The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami (mg)
illustrated by Abigail Halpin. 266 p. Atheneum Books for Young Readers/ S & S. May, 2011. 978-1-416-99589-0. (arc from publisher)
This middle grade book about moving household sure is different. Dini, an eleven-year-old obsessed with Dolly Singh and Bollywood "fillums" discovers that her physician mother finally received a grant to work in a village in southern India for two years. That means Dini will be leaving her bff, Maddie, who shares her love of Dolly and Bolly. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) At first, the two are very sad, but the thought that Dini might possibly run into Dolly, regardless of the fact that she'd be in a tiny village miles and miles away from Bombay (as the two call Mumbai), cheers them.
Fast-paced and told in third person, present tense, I almost expected, or could imagine a Bollywood sound track bursting from the pages, especially as Dini imagines times when the people around her could potentially burst into singing and dancing. Coincidence and drama are high and occasionally the comedy is low, what with the thieving monkeys and the narrative is peppered with East Indian words and sayings. This was a breezy, fun middle grade read.