Rickshaw Girl

A lovely book for younger readers - a wonderful topic, just the right words, just the right length, just the right amount of detail. I loved the action plot and Mitali's descriptions of Bangladesh.

There is a dearth of books for kids who are just taking off with their reading skills, which makes this story all the more welcome. Readers will meet Naima, a young Bangladeshi who is struggling with her family's financial troubles and her place in the family as a girl. Traditionally, girls are not allowed to work or earn money, but her father sure could use the help. Naima cleverly devises a way to help her family and empowers herself along the way. Set in Bangladesh, readers will get a glimpse of life in a foreign land and a culture quite different from the American standard. With Bangla words interspersed in the text, readers are introduced to a new language, as well.

This is a fun and engaging story. Your kids will love it. You might love it, too. This is a subtle and heart warming story of women's empowerment. Without an angry word, or a whiff of ideology, this story tells what poor families can do by enlisting the gifts of all their members. These women don't wait for someone to act for them, but take risks. And everyone wins--there is no zero sum game here. But my imagination is soaring--this is a kid's story, and you'll just have to enjoy it on that level!

Consider the reading levels a child goes through. You start them out on baby board books. Slooowly you start reading them picture books. Once they've a grasp on that then they start reading on their own with easy readers. A couple years in and it's time to move on to early chapter books. Finally, and with great relief all around, they're reading thick 500-page fantasy novels and everyone is happy. Now which one of those reading levels is, to your mind, the most difficult to find? Which is to say, which reading level seriously lacks in the quality-writing-department when all is said and done? My answer would have to be the early chapter books. Picture and baby board books are a dime a dozen and if you doubt the sheer quantity of easy readers out there, come on down to my library sometime. No, it's early chapter books I worry about. Around this time you want to start luring the kids with writing that's a little more sophisticated. Sure, you could hand them #43 in the Droon series and be done with it, but wouldn't you like to hand them a fun book that talks about other cultures and features sympathetic characters and realistic concerns? Basically what I'm saying is, strong literature written in an early chapter book format is a rare beastie. "Rickshaw Girl", by Mitali Perkins therefore manages to be all he stronger when you consider how rare a title it really is. Funny, smart, and chock full of the sights, sounds, and smells of Bangladesh, Perkins offers up a delightful book that distinguishes itself from the pack. Ask Naima the one thing she's good at doing and she'll tell you right off the bat that it's alpanas. A complicated but balanced series of designs painted on her family's path and threshold, Naima tends to win her Bangladeshi village's prize for best alpana every International Mother Language Day. This year, however, is different. This year Naima's father isn't bringing in enough money to pay for the newly redesigned rickshaw he runs. Frustrated that as a girl she can't do anything to help the family earn more money, Naima makes a crucial mistake. One that might destroy her family's dreams for good. If she's to make it right, she must summon up her courage and, with the help of her friend Saleem, use her creativity to find a solution to her problems. Sometimes it's nice to hear the story of a screw-up. No one's perfect, sure. We know that. But how often do you read a book in which the main character does something so cringeworthy that it has the readers, regardless of age, suffering the shame of a well-deserved embarrassment right along with the heroine? What Naima does (and I'm not going to give it away) is wrong. Yet she's a character you want to believe in. Her family situation is actually pretty dire, all things considered, and what with having a heroine who is less than perfect, you really feel you can root for Naima. Perkins has the enviable talent of knowing how to connect a reader to a character.