Greetings from Somewhere is a popular series of chapter books, and when I chose The Mystery of the Suspicious Spices for my book club, I hadn’t yet read it yet. The book I wanted was not available, and I just went with the idea that this one was popular and available. I knew I would, of course, read it well before my reading programme began.
And then, as I read it, I wondered if I wanted my book club to read it. It’s set in India and, simply put, doesn’t work.
The picture of a sari looks nothing like a sari.
There’s a section where an Indian character eats a paratha and wants to say that it is gross. He exclaims, ‘Sakala!‘
I had to look it up. And I discovered that Google translate had probably been used because yes, the word means ‘gross’, but in the context of gross weight!
How could I possibly read this at my book club?
And then, I began mulling over the fact that so many children I work with write stories about blue-eyed, blond Laura in Pennsylvania, not realising how problematic it is to set a story in a place you don’t know well. What better way to bring this into focus than with a book like this?
Greetings from Somewhere
We made postcards when we read The Absolutely True Adventures of Daydreamer Dev, and Paati Goes Viral, andit was so much fun!
Greetings from Somewhere is all about travel too, but instead of postcards, we’ll make a greeting card this time, with an acrostic poem within.
Our Own Stories
As we read, I will ask the children to point out what doesn’t work for them, based on their knowledge of India. Have you or your parents ever seen an emerald green spice? Does coriander taste like oranges?
This will, I hope, lead the conversation towards writing what we know, and, equally, researching what we don’t.
A Mystery
What kinds of mysteries do the children think they can solve? I will give them a couple of simple “mysterious” puzzles and ask them how they think they would go about solving them. This promises to be exciting!
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