Posted by Mari on Saturday, Oct 14, 2017
All of the Children’s librarians were abuzz this week after voraciously reading Pashmina, the first graphic novel from artist Nidhi Chanani. Born in Kolkata, Chanani brings her Indian heritage and her talent and love of art together in this story about Priyanka, a young girl who knows very little about India. As a second generation Indian American, Priyanka is torn between two worlds. She tries not to stand out too much at school by shortening her name to Pri, and she doesn’t understand all of the Hindu traditions her family practices at home.
India is her mother’s homeland which she fled at a young age and where she has vowed to never return. Pri can only imagine what it would be like to live in India until she discovers a forgotten pashmina in her mother’s belongings that transports her to beautiful and fantastical Indian landscapes too good to be true. She doesn’t realize the truth about why her mother left until a cash prize from an art contest allows her to travel to India to stay with her aunt. Pashmina explores bicultural and immigrant culture clashes as well as a feminist look at ways women are constrained by patriarchy. Chanani’s beautifully drawn images uses color to draw a clear contrast between Pri's real life which is shown in pale neutrals and her wondrous visions of India, bright and vivid like the cover art.
About the Author
Mari has the best job in the library because she gets to plan children's programming, create displays, do preschool storytimes and take the bookmobile out to the Iowa City schools. She enjoys reading kid and adult fiction, true crime and memoirs.
I found this book to be a generally fascinating account of medical research history. It provides a history of American medicine, especially the development of modern day medical schools, an explanation of viruses, histories of other epidemics. Of course my interest was sparked to read this in order to draw a comparison between this pandemic a century ago and the current one, but this book has a lot more, and provides a great deal of perspective. Lasting from February 1918 to April 1920, the Spanish-flu infected 500 million people–about a third of the world's population at the time. The death toll is estimated between 17 million and 50 million, some even claim 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. I think this would be a great read for any individuals in leadership roles who have the power to control the outcome of this pandemic, and of course those are simply curious. -Mari