Jasbinder Bilan

Asha is an 11 year old Indian girl whose father has gone to a distant city to earn money for the family, but after a few months, they stopped receiving money, or even letters from him. Guided by a prophecy from a local witch and the spirit of her grandmother, reincarnated as a lamagaia (a large carrion bird), Asha goes on a quest of hundreds of miles, along with her best friend, Jeevan, to find her father and bring him home. She must get him home, along with whatever money he has, to save her family from being put out of their home by a loan shark her mother borrowed from. Along the trip, Asha and Jeevan have several episodic adventures before reaching the town, finding her father, and in the end, of course, saving the family home.
What I liked: I enjoyed reading a book set in the present day, in a non-American/European culture. I liked that the spiritual beliefs of that culture were presented as reality, not mythology.
What I didn't like: It was a MacGuffin story. The mission to find her father and save the day was the catalyst for several short-story like episodes along their trip which really had almost nothing to do with finding her father. In most of the book, Asha is a likable protagonist that I could root for, but at the beginning, when she virtually forces her 12 year old friend to go, without his parents permission or knowledge, on a trip of hundreds of miles... a trip which came close to killing her friend on two occasions... made it difficult to get past her selfishness in forcing this on him.
In the end, mediocre. Not a bad book, but not really good enough to recommend to others either.… (meer)

A review I wrote in 2020:

Asha & The Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan

Winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award for 2019, I enjoyed this children’s fantasy
adventure, set in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. Asha and Jeevan are friends and
neighbours in a rural India. Asha’s papa has been away working in the city and sending his wages
home to help with running their smallholding. When the money suddenly stops coming, a stonyhearted
debt collector ransacks Asha’s home. Asha, with guidance from the spirit bird of her
nanijee (grandmother), vows to find her papa and bring him home. Jeevan vows to go with her.
She will have to cross the world’s highest mountain range, face the cold and hunger and hidden
dangers and, having never been in a city before, the city itself will come with horrible dangers for
lost and near-penniless children.

Not particularly memorable for me (hence 3 stars) but still a good magical Indian tale of adventure.… (meer)