This book is great story about a young girl, Sunita Sen, who is torn between her Indian heritage and her American upbringing. She is in the eighth grade and when her grandparents come for a visit the entire dynamic of her house changes. Her mother who is a college professor takes a break from her job to trade in for sarees and other traditional Indian attire. When her parents decide she can no longer invite boys over she feels as if they are dramatically changing from their American way of life. Sunita withdraws from her classmates, but her friends are patient and understanding of what she is experiencing. This novel realistically addresses so many issues, including Sunita's temporary rejection of an African-American classmate when both girls are referred to as "colored." This book does a great job of displaying her struggle with social acceptance, family issues, and figuring out her personal identity. In the end she embraces the value of her culture.
I think this book would be very beneficial for students to read because it exposes them to the problems that students who are multicultural go through. As an activity for my classroom I would have my students get into pairs. They will individually list different details that they know about their heritage and if they do not know much about their heritage then I will enlist the help of their parents. Once they have a list of about ten different facts about their heritage they will get back together with their partner and they will compare their lists. They will make a vin-diagram that shows the similarities and differences between their two cultures. After they have completed their vin- diagrams each of the pairs will present to the class and they will talk about the potential benefits they could have from being a member of that specific culture.
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