Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-ji

PreS-Gr 3—This debut for both author and illustrator is a winning story of family traditions as well as a rollicking tall tale. When his Indian grandparents come to stay, young Aneel begs Dada-ji for a story. The old man obliges, regaling the child with an episode in which he ate his great-grandmother's famous roti—the unleavened bread that villagers "trampled tall fields and swam angry rivers to sniff." Apparently the delicacy endowed him with the power of a tiger, and he could wrestle snorting water buffalo and twist cobras into knots. Zia has an ear for the storyteller's cadence. She creates lyrical lines for the framing narrative and then alters her voice, animating the interior story with exaggeration and exclamations. Min's style is dynamic; he borrows a variety of techniques from graphic novels to delineate time and place and to focus attention. From inset boxes and monochromatic background figures to silhouettes and sequential panels, the effect is exciting and fresh. As Aneel stands on his head in imitation of his grandfather, the room tilts and smoke from the burning incense spreads across the page, carrying light green colored-pencil sketches of the "wheat fields and swaying coconut palms" of the elders' village. This contrasts with the bold colors of the boy's modern living room, rendered in acrylics. Inspired by the story, Aneel starts mixing ingredients. Boy and man chomp and chew. Do the roti still do the trick? Hunh-ji! Yes, Sir!—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library