A curious and determined young cook gets her biryani recipe in this tale to savor.
Will Anni succeed in getting the secret recipe for Uncle’s biryani?
In an unnamed city’s Little India, a young South Asian girl named Anni lives across the street from the Biryani Café, where gruff Mr. Arif—whom everyone calls Uncle—makes and sells “the best biryani in the world. Fluffy and fragrant. Spicy and succulent. Absolutely addictive.” An experienced cook, Anni wants to learn to prepare the biryani herself, but although Uncle gives her a few hints, her dish still doesn’t taste like his. It turns out there’s a secret ingredient that Uncle won’t share, and when Anni finds the cafe shut down one day, she wonders if she’ll ever be able to eat the special biryani again. Although the tale’s resolution wraps up a little quickly and may not be entirely satisfactory, Anni’s perseverance pays off, encouraging kids to follow their dreams. Mehra’s text brings to life the sights, sounds, and smells of the neighborhood, while Prabhat’s vivid and effusive digital illustrations weave in expressive faces and cultural details, including the biryani ingredients and scenes of dirty dishes in the sink. All the people have different shades of warm brown skin, and Anni has two black braids. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A curious and determined young cook gets her biryani recipe in this tale to savor. (information about biryani, link to an online recipe) (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-3041-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Mixed-race children certainly deserve mirror books, but they also deserve excellent text and illustrations. This one misses...
This tan-skinned, freckle-faced narrator extols her own virtues while describing the challenges of being of mixed race.
Protagonist Lilly appears on the cover, and her voluminous curly, twirly hair fills the image. Throughout the rhyming narrative, accompanied by cartoonish digital illustrations, Lilly brags on her dark skin (that isn’t very), “frizzy, wild” hair, eyebrows, intellect, and more. Her five friends present black, Asian, white (one blonde, one redheaded), and brown (this last uses a wheelchair). This array smacks of tokenism, since the protagonist focuses only on self-promotion, leaving no room for the friends’ character development. Lilly describes how hurtful racial microaggressions can be by recalling questions others ask her like “What are you?” She remains resilient and says that even though her skin and hair make her different, “the way that I look / Is not all I’m about.” But she spends so much time talking about her appearance that this may be hard for readers to believe. The rhyming verse that conveys her self-celebration is often clumsy and forced, resulting in a poorly written, plotless story for which the internal illustrations fall far short of the quality of the cover image.
Mixed-race children certainly deserve mirror books, but they also deserve excellent text and illustrations. This one misses the mark on both counts. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63233-170-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eifrig
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Fun, fun, fun all through the town!
This book’s gonna werk, werk, werk all through Pride Month and beyond.
Drag persona Lil Miss Hot Mess rewrites “The Wheels on the Bus” to create a fun, movement-filled, family-friendly celebration of drag. The text opens with the titular verse to establish the familiar song’s formulaic pattern: “The hips on the drag queen go SWISH, SWISH, SWISH… / ALL THROUGH THE TOWN!” Along the way, more and more drag queens join in the celebration. The unnamed queens proudly display a range of skin tones, sizes, and body modifications to create a diverse cast of realistic characters that could easily be spotted at a Pride event or on RuPaul’s Drag Race. The palette of both costumes and backgrounds is appropriately psychedelic, and there are plenty of jewels going “BLING, BLING, BLING.” Don’t tell the queens, but the flow is the book’s real star, because it encourages natural kinetic participation that will have groups of young readers giggling and miming along with the story. Libraries and bookshops hosting drag-queen storytimes will find this a popular choice, and those celebrating LGBTQ+ heritage will also find this a useful book for the pre-K crowd. Curious children unfamiliar with a drag queen may require a brief explanation, but the spectacle stands up just fine on its own platforms.
Fun, fun, fun all through the town! (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7624-6765-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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