 5 unblogged books, so now I have 10 to go.

So the 4 new books, in the order in which I read them:

The Wednesday Wars Gary D. Schmidt

Holling Hoodhood is the only Protestant in his class, so every Wednesday, when everyone else goes to Hebrew School or Catholic School, Holling is stuck at school school, with Mrs. Baker, who we get the feeling was really wishing that she'd have Wednesday afternoons off and not be stuck with Holling.)

Mrs. Baker, who's husband (Tybalt) is a soldier in Vietnam, teaches Holling Shakespeare, which he likes, because Shakespeare really knew how to curse. In the meantime, there is baseball and running, hippies and the war, love and some giant rats in the ceiling.

Schmidt has written a wonderful book that has been raved about all over the blogosphere. I had one quibble with one little part of the ending, but I'll talk about that here.

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff by Jennifer L. Holm, pictures by Elicia Castaldi

Ginny is starting middle school, hoping to have a father and a lead in the Nutcracker and Swan Lake by the end of the year. And maybe her sweater back from her ex-best friend. In a story told through notes on the refrigerator, school assignments, IMs, postcards, report cards, bills, bank statements, and cartoons, we follow Ginny's year. She gains a father, but loses her brother who's juvenile crime sends him to military school. Funny and heartbreaking, a very amusing take on junior high and the graphic novel.

Sold by Patricia McCormick

I really wanted to read this after hearing McCormick speak and read at National Book Fest this fall.

Lakshmi is a peasant girl from a small village in the Nepalese Himalayas. After a horrible dry season comes a horrible monsoon season that washes away her family's crops. With the promise of a good job in the city, as a maid, Lakshmi's step-father sells her.

Only, they don't go to the city, but rather across the border into India, where she is sold two more times, ending up in a brothel as a child prostitute.

A novel in verse, Sold is told in vignettes, the sparse language lending to the Lakshmi's terror and confusion. There are moments of utter horror, and the beauty of everyday kindness.

McCormick tells this story well, matter of factly, but with beauty, never letting Lakshmi's voice stray into too much self-pity or the story go into emotional manipulation.

The Princess and the Hound Mette Ivie Harrison

If you liked The Goose Girl or Wildwood Dancing, you'll like this one.

George is a prince raised in duty, terrified that it will be discovered his posses the illegal and feared animal magic.

Beatrice is a princess trapped by her father and circumstance, resigned to marry for the sake of her kingdom.

More alike than they know, or will let themselves find out, they have to learn to trust each other to save each other.

And I know that sounds really lame, but it's a great story. I seriously thought about calling into work late so I could finish the last 100 pages.

Wounds that Don't Heal

August 15 was the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence. In honor of that, Lotus posted a review of Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh that made me immediately check it out and read it.

The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped.

This story covers the summer of 1947, the summer of Partition, in a small Sikh and Muslim village near the newly created Indian/Pakistani border. This is the summer of a late Monsoon, when people are suddenly forced to become aware of and care about the religion of their neighbors.

In a matter of weeks, the residents of Mano Majra go from their daily lives of peace with their neighbors, where religions differences don't matter, to learning that the British have left, to dealing with the realities of the ghost trains that keep appearing at their train station. (Ghost trains are, for me, one of the most chilling aspects of partition. Trains full of refugees fleeing across the borders in the both directions, but murdered before they get there, leaving a train of corpses to arrive at their destination. In the case of Mano Majra, it would be trains of murdered Sikh and Hindu passengers fleeing Pakistan.)

Beautifully written, Train to Pakistan tells the haunting story of a terrifying time in Indian and Pakistani history that most Westerners don't know about. It also tells the story through many eyes--the communist agitator who has recently come to town, the Bhai of the Sikh temple, the Imam of the mosque, the inspector of the region, the Sikh criminal the the girl he loves, the Imam's daughter. This cast of characters allows Singh to tell the story from all sides, and to do it well. No good guys, no bad guys, just people, trying to make the best of a situation thrust upon them that they don't understand.

Two other minor things I really appreciated--this is a town that lives by the trains, the whistles acting as clocks. Even daily prayers are done according to the train schedule. As someone who grew up in a city surrounded by trains and then went to college where the tracks cut campus in half, this aspect of the village life made me smile. It also underscores the horror of what happens when they stops being goods trains and start being trains of refugees.

The other was the communist agitator, who wanted to raise the people up, but as a highly educated individual, disdained their backward, rural ways. This is not confined to the this book, I think it was one of the problems with communism in general (and, of course, one of the reasons Trotsky was purged) but it really brought it home for me. Intellectuals want the workers to rise up and take the party, but individually, they hate the workers and their customs and culture...

I want to thank Lotus again for the great suggestion and you should check out her list of other reading about Partition and Indian Independence. Also, check out Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa, which is one of my favorites. (Review here.)