Jasmine Skies

Gr 6–9—Fourteen-year-old Mira Levenson, born and raised in England, is about to meet her mother's family in India and experience a country very different from the one in which she grew up. She will stay with her mum's first cousin, Anjali, who has a daughter about the same age. The family lives in Kolkata (Calcutta), where Anjali runs a refuge for homeless children. Though the cousins have chatted via Facebook and Skype, the protagonist wonders if they'll get on well in person. Mira's narration successfully introduces the beauty and difficulties of Kolkata, offers glimpses of contemporary life in the subcontinent, and highlights the tension between the traditional and modern. Readers will likely recognize Mira's own conflicting emotions about love, religion, and loyalty. She struggles with her love for Jide, her best friend in London, and her developing feelings for 16-year-old Janu, a former street orphan who now works at the refuge. Mira also wonders why her mother and Anjali have kept their families apart. The girl's dreams and reality collide before she returns to London in a fast-paced, satisfying conclusion. Mira was first introduced in Mira in the Present (Albert Whitman, 2013), but Jasmine Skies can stand alone and provides an evocative look of living and loving two cultures.—Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia Public Library