{"id":9006,"date":"2012-03-16T21:20:22","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T01:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=9006"},"modified":"2012-03-16T21:20:22","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T01:20:22","slug":"review-of-the-grand-plan-to-fix-everything-by-uma-krishnaswami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=9006","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Grand Plan to Fix Everything, by Uma Krishnaswami"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Grand Plan to Fix Everything<\/em><\/p>\n

by Uma Krishnaswami
\nillustrated by Abigail Halpin<\/p>\n

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York, 2011. 266 pages.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This is a completely fun book about a girl whose parents pick up and move to India for two years, leaving their home in Maryland behind — and Dini’s best friend, Maddie.<\/p>\n

Dini hopes maybe, just maybe, it can work out for the best if she can meet the Bollywood film star, Dolly Singh.<\/p>\n

“Dini is a Dolly fan. She has been forever, from the time she discovered that Dolly’s first movie, in which she was just a kid, came out the day — the very day! — that Dini was born. You can’t be more closely connected than that.”<\/p>\n

Now, I should say that I am horribly prejudiced against books written in present tense. I’m not sure why, but it really bugs me. However, I read this one anyway, since it’s a contestant in School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books<\/a>. And I have to admit that it grew on me so much that most of the time I didn’t even notice the tense. Also going for it were Abigail Halpin’s illustrations. She illustrated Penny Dreadful<\/a><\/em>, by Laurel Snyder, and I love the feel her illustrations give a book — telling you correctly that this is a nice, light-hearted, solid story with lots of fun.<\/p>\n

This book did have lots of coincidences, but it felt right. The whole book is a tribute to Bollywood films, and I have a feeling (I don’t actually know) that the coincidences may have made the book more like a Bollywood film, where everything works out happily in the end. There’s even a dance number!<\/p>\n

This is a great solid and entertaining middle grade story. I enjoyed reading it, and hope I can find some library members to recommend it to, because I think there are lots of kids who would enjoy it.<\/p>\n

KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com<\/p>\n

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

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/grand_plan.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

Source: This review is based on a book I got for free on the last day of ALA Midwinter Meeting.<\/p>\n

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