Jasmine Skies

September 1, 2014

Gr 6-9-Fourteen-year-old Mira Levenson, born and raised in England, is about to meet her mother's family in India and experience a country very different from the one in which she grew up. She will stay with her mum's first cousin, Anjali, who has a daughter about the same age. The family lives in Kolkata (Calcutta), where Anjali runs a refuge for homeless children. Though the cousins have chatted via Facebook and Skype, the protagonist wonders if they'll get on well in person. Mira's narration successfully introduces the beauty and difficulties of Kolkata, offers glimpses of contemporary life in the subcontinent, and highlights the tension between the traditional and modern. Readers will likely recognize Mira's own conflicting emotions about love, religion, and loyalty. She struggles with her love for Jide, her best friend in London, and her developing feelings for 16-year-old Janu, a former street orphan who now works at the refuge. Mira also wonders why her mother and Anjali have kept their families apart. The girl's dreams and reality collide before she returns to London in a fast-paced, satisfying conclusion. Mira was first introduced in Mira in the Present (Albert Whitman, 2013), but Jasmine Skies can stand alone and provides an evocative look of living and loving two cultures.-Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia Public Library

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014
Grades 6-9 The sequel to Brahmachari's Mira in the Present Tense (2013) finds the now 14-year-old Mira arriving in Kolkata, India, to visit family she's never met, including Aunt Anjali and her sassy cousin Priya, also 14. Mira can't understand why the family hasn't visited in decades and refuses to accept her mother's curt we fell out of touch as an explanation. Upon arrival, Mira is overwhelmed: by the heat, by the beauty of the country, by the extreme economic disparities among the people she encounters, and by Janu, the 16-year-old-boy who lives with the family and works in Aunt Anjali's rescue center. A romance between the two teenagers blossoms, forcing Mira, who has been in a relationship with her childhood sweetheart for two years, to reckon with the difficult question of loving versus being in love. At the same time, Mira is determined to uncover the secrets that estranged her family many years ago. Vivid descriptions of the exotic setting, an emotionally honest (if naive and stubborn) narrator, and a sweet romance should captivate readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)