Sejal Sinha Battles Superstorms

by Maya Prasad, Abira Das (Illustrator)

Overview

The Magic School Bus meets Over the Moon in this first book in a new chapter book series about a young Indian American girl who loves science and has a big imagination!

Sejal Sinha is looking forward to celebrating Diwali with her family. But when a hurricane appears, Sejal and her cousin Mira learn that the house is in danger from the imminent storm. With the help of Sejal’s favorite stuffed animal, Professor Cheetah, the two girls use Cardboard Box Magic to build their own Hurricane Hunter and fly into the eye of the hurricane!

They learn about a project from the 1960s called Project Stormfury, where a team actually tried to stop hurricanes. Can Sejal and Mira do what the previous Stormfury team couldn’t and battle the superstorm?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665911795
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Series:	Sejal Sinha , #1
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Maya Prasad is a South Asian American author, a Caltech graduate, and a former software engineer. She currently resides in the Pacific Northwest, where she enjoys hiking, canoeing, and raising her budding bookworm kiddo. She’s the author of young adult novel Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things and the Sejal Sinha chapter book series. Maya has also had short fiction published in Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA, Cast of Wonders, and Voyage YA. She is passionate about creating brown girl leads in children’s literature.

Abira Das is a freelance artist with experience in book illustration, graphic design, and video game art. She is the illustrator of the Sejal Sinha chapter book series.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One: Professor Cheetah and the Moon Mission

CHAPTER ONE Professor Cheetah and the Moon Mission
Cardboard boxes have a lot of magic that grown-ups just don’t get. They can turn into anything and take you anywhere. Need a submarine to go to the bottom of the sea? Need a machine to dig to the center of the earth? Need a train to take you deep into a mine filled with crystals?

A cardboard box can do the job.

“Another successful mission!” I said as we landed back on the shaggy rug in my family’s basement.

“Excellent work! I can’t wait to examine my moon samples,” Professor Cheetah said, giving me a high five.

She was the smartest of all my stuffed animals—and my best stuffie friend. She’d been my copilot on our cardboard box trip to the moon, and now she hopped out of the box and took the samples to her laboratory (also known as the toy shelf).

Just then I heard the doorbell ring upstairs. As she always did, my puppy started barking super ferociously. You couldn’t tell she weighed only five pounds, because she sounded way bigger.

“Oof!” said Professor Cheetah. “Does Fluff Monster need to be so loud? I’m trying to concentrate!”

Professor Cheetah took science very seriously. I liked learning how things worked, but mostly went on the missions for the adventure.

Right now, though, I was excited to be back home. Because today was Diwali! My favorite Indian holiday, all about light winning over darkness. We dress up in fancy clothes and make pretty designs with colored sand out on the porch. We light up the house with candles, play with sparklers in the backyard, and eat a huge yummy feast. With plenty of sweets for dessert, too.

Plus, my aunt, uncle, and cousin Mira were coming to celebrate with us. I couldn’t wait! Just one problem. I hadn’t cleaned up the basement even though Mom had told me to. Oops.

I started picking up the pieces of my little brother Abu’s train set since he was “helping” Dad with dinner. Which probably meant making dinosaur sculptures with poori dough. That sounded more fun than cleaning, but when I had complained, Mom had given me that squinty look she got when she was annoyed. The one that meant she might give me some math problems to do. Mom loved assigning extra homework. She thought our teachers didn’t give enough.

I hadn’t gotten much picked up before the basement door opened. My cousin Mira came down the steps, my cookies-and-cream-colored pup following excitedly behind her.

“Hi, Sejal,” Mira said.

“Hi, Mira!” I dropped the train track piece I was holding and ran to give her a hug.

She hugged me back, but then peeked over at my spaceship. “Don’t tell me you’re still playing with cardboard boxes!”

Editorial Reviews

"Sejal’s delightfully curious and determined first-person narration charts the course of this special mission as the crew flies into the eye of the storm and learns about the forces of nature along the way...the future looks sunny for this fun and informative STEM chapter-book series opener."

Booklist

2023-03-14
When a hurricane threatens to ruin Diwali, teamwork—and a little bit of magic—is all a young Indian girl needs to save the day.

It’s Diwali, and Sejal, 8, can’t wait to draw rangoli, light sparklers, and devour a traditional Indian feast with her family, including her younger brother, Abu, her older cousin Mira, and her dog, Fluff Monster. But then a hurricane threatens to put a damper on the festivities. Determined to save the day, Sejal gathers up Professor Cheetah, her “best stuffie friend,” and hops into her cardboard box, which, with a little bit of magic, transforms into a “hurricane-hunting aircraft.” She’s soon joined by a frantic Abu, an enthusiastic Fluff Monster, and a reluctant Mira, who no longer believes in cardboard-box magic. It isn’t until the team meets a group of scientists in the center of the storm that Mira admits that magic is just as real as science—and that some jobs require a degree of imagination that only children possess. Prasad layers the narrative with internal and external conflicts, investing just as much importance in Sejal’s determination to salvage her relationship with her cousin as she does in the children’s mission to save Diwali. At its best, Sejal’s narratorial voice crackles with intelligence and perseverance; at times, however, the language is a bit clunky. Overall, though, the book is a well-plotted, entertaining story about science, tradition, creative thinking, and growing up.

An absorbing read that balances lessons about friendship and science. (Fiction. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews