My Mother's Sari

by Sandhya Rao, Nina Sabnani (Illustrator)

Overview

A little girl's imagination is wrapped up in her mother's sari, which offers endless opportunities for dreaming in it's colorful cloth and transformative powers.

A little girls sees her mothers sari as "long like a train" and that it "fills the air with color when I dance and sing." A blue sari is a "river"; a patterned one is a place to hide with her friends. Best of all, the youngster wraps herself in the vivid cloth because she loves how it makes her dream. The endpapers demonstrate how to wrap the garment. Full-spread illustrations capture the colors and textures of the fabrics and the little girl's wide-eyed playfulness and love of her mother's attire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735822337
Publisher:	NorthSouth Books
Publication date:	01/01/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	28
Sales rank:	426,898
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	AD330L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

SANDHYA RAO is Graduate Adviser and Associate Professor in the Department of Mass Communication at Southwest Texas State University.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 2-A simple text celebrates a child's connection with her mother's sari, a stretch of cloth that is "long like a train" and that "fills the air with color when I dance and sing." A blue sari is a "river"; a patterned one is a place to hide with her friends. Best of all, the youngster wraps herself in the vivid cloth because she loves how it makes her dream. The endpapers demonstrate how to wrap the garment. Full-spread illustrations capture the colors and textures of the fabrics and the little girl's wide-eyed playfulness and love of her mother's attire.-Alexa Sandmann, Kent State University, OH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

In this simple story, minimal text explains what a sari looks like and describes some of the uses to which a child might put it. As children dance, hide, climb, wipe their noses and sleep in their mothers' long and brightly colored saris, it becomes clear that saris-and by extension, their children's mothers-play an important part in the children's lives. Originally published in India, the story does not explain that saris are worn as clothing, although the endpapers do include visual and written instructions on how to tie a sari in the traditional manner. Overall, the text feels a bit vague and random, and it is unclear whether a sari is a multi-purpose object or whether the children are simply playing with saris in different ways. The accompanying collages, which combine photographs of saris with drawings and paintings of Indian children, are generally appealing but sometimes awkward. Nonetheless, readers whose mothers wear saris will find something familiar here and identify with the youngsters pictured, while others may find their interest piqued. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews