{"id":46259,"date":"2026-05-23T22:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46259"},"modified":"2026-05-23T22:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:07:17","slug":"review-of-tall-water-by-sj-sindu-and-dion-mbd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46259","title":{"rendered":"Review of Tall Water, by SJ Sindu and Dion MBD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tall Water<\/em><\/p>\n

by SJ Sindu and Dion MBD<\/p>\n

HarperAlley, 2025. 248 pages.
\nReview written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
\nStarred Review
\n2026 Asian\/Pacific American Literature Award, Young Adult Honor<\/p>\n

Nimmi hasn’t seen her mother since she was a baby. Now she’s applying to universities to be a journalist, like her father. Her parents met when he was covering the war in Sri Lanka, and when his press pass expired, he took their baby to the United States, but her mother wasn’t able to get a visa to come join them.<\/p>\n

Now after many years, her father’s press pass has been renewed, so he’s going to Sri Lanka. He says it’s too dangerous for Nimmi to come, but she takes matters into her own hands and joins him, because she wants to meet her mother.<\/p>\n

Once there, Nimmi indeed sees some tough things. Her mother’s working at a UNICEF orphanage, being a mother to kids who need her.<\/p>\n

And then the “Tall Water” of the title hits.<\/p>\n

This graphic novel tells a powerful story with moving illustrations, gorgeously drawn. I read it in about a half-hour, and then I had to sit with it for a bit, because it that quickly got into my heart.<\/p>\n

sjsindu.com<\/a>
\ndionmbd.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/tall_water.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tall Water by SJ Sindu and Dion MBD HarperAlley, 2025. 248 pages. Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book. Starred Review 2026 Asian\/Pacific American Literature Award, Young Adult Honor Nimmi hasn’t seen her mother since she was a baby. Now she’s applying to universities to be a journalist, like her father. Her parents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,37,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary","category-graphic-novel","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46259"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46545,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46259\/revisions\/46545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}