Review by Booklist Review
On Saturdays, Priya's aunties, uncles, and cousins gather at her family's home to visit, laugh, and play together. Priya looks forward to seeing Mauntie (my auntie), her favorite aunt. When her older cousins run off together, Priya enjoys playing cards, sharing riddles, and fixing fancy hairdos with Mauntie. One Saturday, Mom's eldest brother's family comes to visit. Their youngest child, Aditi, is just a year older than Priya. Aditi also has a special connection with Mauntie, and Priya becomes jealous at the thought of sharing her aunt with someone else. Still, when Mauntie asks her a new riddle, "What grows when you share it?" The answer dissolves Priya's jealousy and brings Priya, Aditi, and Mauntie together quite happily. LaRocca, who explored the youngest cousin's experiences at extended family gatherings from a boy's viewpoint in Summer Is for Cousins (2023), offers a realistic, sensitive portrayal of Priya's emotional pain and her ability to rise above it. The third-person narrative reads aloud well and, like the digital-and-pencil artwork, captures the warmth of individual relationships within a large family.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A South Asian child feels her closeness with a beloved aunt may be threatened in this insightful tale about shifting relationships. Each the youngest in their respective families, Priya and Mauntie (short for My Auntie) spend time together when their relatives gather each week: Mauntie "cooked the tastiest treats, fashioned the fanciest hairdos, and told the best riddles." A visit from cousin Aditi, who's only a year older than Priya, finds her staying behind with them when the older cousins head off to play. Priya struggles throughout the visit until a reveal from Aditi suggests that more of the new dynamic will follow. Promising a day together, "just the two of us," Mauntie also presents a riddle, leading Priya to ponder, "What grows when you share it?" Alam's appealing digital and pencil illustrations show Mauntie and the two cousins amid bustling household scenes, hinting at the way families, and relational dynamics, grow and change. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3--7. (Nov.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A girl of South Asian descent learns to share the time she spends with a beloved relative. Whenever Priya's extended family comes over, her older siblings and cousins run off to play, telling her that she's too young to join them. Priya doesn't mind, though, because she gets to hang out with Mauntie ("My Auntie")--the nickname she's given her mother's sister. Both the youngest in their generations, the two experiment with extravagant hairstyles, eat delicious treats, and tell each other riddles. Then one day Priya's cousin Aditi comes to visit. Aditi, who's close to Priya's age, ends up intruding on Priya and Mauntie's time, taking over a game of Go Fish and answering Mauntie's riddles before Priya has a chance to think them through. When Aditi announces that she and her family are moving back to the neighborhood and will be around more, Priya panics. Can she find a way to share Mauntie? This clearly written, deeply empathetic book is a tender look at how families grow over time, with relationships evolving as people change locations. The story's message stops just short of preachy, while Alam's art, with its visible pencil strokes and details such as patterns on the curtains and wallpaper, sets an intimate tone. The illustrations depict characters with a variety of skin colors, testifying to the diversity of the South Asian experience. A gentle exploration of shifting family dynamics.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
