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PICTURE BOOKS
Gopal, Jyoti Rajan

American Desi

40 pp. | Little | June, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-0-316-70530-1 $18.99
(3) K-3 Illustrated by Supriya Kelkar. A young American desi (someone of South Asian descent living elsewhere) compares the disparate parts of her own cultural makeup. "Pavadais in bright gold colors / Jersey shirts and faded jeans / Swapping, changing, feeling seen... / Which is the color of me?" While the child's voice is initially curious, there's never any hint of self-consciousness, and the tone becomes proud and grateful. The gently rhyming text uses a dynamic refrain ("Finding the sounds of me," "Blending the flavors of me," etc.) to empower cultural identities of all kinds; Kelkar's rich collages, a potpourri of paper, fabric, and other media, are wonderfully suited to this celebration of "blending, merging, taking wing..."
Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

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