http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1705647.html

Nice little novel about a Californian teenager whose grandparents from India come to stay for a year, adding a sudden awareness of cultural difference to the usual bundle of teenage angst. There's a particularly good bit when Sunita realises that Casablanca and The Secret Garden are told entirely from the white folks' point of view. Otherwise, I'm out of the target market for this but I would certainly buy it for kids who are in that market. ( )

This charming book takes on the challenges of a second generation Indian immigrant in California told through her own eyes. When Sunita's grandparents come to stay with her family for a year, their lives are completely turned around as their roles and identities shift in relation to each other. The author does a wonderful job of portraying how each generation has their own expectations of what others want from them and they expect from themselves. Also woven throughout the story is the struggles of being fifteen and liking a guy and worrying about how different is too different. The main character is fifteen but this book is accessible to younger readers since its not long or terribly difficult and its message of how hard it is to know who you are and how important it is to keep talking to friends and family as you discover yourself is presented wonderfully. ( )