She Sang for India: How M.S. Subbulakshmi Used Her Voice for Change

by Suma Subramaniam, Shreya Gupta (Illustrator)

Overview

A picture book biography about M.S. Subbulakshmi, a powerful Indian singer who advocated for justice and peace through song.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374388744
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	909,627
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Suma Subramaniam is an Indian American author and volunteer for We Need Diverse Books. She is a contributing author for The Hero Next Door (Penguin Random House) and the author of Namaste Is A Greeting (Candlewick). She has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College Of Fine Arts. She Sang For India is her nonfiction picture book debut.

Shreya Gupta is an illustrator and book designer. She is originally from India, but her passion for illustration brought her to the United States, where she pursued an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has been featured as a “Google Doodle” logo, in the New York Times, Asia Society magazine and in various major publications. She currently lives in New York, NY.

Editorial Reviews

2022-07-13
A lyrical commemoration of the power and legacy of a renowned South Indian activist and performer.

Readers who know little about M.S. Subbulakshmi’s Carnatic music or traditional Indian instruments will come away none the wiser, but the general storyline of a gifted singer who goes from “small-town devadasi girl” to international fame by performing and persisting until barriers of gender prejudice fall away is easy enough to follow and applaud. Aside from identifying Subbulakshmi as the first woman and youngest person ever to perform at the Madras Music Academy and ending with her 1966 performance before the United Nations, Subranamiam largely skips past seven decades of biographical and career highlights (never mentioning her film work, for instance, except in the backmatter). What stands out instead are tributes to her spirit and the spiritual power of her singing in support of India’s independence movement and through the heartbreaks of the new country’s religious division and Gandhi’s assassination. Capped by a beautiful portrait composed of flowers and musical instruments, Gupta’s harmonious illustrations follow Subbulakshmi from intimate childhood family concerts to larger stages. The closing notes and definitions are cursory at best, but along with an eloquent summation at the end, the author tucks in snatches of lyrics in Tamil, Hindi, and Sanskrit (as script, transliterations, and English translations) throughout. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A loving invitation to read, and hear, more. (timeline, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews