Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I checked Nidhi Chanani’s Pashmina out of the library mostly for my graphic novel obsessed 9-year-old, although I imagine my oldest will also enjoy it; being the mom I am, however, I kept it in my room until I’d read it first.  (To clarify:  occasionally I intentionally preview for appropriateness of content, often I preview to see if it will appeal and/or be worth reading, and ALWAYS I abide by the ‘if I want it first, I get it first’ rule.  That’s just how I roll.)  I was actually going to review it on the 7th, but my admin screen wouldn’t load, so here we are.

First of all, the strengths.  Both the story and the characters were likable for me; I was pretty aggravated at Pri’s mom’s reticence about her father for a while, but when the truth comes out, I couldn’t actually come up with a lot of ideas for what she should have done instead.  (Parenting is just plain hard.)  I also liked the marriage of universally relatable themes with a culture relatively unknown to me.  The art was engaging, and the color choices added to my perception of the story.

As for the weaknesses?  More than one of the conflicts introduced were dropped rather abruptly, and the transitions sometimes felt stilted; also, taken as a group, the themes of the book don’t point definitively to one age group.  Much of it seems geared more toward the middle grades, but between the relationship Pri’s aunt and uncle have with each other and the reason her mother won’t talk about her father, I foresee some serious conversations with my 9-year-old.  (The one about unwed teenage pregnancy is the one I’m least looking forward to.)

And the verdict?  It’s worth reading, and I think middle graders will love it.  If you’re a parent, be prepared to talk about the themes with your kiddos.  In the meantime, I enjoyed it enough to go see if Chanani has any other books out there, so Goodreads, here I come!