A Gift for Amma

by Meera Sriram

Overview

In this #OwnVoices book inspired by the author’s hometown of Chennai, India, a girl explores the vibrant rainbow of delights in a southern Indian street market as she searches for a gift for her amma (mother). Endnotes explain all the items on sale and introduce readers to markets around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646860623
Publisher:	Barefoot Books
Publication date:	08/21/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	153,136
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

Editorial Reviews

06/19/2020

PreS-Gr 1—It's market day in India and a young girl is on a mission to find the perfect gift for Amma, her mother. Navigating the market on her own, the girl travels from one stall to the next, examining each item for sale. From rich spices to aromatic flowers to vibrant textiles, the options seem endless. How will the girl find the ideal prize? Luckily, one stall catches the girl's attention, and she returns home with a gift as lovely as Amma herself. This heartwarming story about a little girl choosing to give her mother something special showcases depth and richness of color on every page. Emphasizing the look and feel of a traditional Indian market, Cabassa's illustrations are deeply pigmented, prioritizing specific hues on each spread. While the visual component of this book is captivating on its own, the text enhances the images by adding details about the sounds and smells of the market. Though presented in two short lines per page, the brevity of text nevertheless manages to tell a robust story. At the end of the book, readers find images and definitions of the capitalized words in the text. An additional page introduces readers to different markets around the world and provides interesting facts about them. VERDICT An excellent story for young readers to enhance their understanding of color and an aspect of traditional Indian culture.—Mary Lanni, formerly at Denver P.L.

School Library Journal

2020-04-08
It’s market day, and a young Indian girl is looking for a gift for her mother.

But with so many colorful goods on display, how can she possibly decide what to get? As she wanders through the narrow lanes, the dark-skinned narrator inhales the scents of jasmine, kebabs, mint, and coriander, listens to the beating of large black drums, ducks out of the way of rickshaws and goats, and sneezes in a windblown cloud of spicy red chili powder. In the end, the pigtailed protagonist stops at a bangle stall, deciding that, since she cannot possibly choose just one color, she’ll have to choose them all. Based on the author’s childhood experiences of markets in Chennai, the book’s poetic prose actively engages all five senses. With a few well-chosen details, Sriram avoids making the story overtly Hindu: For example, the narrator takes care to explain that Amma doesn’t wear vermillion powder on her forehead, something typical of modern Indian families that is often overlooked in Western picture books. The illustrations are colorful and vibrant but at times lack key details. Script on signs in the background—which should be Tamil—is instead a set of scribbles, an artistic choice that misses an opportunity to fully realize the setting.

A culturally authentic journey through a modern Indian market lovingly told through the eyes of a child. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews