Maha isn't looking forward to being her grandmother's "babysitter" when Dadi leaves Pakistan to live with the family in Texas. Maha is more interested in pursuing her passion to be a journalist, and her media class at school may help. Dadi is grumpy, a bit judgmental, and probably lonely with everyone out of the house at school or work. When Dadi begins sharing stories about Partition and the trauma she witnessed, Maha realizes Dadi's stories and those of the South Asian elders at the senior center could form a documentary subject for her media class. It's very likely young readers will learn about Partition for the first time in this book. The author does well presenting the basics of this long-ago history and making it relevant for the audience. ( )

Maha is not at all excited that her dadi is coming from Pakistan to live with her family, especially since Dadi will be taking over Maha's room while Maha gets moved to the attic - and then, Maha's abba tells her she'll be "babysitting" Dadi.

Meanwhile, at school, Maha is excited about her media studies elective, because of her passion for journalism and the news, but can't connect with the novel study she's supposed to do in English, even though she's paired with her best friend, Kim. Maha procrastinates until Kim gives up on her and finds another partner, new kid Ahmed, with whom they've both become friends.

Maha becomes fascinated with her dadi's stories of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, an event she'd never heard of before; it becomes the subject of her documentary for media studies, though she struggles to find a "hook" to make people in the present care about the past.

Slowly, Maha begins to see that news and history are not opposites, and that we can learn from fiction too; the school librarian gives her a copy of THE NIGHT DIARY and INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN, which she chooses for her novel study in an effort to make up with Kim, whose family is Vietnamese.

This would be an excellent book club or novel study choice. It addresses themes of family, history, trauma, storytelling, friendship, and identity.

Quotes

"Some current events are so tied up n the past that you just have to report on history too." (105)

If an event is important only to some people, can we still call it newsworthy? (159)

"The stories we read in books and watch in movies tell us a lot about real life, about human nature and emotion and so forth....[all genres] are the same underneath. The threads of humanity and how we deal with others are the same..." (269)

"You've figured out the connection between history and the present, and how it leads to the future." (385) ( )