You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins

You Bring the Distant Near is a family story told in three parts, each covering a different time in the lives of five women.

Part One begins with a move. After living in Ghana and then London for a number of years, Rajeev Das gets a job in New York and moves his family, wife Ranee, daughters Tara and Sonia, into an apartment in Flushing, Queens. Though her daughters adjust to life in Flushing, Ranee is distrustful of the black kids who live in the neighborhood and wants to move. After a year in Queens, they move into a house in Ridgeford, New Jersey. 

Renee tries to hold on the some customary Bengali traditions, but her daughters quickly assimilate to life as Americans. Tara, the eldest daughter, wants to study theater, while Sonia’s interests lie more towards feminism and politics, aware of their parents desire for them to keep at least some of their Bengali cultural. 

Part Two begins after the tragic death of Rajeev. The Das family suddenly finds themselves at odds with each other, yet each painfully missing Rajeev. In high school, Sonia wins an all expenses paid trip to Paris, happy to get away from home. Fellow African American student Lou Johnson, handsome and friendly, has also won a spot on the trip, and although the two have always been at odds with each other in New Jersey, they quickly become friends in Paris. After college, Sonia and Lou marry, causing Ranee to completely stop speaking to Sonia.

Meanwhile, Tara pursues an acting career, while also being pursued by Amit Sen, a successful Bengali man. After refusing several marriage proposals because Amit had been picked for her by her parents, Tara finally says yes on a trip to India to spread her fathers ashes in the Ganges, and a visit to his childhood home. Tara continues with her acting career, becoming a famous actress/singer in India.

Part Three belongs to the daughters of Sonia and Tara. Chantel, or Shanti, has been raised in New York, living in Harlem with her parents, Lou and Sonia, and attending an exclusive private school on full scholarship. Anna, or Anu, has been living in Mumbai, and going school there. Now, though, she is in New York and in the same school as Shanti. Anu is not happy about the move. She is proud to be Bangali to the core, and considers Mumbai her real home. She has also inherited her grandmother's talent for sewing, even making and wearing her own salwar kameezes. 

You Bring the Distant Near is a compelling intergenerational story that is actually told more in a series of vignettes that sometimes skips over years, and yet, nothing is lost. Perkins has created five women, all seemingly so very different from each other and yet held together by their Bengali heritage, whether they embrace it or not. And it is a mark of Perkins talent as a writer that shows us the changes in each of these women over time and the events, both personal and public, that impact their lives. It is a slow, gentle novel, that more than once brought tears to my eyes.

The five female characters that Perkins has created are very well developed, truly finely tuned, but my personal favorite was Ranee. In Ranee, I saw my own father’s struggle to assimilate into American life while retaining his cultural identity. Ranee, like my dad, eventually finds the balance that works for her. And in that respect, Perkins has really captured the complexities of what being an immigrants means, as she explores the high cost and ways in which the Das family loses their cultural connections to their past and the ways in which they find redemption.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was an EARC received at NetGalley

FYI: The title of this book comes from a poem which is printed at the beginning of the book. It was written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), an Indian poet who also figures into the story of the Das family frequently. Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, the first Asian to do so. You can find more of his beautiful poetry at the Poetry Foundation HERE

2016 Cybils MG Finalist: Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan

Ravi Suryanarayanan has recently moved from Bangalore, India to Hamilton, New Jersey because of his father's job. Now, Ravi is about to begin fifth grade at Albert Einstein Elementary School, confident that his English is good since it is his first language, and that he will have not trouble keeping up with the work. After all, he was at the top of his class in India.

Ravi finds himself in Mrs. Beam's class, where he notices a boy, Dillon Samreen, who appears to be Indian American, and who, he quickly discovers, is the most popular boy in the class. Ravi is sure they will soon be best friends.

But things don't start off as well as Ravi hoped. First, Mrs. Beam, like most Americans, mispronounces Ravi's name.  The other kids in the class laugh at his formal manners, make fun of his buttoned up, ironed shirts, and no one can understand him when he speaks in class because of his accent. His teacher decides to send him to the resource room to get help, a decision Ravi finds insulting and humiliating.

Things aren't much better the second day. When Ravi goes to the board to solve a multiplication problem, he uses colored markers and the Vedic method, only to be told not to do that again. Humiliated yet again, Ravi is wondering when the next insult will happen, when a foot shoots out and trips him. As Ravi falls, Dillon manages to point the blame a Joe.

Ravi sits in front of Joe Sylvester and behind Dillon in Mrs. Beams class. Joe's two best friends have recently moved away and he finds himself alone and at the mercy of Dillon, who turns out to be the sneaky class bully who always has Joe in his sights. Joe also has APD, or Auditory Processing Disorder, which makes focusing in class difficult for him, so he spends a lot of time with Mrs. Frost, the resource room teacher. To make him even more of a target, Joe's mom has taken a much needed job as a lunchroom monitor, something Dillon immediately adds to his list of taunts. But Joe also knows Dillon's secret - that he is a petty thief, stealing things from his classmates whenever possible.

The first few days of the first week of school go pretty much along these lines - Ravi continuously misreading cues from the people in school, particularly Dillon, whom he continues to think wants to be his best friend, and Joe dodging Dillon and his insults, especially in the cafeteria.

But when Mrs. Beam gives her class an assignment in which they must bring in an object that reflects who they are, along with an unsigned one sentence explanation of why that object was chosen, due on Friday, will it be the thing that finally opens up Ravi's eyes to the truth about both Dillon and Joe?

Save Me a Seat is told over the first week on school, alternating between Ravi and Joe's point of view. Interestingly, they never really interact directly with each other that first week of school, even though they have a common bullier in Dillon. yet, they manage to get to know each other better than most friends do.

The story is a little predictable, especially given the title, but the fun is in getting to the end of the first week and seeing how things unfold. I think that knowing the outcome allows the reader for focus more on what is happening and what each boy is saying about his life in and out of school.

Neither Ravi not Joe struck me as stereotypical, though Dillon does. After all, a bully is a bully, this one just happens to be Indian American, and dresses in a manner that sounded very hip-hop to me (low pants, underwear hanging out). Ravi and Joe both made assumptions about each other, and in Ravi's case about Dillon, based on past experiences, and I think sometimes kids need to be reminded not to prejudge.

One of the things I really liked about Save Me a Seat is that both boys come from intact, loving homes. Talk about assumptions - I expected Joe's family to be just the opposite of who they turned out the be. And Joe isn't a typical loner, either, he really doesn't want to be one. He wants friends and fun and all the other things kids enjoy.

At the end of the book, there are two glossaries - Ravi Glossary and Joe's Glossary for words that may be unfamiliar to readers. There is also a recipe apple crisp and one for Naan Khatai's. I happen to love the taste and smell of Indian food, so I had a great deal of interest in Ravi's lunch tiffin everyday.

Save Me a Seat is one of my favorite books of 2016 and I highly recommend it.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was provided to me by the publisher, Scholastic Press