Review by Booklist Review
The summer before entering high school, Karthik makes deliveries for his family's struggling Indian grocery store in Boston. He befriends some of the customers, stopping to visit with elderly ones who need a little company as well as food. When a graduate student notices his uncanny memorization skills, she offers him the lead in the one-act play she's written, which is to be performed later that summer. With no acting experience, Karthik is doubtful but intrigued, hopeful that theater could become an alternative to a career in medicine, his mother's unwavering choice for him. Karthik's older sister and several classmates round out the list of characters. Levelheaded and smart, though sometimes reluctant to let others know what he's thinking, Karthik narrates the story with a winning combination of wit and angst. From his tight-knit, immigrant family to the girl he admires to the grad student/playwright, the characters are convincingly portrayed. Changes come when Karthik and his equally reticent family members become more open with one another. A perceptive, enjoyable novel of self-discovery within expanding circles of family and community.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Overflowing with love, Chari's (the Mars Patel series) heartfelt novel is an intersection of art, community, and friendship that absolutely delivers. Set in Boston amid a recession, 14-year-old Karthik Raghavan spends his summer reluctantly delivering groceries for his parents' struggling store, but he'd rather grab ice cream and pine for his crush, Juhi Shah, who frequents his favorite local haunt, Carmine's Ice Cream Parlor. When one of his parents' devoted customers, graduate student Shanthi, asks Karthik to be the lead in her play about his hero, composer Leonard Bernstein, he readily accepts, but only in secret. His Indian immigrant mother stresses academic work and "safe" professions (such as a career at "a big software company"), and Karthik's worried that his parents won't support his artistic exploration. As he juggles rehearsals with his family responsibilities, Karthik learns to trust others and take chances, and begins to find himself. Chari's large cast features representatives across the Indian diaspora, including bohemian Shanthi, Karthik's entrepreneurial father, and enigmatic Juhi, showcasing a multilayered, multigenerational community. Karthik is a compassionate and deeply funny narrator, and his journey of self-discovery while balancing familial obligation and chasing his dreams endears and inspires. Ages 10--14. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Apr.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
It's the summer before high school starts, and Karthik is miserable. Forced to deliver orders for his parents' struggling grocery store, pining after Juhi Shah, and harassed by neighborhood bullies, Karthik Raghavan can't think of a worse way to spend his vacation. But Shanthi, a Boston University graduate student and aspiring playwright with a weakness for the Raghavan family store's spicy chips, asks him to play the lead role in her play about the early life of Leonard Bernstein. Karthik starts to imagine himself as more than just a rising ninth grader: The more he learns about acting, the more he likes it, and it doesn't hurt that his stunning memory helps him quickly master his lines. Karthik isn't sure if he wants to grow up to be an actor, but he is sure that he wants to explore the possibility of doing so, a wish he's positive his parents won't support. The more he rehearses, and the faster the summer rolls on, though, the more the people in Karthik's life surprise him--and the more motivated he feels to find himself. The book's narratorial voice deftly shifts between sarcasm and pathos, creating a three-dimensional protagonist who values his Indian American family's identity without being wholly defined by it. The author successfully avoids tired tropes about unsupportive immigrant parents by telling a multigenerational story that, most notably, examines how Karthik's parents grapple with their own dreaming. A refreshingly nuanced novel about what it means to chase your dreams. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
