Visiting Grandmother & Her Country!

Jyoti goes on a very long trip to a different country, India, to visit Sita Pati, her grandmother. She also has lots and lots of relatives that come to visit morning and night.

Things are much different than at home; everything seems strange. Sita Pati doesn’t speak much English, and Jyoti doesn’t speak grandmother’s language. Jyoti feels lonely, too. Maybe she should go back home?

Sita Pati finds lots of ways to do things together that do not need the same language—and Jyoti has lots of fun doing them.

Grandmother makes different food, while Jyoti samples it. They also have a special drink, made with warm milk and saffron that Jyoti likes very much—especially since grandmother and her drink it together every night.
Jyoti finds that she and Sita Pati love each other very much. Now, what will happen when Jyoti must leave and go back to her home?

This sweet story shows that the love of a grandmother and grandchild can take place even if they don’t speak the same language, or live the same way. The descriptions of the many different things they do in India will fascinate children. Little ones will appreciate hearing what it was like being away from family, and how it is okay to be homesick.

What will happen if Sita Pati comes to visit America?

I highly recommend this five-star picture book, it will be loved by children aged three to seven-years-old.

Thank you, Candlewick Press, for providing Tickmenot with a book copy for the purpose of review. Opinions are my own. ( )

A young girl narrates in first person as she travels with her parents to India for the first time since she was a baby. While her cousins are at school, she is lonely, until she begins spending more time with her grandmother (Sita Pati). The girl doesn't speak much Tamil and Pati doesn't speak much English, but "we understood each other." They make designs with colored sand, cook, eat, play games, and read together. The girl doesn't want to say goodbye, so instead she says "Poitu varen" - I'll go and come back." The next year, Pati visits the family in America, and the whole experience is reversed, with the girl being the one to make Pati feel at home: drawing with chalk, shopping, cooking, eating, reading, and playing games. Again, they don't want to say goodbye at the end of the visit. A lovely story of intergenerational closeness across geographical distance.

See also: I Dream of Popo, Between Us and Abuela ( )